I shadowed the physiotherapist for half a day. I gained knowledge and watched what exercises are given to patients who have had knee surgery and why they are important. I learnt why these sets of exercises are important and what muscle they are working. I understand that depending on the patient’s home environment it is important to assess how they walk up and down stairs and how they get off the bed in order to be able to discharge them from the hospital.

I also had the opportunity to go downstairs to the clinic. This is where patients who have been discharged come for follow-ups. The patient’s wound is undressed and assessed to make sure that there is no further swelling and that the wound is healing how it should. In the clinic, patients were assessed on how they are walking which determined whether they could go down to using one crutch instead of two. The physiotherapist progressed patients onto harder exercises to do at home depending on how they are getting on after the surgery.

I was also taught that it is important to measure the patient’s knee movement with a ruler on each follow-up by asking the patient to bed their leg as much as they can. This is because the physiotherapist needs to see the improvement of the knee as this will show that the patient is getting back to normal and is able to complete their everyday activities again. The knee needs to be as straight as it can and Ideally, the patient needs a 90-degree bend in the knee.