Hellos and Goodbyes from SPRINT Project Research Placement Students

This month we are welcoming two new physiotherapy students, Jessica and Ivan, on their research placement with the SPRINT Project, as well as saying goodbye and thanks to Lulu and Jasmine, who completed their placement earlier this summer.

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Hello, this is Jessica and Ivan!

We’d like to introduce ourselves as fourth year MSci Physiotherapy students beginning our research placement with the SPRINT team!

Over the next 6 weeks we will be working with Professor Jennifer Cumming, our educator, in researching and helping carry out studies involving topics of athlete injury imagery and safeguarding in dance.

We’re excited to be working as part of the SPRINT team and to learn more about the world of research and sport psychology!

My name is Jessica Cheshire, I grew up just outside of Birmingham, so sort of a local to UoB! Throughout school I was always fascinated by the human body, how it moves and functions. This combined for my love of sport/fitness and helping people, lead me to physiotherapy. So far it has been a challenging experience but also fun, especially now since graduation seems fast approaching.

Although I’m not currently a competitive athlete, I spent most of my school years as part of netball, rounders, swimming and athletics teams, which I loved. Now I’m less an athlete and more of a gym goer. As I progress in this placement, I’m excited to learn and understand how psychology and physiotherapy can overlap and how I can adapt the skills I learn in research to my final year project and physiotherapy career.

My name is Ivan Chan, and I’m from Hong Kong. Physiotherapy has always fascinated me—it’s not just about movement and recovery, but also helping people feel more confident and helping them get back where they use to be. In this placement I’ll be able to learn how psychology plays a crucial role in physiotherapy, and I’ll also be able to practice transferrable skills such as communication, making me a more rounded physiotherapist and researcher.

Closing the Chapter on a Successful 5-Week Placement!

It has come to the end of the 5-week placement for our newest members of the Sprint Project team – Lulu Donaghy and Jasmine Wilkins, current Msci physiotherapists studying at the University of Birmingham. Continue reading to find out their final thoughts as their year 2 studies come to an end!

Lulu Donaghy:

I was intrigued as to what this placement would entail when starting 5 weeks ago. But I am so happy I have had the opportunity to take part in such an interesting research placement, where I have learnt so many different useful skills, such as, extracting information from research articles, learning to create different blog posts and infographics and also learning to write field notes for focus groups that addressed the important topic of safeguarding in dance. I am very thankful to Prof. Jennifer Cumming and the team for allowing me to learn so many different useful skills I can take forward in my physiotherapy career.

Lulu Donaghy

Jasmine Wilkins:

Working alongside the Sprint Project team, I have explored outside of my comfort zone by working on data extraction, reviewing and analysing safeguarding literature and journals, and learning how to review the credibility of a research paper. Research is not something I have done lots of before, so this was a new challenge for me. I also learnt to work cooperatively as a team but also lead my own directed study to ensure tasks get completed on time, teaching me how to be proactive but also well organised. I enjoyed the creative side of the placement, which included writing weekly blog posts on topics I was interested in and creating infographics as well. It was a good experience for a first placement at the University of Birmingham with Prof Jennifer Cumming and the rest of the team!

Jasmine Wilkins