Successful learning for physiotherapists

Learning physiotherapists are interested in the challenge of lifelong learning, development, and self-improvement. Sometimes we will need to step off the treadmill and ask ourselves how we can learn better. It is a skill worth investing in - to optimise your ability to take in new information and drop information that is no longer useful for us as physiotherapists. 

Experience is a wonderful teacher for a learning physiotherapist - and that is why if you are lacking exposure and experience, perhaps only having started your career…seeking mentorship can be hugely helpful. Learn from mentors - where they have stumbled, what works well, what does not work so well. Take that on board. Reflection accelerates learning and is essential to build acute self-awareness of how you learn efficiently and effectively.

Certain strategies can help amplify learning. Interleaving is a process where physio students mix multiple topics while they study to improve learning capacity and ‘make things stick’ as Peter Brown says in his book by that very name. This contrasts to blocked learning where one would learn a subject block deeply prior to moving onto another topic. Of course, blocking may work better for some individuals – practice trial and error and learn what works for you as a physiotherapist.

Spacing is another learning practice that can be very productive for physios. It can improve learning by widening lessons and retrieval opportunities over days or weeks rather than cramming, which lends itself to better long-term memory recall usually. As a student returns to learning the topic over a long time they can be refreshed and retrieve, and in-turn bank more of the information.

Durable learning for physios comes from self-testing, re-studying, reflection, and good habits. It comes from teaching other physiotherapists, practice (as mentioned earlier in experience paragraph), group dialogue and other means where you acquire knowledge – be that podcasts, books, articles. Learn how to practically apply, problem solve and deliver your learned information to your patients and clients. They will be forever grateful to you.

#learnandgiveback