University Reflective Essay: Professional Behaviour in Physiotherapy

This reflective essay, written for a physiotherapy course, explores the importance of professional behaviour through two key experiences at university. The first incident involves a conference where the student observes the impact of communication skills and body language, particularly highlighting a speaker's ability to engage the audience. The second experience focuses on a team project, revealing the significance of teamwork and collaboration in providing physiotherapy to patients. The essay delves into the student's initial reluctance to engage in teamwork and the subsequent development of self-confidence and understanding of team dynamics. The author reflects on the need to improve their communication skills and team spirit, outlining a plan to achieve these goals through coaching, observation, and practical application. The essay concludes by emphasizing the transformative impact of these experiences on the student's perspective and commitment to becoming a better physiotherapist.

Running head: PROFESSIONAL REFLECTIVE ESSAY.
PROFESSIONAL REFLECTIVE ESSAY
Name of Student:
Name of University:
Author’s Note:

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Professional behaviour in the form of practice in the workplace that makes a
person eligible to conduct the work respectfully and courteously (Dehghani,n
Mosalanejad, and Dehghan-Nayeri 2015). The main focus of the reflection is to highlight
the importance of professional behaviour and ways to imbibe those in personal life. I
have narrated two incidences in the essay which I encountered in my life in university.
The one incidence was my experience of the conference, where I learned the
significance of communication skill and body language and the second experience was
of team project where I came across the concept of team spirit.
Being a student of physiotherapy, I have always been into a situation which has
pushed me toward the end of attending conferences which I did not ever like. My
university was going to have a conference where many honoured delegates were
invited to exchange knowledge about physiotherapy and professionalism. The
conference was compulsory for all students to attend. However, I have always been a
procrastinator and never wanted to participate in such meeting. The conference was all
about speeches and boring lectures. The conference was important for physiotherapist
student to join, so I was left with no options.
I somehow manage to attend the conference with my friends, which was
supposed to get started at 10: AM. I kept on procrastinating but finally reached at 11:
AM. Being on time has always been a problem for me. However, I somehow managed
it. The conference started, and among the delegate, there was one person whose name
is Mr Smith Brown, who fascinated me a lot. His lecture on professionalism focusing on
physiotherapy has inspired me to great extent. The way he was expressing his thoughts
and his body language, engage the whole crowd to listen to his speech. Another most

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crucial behaviour noticed in him was his punctuality. He arrived for the conference sharp
at 10: AM. He was interacting with student encouraging to ask questions and answer
questions. He was handling the whole meeting in a highly quality way. He was not being
annoyed with the student, instead he was giving the answers to the query in a humble
way. The communication skill in Mr Smith has dramatically motivated me, and I was
thanking the University for organising such knowledgeable conference. I got a golden
chance to come across such significant professional behaviour, which can help me to
develop as a physiotherapist.
Other situation that I encountered in my university was a teamwork project held
by my university professor. The teamwork included a group of six members who were
collaborated in doing a task based on giving physiotherapy to the patients. To be
honest, I was not interested in working with other peoples. Like I highlighted before, it is
quite problematic for me to persuade my mind to do any activities unless there is no
external force to push me into it. The teamwork was also necessary as we all will be
evaluated based on our work. Although, I joined my team members and in the task, we
were instructed to provide physiotherapy to the leg ulcer patients. The professor of my
university was guiding us regarding the task. I found myself so helpless in this situation.
I was feeling like an abandoned creature in the world. I do not know how to interact with
my teammates and how to work with them. My expectation for the project was the same
as I was feeling before, and I was failing in executing my calibre in the project. I keenly
observed what other teammates were doing and what my professor was teaching us. I
saw my professor was helping other team members in giving effective care to the
patients (Légaré et al. 2015). All the team members were interacting with others and

3PROFESSIONAL REFLECTIVE ESSAY
helping each other in their problem. My professor was teaching us to work together and
giving equal respect to all the members. I was having difficulty in the administration of
the project; my team member helped me with humble and supported me to resolve my
problem. This incidence enabled me to build self-confidence in me and gave me a great
insight into teamwork (Medrano et al. 2016). Such professional behaviour helped me to
develop as a good team member.
On evaluating my above stated two experience, I can say it was a life-changing
moment for me. In the conference, I learned many useful things like the importance of
communication, body language and way to interact with other peoples. However, one
thing I did not like about the conference that it was too crowded and a number of
speakers was less. Initially, the speeches given by some other delegates were unable
to manage the crowd and failed to engage the peoples. It was mentally exhausting me.
However, the speech given by Mr Smith was fascinating enough, which attracted
everyone interests in his speech. My second experience was initially not good for me. I
was least interested in working with team as I never into such situation before in my life.
My team member was good, tough handling patients with leg ulcer was a hard situation
for me. If my professor and teammates would not help me, I would have failed in giving
effective therapy to the patients. The bad thing that happened in the situation was
unavailability of adequate amount of workforce. The number of patients was high, and
the attendee was less. Such lacking has left me physically exhausted.
The two experience that I encountered in my university, one incidence of the
conference and another incidence of teamwork gave me thoughts of professionalism
and its connected behaviour. I thought that I could never make myself such a person

4PROFESSIONAL REFLECTIVE ESSAY
who can be useful in communication and collaboration (Hornik 2018). I always regarded
myself as an inferior person who cannot adopt any professional behaviour. However,
the experience of my life has turned my perspective and changed my behaviour and
reaction. Earlier, I never thought that attending such conference and doing team project
would change my behaviour. With such experience, I discovered my strength and
weakness. I came to know that I am very much capable of developing good
communication skill and team spirit. The experience gave knowledge about the
importance of communication skill and teamwork. Now personally, I want to build that
professional behaviour in me so that in future I can be a good physiotherapist. However,
I was also associated with negative thoughts about whether I would be able to develop
professional behaviour who always keep on procrastinating things. Further, I can say
that my experience has influenced me in a professional manner and gave me a great
interest to develop those skills and quality behaviour in me.’
To develop professional behaviour of having quality communication skill and
body language and improving team spirit quality, I realised that I have to spend ample
amount of time and energy. I know for a person like me, it is not easy to imbibe those
qualities effortlessly (Huitt Killins and Brooks 2015). I have to develop a plan that will
make me able to achieve my determination. I will join a class which provides coaching
for developing communication skill and team spirit. In the course they will teach me how
to interact, listen, and work in a team and way to portray body language. I will indulge
myself in watching movies that models conversation skill, reinforce active listening, I will
offer group presentation and assignment, and I will also use technology resource to
enhance my communication skill (Larson 2016).

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To increase team spirit, initially, I will join a coaching class where I will learn
about the basic concept and key features of team spirit. As for my input, I will engage
myself with the people and try to do work in collaboration with them. I will learn how to
give respect to other team member and how to help others in their needs. I will learn to
manage my weakness and try to build the quality of being loyal and trustworthy
(Pickering 2018). I will frequently participate in a teamwork project and try to develop
the skill of a good team member and leader. Additionally, I will indulge myself in a sport
where I will learn the value of teamwork. I will execute all the above-stated action plan
with full determination and sincerity.
Lastly, from the above discussion, I would like to conclude by saying that my
personal experience has changed my whole personality and perspective of seeing life.
Initially, I was irresponsible and procrastinator and give the least importance to
professional behaviour. However, my personal experience which I encountered in my
university has changed my whole life. I came to know about the importance of
professional behaviour like communication skill and team spirit in life of a future
physiotherapist. I also learned about the way to develop such ability in one and how to
continue maintaining those. Thus, I can say that being professional in behaviour will
help to shape a better future of mine.

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Reference
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