Apps, Podcasts and planners for 2021

I’m Julia Roth, a final year MSc student at Robert Gordon University and one of the Scottish officers on the CSP’s student reference group. As I near the end of my degree, here are my ‘survival’ resources that helped me get through my exams, placements and dissertation. Follow me on my journey from student to professional life at @julesthephysio on Instagram and Twitter.

Physio podcasts

Physio-related podcasts helped me to retain influential and new research without feeling like I’m studying. My favourites are ‘Physio Matters’ and ‘Physio Edge’. Listening to ‘The Physio Student’ before exams and interviews helped to normalise the challenges that I and my cohort were currently faced with such as dealing with stress and anxiety and time management. Search on podcasts.apple.com

Research Methods for Clinical Therapists 

If you’re like me and are more of a hands-on-people person, this textbook will get you through your dissertation. It really helped me to understand when to use what type of methods, data analysis and the importance of research ethics for effective paper writing. Research Methods for Clinical Therapists, Applied Project Design and Analysis by Carolyn M Hicks ISBN 9780702029981

Physiotherapy student planner 

Studying can be overwhelming at times so I highly suggest getting a yearly planner or calendar to make daily, weekly, monthly checklists to stay on track. Any planner will do but this one from Etsy is the next level. It includes helpful handover tools, common physio abbreviations, learning objective lists, placement hours tracker and a self-care toolkit to help manage stress. 
 

Physiotutors and BNF apps

While on my placement, I consulted apps (when it was appropriate) to look up certain medications and mobilisation techniques. This included the Physiotutors bundle (with their assessment and manual therapy apps) as well as their YouTube channel. I can also recommend the ‘BNF Publications’ app from the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. 

Respiratory Physiotherapy Pocketbook

Everyone always seems to fear cardiorespiratory placements at first, but with the help of this pocketbook, I felt completely prepared. This will also help you with future respiratory rotations and on-call situations. Definitely worth the investment. Respiratory Physiotherapy Pocketbook An On Call Survival Guide by Jane Cross, Mary Ann Broad, Matthew Quint, Paul Ritson and Sandy Thomas ISBN 9780702055072

Resources appearing on this page are not necessarily endorsed by the CSP