Millie Berrett talks to us about her role as a physiotherapist at CUH and her journey to our hospital.
My name is Millie Berrett and I'm a physiotherapist. I joined Addenbrooke's in May 2022, having spent 18 months as a physiotherapist at an inpatient rehabilitation hospital after qualifying as a physiotherapist.
I joined Addenbrooke's as a rotational physiotherapist and am currently on my second rotation, having worked as part of the medicine team and now part of the Trauma and Orthopaedics team.
There are so many aspects of my job that I enjoy but the thing I love most about what I do is the feeling of knowing I can make a difference to somebodies day.
For many people, being in hospital is their worst nightmare and as a physio I get the opportunity to get to know patients and what is important to them in order to tailor their treatment sessions to them.
For many patients I have worked with, they value the time that a physio is able to spend with them to talk about things that are important to them and to support them through their journey in hospital.
I enjoy helping patients to reach their potential and aim for the tasks that will increase their quality of life, it is incredibly rewarding.
I also love the variety of my job, there are so many different areas to learn about and a large variety of specialisms within each area. For example as part of the band 5 rotations here at Addenbrooke's there are 10 different departments in which I can rotate through.
A couple of the rotations include:
Orthopaedics, Surgery, Paediatrics, Medicine and MSK outpatients.
This variety allows me time to experience different aspects of physiotherapy and develop my skills throughout my career and continue to learn as I go. The rotations also allow me the opportunity to try different areas to help me decide where I may want to specialise in the future.
I think the biggest piece of advice I could give to anybody looking to start a career in physiotherapy is to look to get some exposure before starting your journey.
As a career physiotherapy is very rewarding and there are so many different areas of interests that a physio can follow outside of sports physio.
As with any career, it is important to find something you love doing and many healthcare settings are accommodating of people wanting to get some work experience so I would try and make the most of this to make sure you are able to make the right decision for you.