Prince(ton) for a day

The 0-5 year old physiotherapy services for Princeton are covered by the Penticton Child Development centre. So every few weeks one of the physios heads up to Princeton to see the clients there.

We left around 8:15am from Penticton. Sadly as my preceptor pointed out Penticton only has three radio stations.... CBC1, Top40 and a Country station.... and then when you leave the city limits they vut out anyways. So it was a very quiet drive in terms of background music. Anyways, no big deal, just gave us a chance to get to know each other and the new SLP better. (The SLP also had appointments in Princeton that day).

In Princeton I went with the SLP in the morning to see a few of her clients. We actually managed to get lost on the way to our first visit, but asked a friendly local for directions! That is definitely one thing I am enjoying about the OK, the friendly locals. A home visit and a visit at the health centre. It was interesting to see what an SLP does... oh wait... nope I have already seen it before, thanks to my lovely sister! But it was interesting to see what another SLP does. I even got to run a few of the exercises including rapid fire flash cards of Dora the Explorer!  p.s. home visits are really interesting, and I am currently thinking of a way to write a blog about that without violating confidentiality.

After we met back up with the physio who we dropped off at the hippest looking coffee shop in town and had some lunch in the health centre's lunch room. After lunch I got to do my very own interview and assessment! It went well for my first time I think. I was pretty hesitant and a bit slow with some of the questions and a little unsure with explaining the assessment, but my preceptor thought I did alright, so I will take it. Lets just say my baby handling skills were better than the previous times but are still a bit lacking.... at this rate I may be ready to handle my nephews when the arrive like a seasoned pro :)

The SLP had a late session which I thought was going to be earlier so I had to text Nicky that I was going to be late, and while the SLP conducted the session my preceptor and I hung out like high school kids in the parking lot and talked shop. Its interesting to get the perspective of a physio who is fairly fresh out of school. We talked about a few different techniques and the job and taking courses.

Things I found out about Princeton:
-there has been no Physiotherapist at the hospital for 3 years. There is a job there that just has not been filled. So fellow MPT's if you are hankering for a certain job when you graduate, it just might still be open. But seriously, 3 years. That is a really long time for a facility to go without a physio.
-The main thing that people do is work at the mine
-There are 4 coffee shops
-Lots of the hospital staff smokes
-There is a one way bridge that causes some confusion
-There are marmots here too!

 The Princeton bridge.

On the drive home I totally had a moment where I knew for certain that I had been there before... we drove past "The Sunflower Cafe". Yes, its still there. I remember stopping there on the way to Apex one year and having lunch I think. I can remember also being really excited and remember that drive and the scenery as well from driving that way up to Apex a few times! Ahhh.... memories :)

On the way home from Penticton after Nicky picked my up she asked me what I thought about Princeton. And I would like to be honest, please understand that I am not trying to offend anyone. As a young active physiotherapy student I am not sure that I would like to make Princeton my home at this point in my life. It would be an interesting job working at the hospital there because you would get to see a variety of patients being the only physiotherapist in town. At the same time you would have no support from a seasoned physiotherapist to help complete your training. In addition, it might be a hard place to grow your career or diversify if you wanted to move on to another area of practice or a more specialized area you would have to move on from Princeton. At the same time you would have the market cornered so you could do anything within reason. But there is more than just the work life. Socially I think I may find Princeton challenging in that I am not sure if I would find enough to occupy my interest. I don't want to make a judgement about the citizens, I am sure I could make friends, but what if I wanted to join a gym or take a Spanish language class or fly out of an international airport or enroll my child in sports.Anyways, thoughts?