Meet Jodie Mortimer

Physiotherapist in Windermere’s Allied Health Graduate Program

“The program is really set up well to offer a huge amount of support to both first and second-year graduates. It’s a great opportunity.”

Jodie is a qualified teacher who loves working with children. She taught physical education for several years before deciding to reskill as a physiotherapist. After completing her studies, Windermere’s Allied Health Graduate Program was the perfect opportunity to help her take the following steps in her career.

“I was really interested in upskilling as much as I could,” she says about her decision to apply for the graduate program.

She was particularly attracted to the program’s emphasis on learning and collaboration and the chance to work with children.

One day a week for the first six months of the program is exclusively allocated to learning. This is “great from an upskilling perspective but also for being able to chat and meet with others who are in a similar position,” she says.

One of the significant advantages of Windermere’s allied health graduate program is the strong emphasis on collaboration and knowledge sharing.

Windermere uses a key worker approach. This means one allied health professional is allocated as the key contact person for each family or child. These professional coordinates support for the child in collaboration with the entire allied health team.

“My specialist area might be a physio, but I can then still draw on others and their areas of expertise. I might be the one go-to person for the family, but I am working within a much broader team to give the best service and support to the child and family I am working with,” says Jodie.

By enhancing this highly collaborative atmosphere, Jodie also had valuable opportunities to shadow senior staff and complete joint sessions to learn from them and get feedback to provide the best support for her consumers.

Jodie also found the comprehensive learning opportunities for second-year graduates to be a significant advantage of the program. “Even now, going into my second year of the program, the fact that there is allocated time set aside for us to all meet is a really crucial aspect of the program that allows us to continue to develop,” she says.

Jodie has loved the support she has received from her colleagues at Windermere.  “It’s been a pretty challenging year for everyone involved with Covid and having to adjust to different modes of delivery, but the support and opportunities that have been provided through the team in terms of adapting have been phenomenal,” she says. Jodie has also hugely enjoyed the varied work environment, which includes outreach visits in different locations and Windermere’s friendly working environment.

“The program is really set up well to offer a huge amount of support to both first and second-year graduates. It’s a great opportunity,” she says.

More information

Windermere is currently accepting applications for our Allied Health Graduate Program starting in January 2022. To find out more, visit https://www.windermere.org.au/careers/allied-health-graduate-program or contact one of the team on 1300 946 337.

 

Posted on: 27/08/2021