First official work week

The first week of work was... overwhelming to say the least. And I know this is usually how it is when you start in a new company or any job. But I just can't get over the fact how unqualified I have been feeling (and useless). I feel like my universities (Faculty of Sport and the University of Jyväsklä) are really great and offer great theoretical knowledge but seriously lack giving practical skills.

For sure we had demos in my undergrad in Ljubljana and I have learned a lot, but I still feel there is so much room for improvement in curriculum. Maybe change some "dumb" classes (philosophy, history...) and change it to practical experience on the field! Don't just say: find an internship. Because many times you don't even get the opportunity to work at a place where you could learn something. And I guess that's why I haven't felt competent enough when I graduated with bachelors - the thought of staring work was so scary, so staring a master was the "safe choice".

Studying in Finland has been awesome and gave me so much more perspective and lessons for life. But our master's programme is focused (too much) on research and not applying exercise in practice - for me personally. Which is totally fine if you want to pursue a PhD, which I have no desire for. It's kind of sad that my major is exercise physiology and I haven't spent one hour at the "gym" or sports halls during studies in Finland. There were some cool classes, but it has been more individual work and (again) studying theory from the books. To be fair, I had some really good research hours where I was "research assistant" and got to do the cool practical stuff - but again, all for research purposes.

I knew that starting here would be a big step for me because I haven't done any clinical stuff. I am working in a sports clinic with a clinical population which means we get patients that have been referred to us from GPs or physios. They have been diagnosed with a certain disease (diabetes, stroke, lower back pain..) and it's our job to decrease to prescribe them exercise in order to stop the progression of diseases and to increase the quality of life - and I think its really amazing that I can help people this way. But it is indeed so sad that sometimes I can't even remember the most basic normative values that I should be able to know at 2 am if someone woke me up (for example, glucose levels, or exact cholesterol norms). It sucks that I have been studying so hard but feeling like things didn't really stay in my had. I know, I know - you learn as you work. But what if you are too scared to work because you think you don't know enough?

Another thing to mention is that EP's (which stands for exercise physiologists) are so valued here in Australia and the field is so developed. They are "health professionals" that can read diagnoses and act upon them, whereas in Slovenia we are (usually) not allowed to work in "public health". I feel like here in Australia you have so much more options in this profession and there are more "job openings". The other day I went to look for available jobs in Australia (just for fun), and there were so many listings... Guess how many jobs are available for my profession in Slovenia? (zero if I google it atm)

Right now I am torn between learning and studying about chronic conditions (and medicine) all over again (in order to catch up on work) or make most of my stay in Australia and explore new places. I know in the end it's gonna be an amazing experience and after a few weeks I will "get the hang of it" but it just sucks feeling useless and so dumb. Or maybe I am just being too hard on myself?

Anyway, in the first week, I have already learned so much stuff. How to write clinical notes, what to ask in client assessment and how to put the f*** ECG on a person - which we weren't even allowed to touch in Slovenia (lol). Of course, I was just following instructions of my fellow students when placing the electrodes and setting cables (which is basically all I did), but for some reason, it felt so good to actually do it.

In Ljubljana, we also did spirometry, which is measuring breathing volumes. But by "did spirometry" I mean that teacher set everything up and we just blew in the hole and waited for the results. On Wednesday I carried out the whole measurement. I will need to study more to remember how to interpret results (which I knew how to do very thoroughly a few years back - for some reason I remember only few things).

I also tried this really cool equipment that measures your reaction times. It's actually a "game" where you have to hit small red squares as soon as possible (btw its called dynavision)

I measured blood pressure after such a long time. At least I knew how to do that, but I have done it so few times that I wasn't really sure in my abilities. And I should be able to do that quickly and without error so far in my studies.

I also did Tanita test all by myself. We did Tanita and body measurement, but that meant that one person could test his body composition while the teacher set it up. I am not gonna tell you my results but let's just say I need to get back to the gym and running soon haha.

At the end of the week we did case consults for most of the clients. And it was "just like greys anatomy" - kind of (hehe). "Katie Price, 56, diagnosed with breast cancer. Referred to Clinical exercise centre by her general physician. She is taking xyz medication and reports problems of xyz..." It felt kind of "cool".

Anyway. It was an intense week to say the least. In between work and commuting daily for 4 hours I still had to look for an apartment and try to keep my social life alive. Done, done, done - but I was indeed so done after the week! I would like to say I will relax and sleep during the weekend but that would be a lie. I already have too many things planned out and too many places to explore.

What have I learned?

University doesn't prepare you for "real life". You just gotta jump and learn how to swim...