Sean Doherty

I am a fully qualified, Western Educated Physiotherapist. I completed a BSc Hons degree from Ulster University in Northern Ireland and have been working Full time since February 2018. I have worked within the National Health Service in Northern Ireland since qualifying, and I also work part time in a private clinic, and with sports teams. I feel I am a very hard working person, demonstrated by the fact that I have taken on additional work to further benefit my experience, and this means I have been able to work with a wide variety of different professionals within a Multidisciplinary team, and treated a very wide variety of patients, with varying conditions. I have a keen interest in sports, and this also translates into my work, as I enjoy helping patients return to their sporting activities, when it is affected by injuries. I am seeking an opportunity to relocate to a different country, in order to gain further experience and enhance my development as a physiotherapist, whilst also hoping to help others learn from me. I have a lot of experience with hands on treatment methods, and have used various techniques depending on what is required, whilst also developing my prescription skills by providing in depth treatment and rehabilitation plans for patients. I have used various testing equipment such as force decks and force frames, along with all gym based equipment. I feel I would bring a lot to any physiotherapy setting that I would join and I am hopeful for an opportunity to show this.

Within the NHS i completed 6 month rotations initially, then upon receiving my promotion to Clinical Specialist Physiotherapist, my rotations became 9 months in duration. 

My first rotation was a 50/50 split between neurology outpatients, treating those with MS, brain injuries and strokes; and elderly care rehabilitation - helping to get elderly patients back on their feet and regain independence following illness or injury. 

Following this I completed rotations in acute elderly care, where my work had some physical rehabilitation along with respiratory care helping elderly patients affected with breathing conditions such as pneumonia, atelectasis and bronchiectasis to name a few. Within this rotation I also assisted the short stay wards team and emergency department team, helping to facilitate safe discharges home to prevent admissions where possible, and rehabilitating people over their initial few days in hospital, before going to their speciality ward.

I then was fortunate to get 1 full year working in an orthopaedic setting; 6 month ward based care working with elective procedures such as joint replacement surgeries or ACL reconstruction surgeries in their immediate post op recoveries, and also dealing with trauma patients who may have been involved in falls or other injuries where fractures / major injuries were sustained, and where surgery was required to repair damaged structures. The other 6 months was spent in an outpatient setting, helping those same types of patients, on their longer journeys to recovery and helping them back to full function, through specific rehabilitation, and manual therapies where appropriate. I also got to take lead on exercise classes, helping those with similar injuries, rehabilitate together in a gym environment, which were very successful. 

Upon receiving my promotion to clinical specialist I spent 6 months in the Community Brain Injury Team helping patients recovery from traumatic brain injuries. This covered a wide basis; anything from falls, assaults, car accidents or any trauma that resulted in a haemorrhage or other brain injury. I worked closely with Psychologists, specialist nurses, Occupational therapists and rehab assistants within this role, to help make adjustments for patients following changing injuries, and helping maintain or restore their independence as much as possible, depending on severity.

I then moved locations to another trust, within the same role as a clinical specialist physiotherapist, and have been based predominantly in an MSK outpatient department since October 2020. I was redeployed for 4 months of this time to assist with the COVID-19 pandemic, and the huge influx of sick patients requiring attention in hospitals. I worked primarily as a respiratory physiotherapist in this time, helping with oxygen therapies, CPAP machines, ventilators and general rehabilitation to improve exercise tolerance, which was an issue for patients who suffered badly from COVID-19 infections. Upon returning to my MSK outpatient role, I have continued working with patients suffering from chronic pain, fractures, operations and unknown injuries, to assess their issues and provide a treatment plan that will help regain a better quality of life. I have also began leading exercise classes again for those patients who are well enough but would benefit from some further in depth strengthening in a supervised environment, which is working very well and has had great outcomes so far. 

I completed a 3 year BSc Hons degree in Physiotherapy from Ulster University in Northern Ireland. I Graduated in December 2017. 

since graduating i have taken part in various CPD opportunities including;

Advance rehabilitation from Lower Limb injuries, Calf and Achilles tendon injury assessments and treatments, motivational interviewing, chronic pain training and I have also began a performance specialist course with EXOS. 

I have also completed all mandatory training such as CPR, manual handling and infection control training.