This course was held in the Regional Acquired Brain Injury Unit, Musgrave Park Hospital, Belfast. The theme was “The assessment and treatment of individuals with acquired brain injury” however I’m sure everyone by the end of the course had a slightly different interpretation for the great experience it was! For me personally “Inter-limb coordination and the PMRF” comes to mind when I think of that week in Belfast.
I think here is the right time to really emphasise how enjoyable the course was – you might think any week long, intensive, practical and patient based course is going to be enjoyable – but before I set off on the road to Belfast “enjoyable” was the last word on my mind and “surviving the first day” was my only goal! This was for various reasons – it being my first Advanced Course, mixed with thoughts of “is it too soon!?”, along with visions of all the other participants being practically BBTA tutors in all but title – but alas my fears were allayed quite quickly! Everyone involved on the course was there for their own professional reasons and individual learning needs, and with a healthy mixture of newbie Advanced Course attendees and some veterans with a varying amount under their belt it proved to be a conducive learning environment for all.
We were very lucky to have two BBTA Advanced Course Tutors and one BBTA Basic Course Tutor, Linzi Meadows, Lynne Fletcher and Sue Armstrong respectively, – so no shortage of help or different viewpoints at any stage during the week. Each day began with a lecture from Linzi mainly focussing on reviews of recent evidence particularly in relation to the neurophysiology of anticipatory postural adjustments, the pontomedullary reticular formation (PMRF) and its involvement in inter-limb coordination and motor learning. Lynne’s patient demonstration (a 22 year old two years post subarachnoid haemorrhage and a brain stem haemorrhage) linked strongly to the theoretical components taught and proved a big talking point for all involved (particularly during coffee breaks!) due to his complex yet neuroplastic and adaptive presentation.
Practical sessions refined and honed skills from the Basic Bobath Course – with the inevitable thought coming into everyone’s head at some stage “what was I thinking doing it the way I did it?!”. But there was time to think about handling skills learned previously and to develop these further. Daily patient treatment sessions took place with participant pairings decided by the tutors, my partner and I were very happy with our patient selection as it really did reflect our typical patient encountered back at work – and all three of us worked hard with guidance from the tutors to ensure some meaningful functional changes – which we achieved.
On reflection, a lot was learned in a short space of time, but the amount of consolidation it provided in the various aspects of the management of neurological patients has and will continue to only better my clinical practice, for me and my patients. I would like to thank BBTA for awarding me the Olav Gjelsvik Memorial Award, the tutors, the course organisers and all the participants and patients I met during that week. I look forward to having more than one Advanced Course under my belt in the future.
Donncha Lane
