Monday 8 May 2017

Becoming a Physiotherapist in Singapore

So you want to be a Physiotherapist in Singapore?

Credit: durrah03 – flickr

Congratulations on choosing this career path! Physiotherapy/ physical therapy is a meaningful career where you will get to meet and help all sorts of people from different backgrounds. It can be very rewarding career as you see the improvements that your clients make with the treatment and advice that you provide them with. I have talked previously about starting salary of a Physiotherapist in Singapore here if you are interested.

When I was in Junior College, I was pondering on my University options and I wanted to do something related to sports. After research, some career options that I found were Sports Science, Sports Coaching, and Physiotherapy. Fortunately (or unfortunately), I suffered a sports injury while training for school sports team. After googling on treatment options, I thought to myself that being a Physiotherapist would empower me with really practical skills as everybody experiences aches and pains every now and then. Hence, I decided to pursue my Physio diploma in Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP). It was the only way to qualifying as a Physio in Singapore back then. Those days, you need a A level's cert to enter the NYP programme. The route was often frowned upon and raised many eyebrows because who goes to Poly after doing A levels? There was a social stigma that you are going to a poly after A level's only because you have failed your A's. Moreover, everyone wants a "university experience"!


SIT Physio 

Fast forward to 2017, the NYP diploma has been scrapped and now there is a 4-year Honours degree programme jointly developed by Singapore Institute of Technology and Trinity College Dublin. You can apply after doing your A levels, IB, diploma, or even another degree programme. Finally, after a decade of advocacy for a Physio degree programme in Singapore, it had come true. A high amount of emphasis is placed upon your passion for the profession as it is a really specialized degree. So because of the efforts of the seniors, you do not have to face the social stigma of going to a poly after A levels and you get to enjoy the "university life" at the same time.

MMI Interview & Essay 

So what do you have to prepare for the admission interview and essay writing at SIT? Some questions I can think of are:

1. What is Physiotherapy?
2. Why do you want to do Physiotherapy?
3. What is community healthcare?
4. What is primary healthcare?
5. How does a Physio work with other professions in the hospital, community and primary healthcare?
6. What are the challenges of healthcare in Singapore?
7. What are the ethics involved in healthcare?

Now, Google is your best friend and I wish you all the best in your physiotherapy journey! Do drop any questions you have in the comments section!



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