Polly

Feb 07, 2023

WA

Thanks to Senior Physiotherapist Polly Tate’s passion and hard work, the patients at Glengarry Private Hospital now have access to dry needling to help alleviate acute pain.

Polly says the generosity of staff, along with great communication between allied health and nursing teams at Glengarry Private Hospital in WA, make it a joy to come to work every day.

So, when the opportunity came up to apply for the Ramsay National Scholarship program in 2021, Polly set her sights on gaining a new skill to help the team deliver even more for their patients.

“I have assessed and treated a range of patients throughout my four years at Ramsay and have seen many patients with acute pain secondary to myofascial trigger points,” Polly said.

“I felt that dry needling would be an excellent skill for the physiotherapy inpatient team at our hospital to possess. By being accepted for the scholarship this meant I was able to compete the dry needling course and feel competent in this skill.”

Once qualified, Polly decided to apply to introduce dry needling as a completely new skill to Glengarry Private Hospital.

“I was able to fill out an extensive application and submit it to the Executive Team who brought it to the Medical Advisory Committee (MAC) meeting where it was approved and then it was introduced as a new skill here at Glengarry,” Polly said.

“It has had a great impact on my role as we now have a new skill at our hospital and two of our physiotherapists are trained in it. We have done education with the staff around the new skill and have begun treating patients as clinically appropriate with dry needling. It is a great quality improvement for our hospital to improve patient outcomes.”

Polly highly recommends applying for future rounds of the Ramsay National Scholarship and her hot tip for success is to be sure to link the career development opportunity to how it will enhance service delivery and improve patient outcomes.

Polly was awarded a Continuing Professional Development Scholarship.