A week with: Ben Dreesbach
In our week with Ben Dreesbach, we give great insights into his life as a physiotherapy lecturer at X-PHYSIO. From preparing lessons, supervising learners in the field, online teaching to other exclusive impressions from his areas of activity.
Transparency is important at an educational institution today. Of course, this also applies to schools in the health sector. That’s why we’re happy to share a look behind the scenes at the physiotherapy school in Bonn. In the future, we will introduce individual players at X-PHYSIO during their activities as part of the training here in the format “A week with…”. We also provide an overview of colleagues who are also lecturers, our learners and the school building, and introduce our industry partners and practical outreach houses.
Since 2020 Lecturer at X-PHYSIO
In a previous job, Mr Dreesbach was the therapeutic manager of a physiotherapy practice and was also a supervisor for trainees on work experience. Parallel to his work as a lecturer, Mr Dreesbach is studying for a Bachelor’s degree in physiotherapy. In his free time, he likes to do sports and enjoys the beautiful local view of the Middle Rhine in great weather, together with his 17-month-old son. Mr Dreesbach enjoys the fifth season in Bonn and has lost his heart twice: to his wife and once in the Ruhr region.
Monday
starts the longest of the five rounds of his week. Monday is always the longest day at X-PHYSIO. For the lecturers as well as for the learners. This increases motivation, and by the end of the first day, a good part of the workload for the whole school week is already done. That means there is a lot to do on Monday.
Mr Dreesbach’s daily motto is: “Start the day right! – Nothing works without coffee – the lecturers are only human. May the coffee machine never give up the ghost. Because Mr Dreesbach is probably not the only one who needs the pleasure of coffee. And it also tastes better together. With his consumption, which is equivalent to the intake of a staple food, Mr Dreesbach is far above the recommended daily intake, but he drinks it pure and completely avoids sugar. Well then…
During lesson preparation
it is important to rely on a broad spectrum of information, but with books there is a special feature. There are many digital ways to fill the classroom with the latest knowledge. The lecturers and learners, for example, all have access to the knowledge platform @amboss_med_de. At @microsoft TEAMS, the lecturers have all the teaching materials and presentations – their own and those of their colleagues – so it is always clear what content has already been taught. This makes teaching in a team easier, similar to how good reporting and documentation facilitates the joint treatment of a patient. Personally, Mr Dreesbach likes to use current specialist magazines and scientific databases to keep the content as up-to-date as possible. But time and again he also finds himself in our in-house library. With books and in libraries, there is something that is not experienced so strongly in databases. When browsing and turning pages, one arrives at knowledge that has not been explicitly searched for. In this way, Mr Dreesbach often develops ideas that he would not otherwise have had in this context. This creates great links and inspiration.
The preparation requires time, which Mr Dreesbach likes to take aside for himself. This way he can work on the content in a concentrated way and fascinating details come together that he presents. There is always potential for optimisation: better graphics, more evidence, more comprehensible formulations, more meaningful sequences, more practical or everyday relevance, there is always something that could be better. In the company, but also in his personal way of working, everything is constantly put to the test. All with the aim of training therapists today for the demands of tomorrow’s health care and therapy market. The challenge is great, but then, as we know, so is the growth in this context!
The human hand
is on the one hand a tool for therapists and on the other hand one of the most complex combinations of interacting individual bony structures. There are 27 of them. Before the theoretical basics for the upcoming practical session, a quality check. In this way, Mr Dreesbach can be sure that the content is sound.
3, 2, 1, Action!
Normally our lecturers stand in front of people, look into their faces and interact with them. The whole thing brings life into the classroom. This is also possible online, but differently! Less information can be transmitted via the screen than via immediate physical proximity. But there are also things for this that do not exist in normal Vis-a-Vie communication. Questions can be asked more easily via a chat and answered directly by other learners. Links can be shared and emotions amplified with emojis.
There was already plenty of input and background information at hand. The extensive anatomical facts are also known. Now it’s getting practical! The live palpation and examination is accompanied by an order to carry it out in real time on a person close to the household. What do you consider to be good online teaching?
(Is there anything better than starting the day with a quote? Do you have a favourite quote? After a rather intensive team meeting yesterday, I noticed that many characters give a training house a face. I was particularly pleased to see that everyone is interested in making school more up-to-date, informative and contemporary. The students deserve it, the patients deserve it and that’s how I want to work. So standstill adé, I’m now stepping on the gas, everything that the StVO has to offer and see that I get ahead!) Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
Field service
If a course of X-PHYSIO is in practical use in a practice or clinic, each learner receives supervision on a patient every week. For this purpose, a patient is pretreated and the visiting lecturer receives the findings prepared by the learner in advance, including the objective and the planned measures. However, it may well be that a special therapy or diagnostic device or patient case is presented. (I’ll tell you what I pay particular attention to right after the supervision in the practice @physiotherapie.heinevetter and the reflection talk with the learner. I’m starting now after work in Hennef at @physio_cki. Thanks for the coffee 🙂
The lecturer’s view
Many struggle with exam situations. But a lecturer in supervision also has to pay attention to many things. In this regard, we gladly describe the impressions and thoughts of Mr. Dreesbach: “My comments on the two LAST supervisions right in front of me. Focusing on the learner and the patient. Documents on the findings, including an anonymised patient profile, ready to hand next to me. We are ready to go. Depending on the level of achievement, there are different assessment criteria or a different weighting. Now I have to pay attention to a lot of things at the same time, the learner as well. Positioning in the room and towards the patient, 🔎 Hygiene, 🔎 Ergonomics, 🔎 Appearance, 🔎 Communication, 🔎 Methods, 🔎 Clinical evidence, 🔎 Empathy, 🔎 Addressing the patient in an understandable and patient-oriented way, 🔎 Measurement selection and execution, 🔎 Technique selection and application, 🔎 Dosage, 🔎 Adjustments, 🔎 Corrections, 🔎 Time management, 🔎 Patient safety. To name just a few from the checklist. But I am quite confident here today, the practical director has already given very good feedback in the preliminary talk. Don’t let them get nervous now!”
Even the evening programme
stood in Mr Dreesbach’s week in terms of professional policy. A historic moment in health policy. The first arbitration has been completed. On 03 March 2021, the four chairpersons of the physiotherapy associations therefore reported on the current status and the next steps. Guest on the panel: Dr Roy Kühne, Member of the German Bundestag and also a physiotherapist. Topics included remuneration, terms of reference, the demand for new positions and, above all, how things will now proceed after the arbitration award of 26 February 2021.
Homeschooling in the morning
also has some advantages. At least that’s how Mr Dreesbach sees it – and we think some of our learners will see it similarly. If it’s raining cats and dogs again, you can simply take part in the digital device of your choice with a hot drink… …in the warm …in the dry (and possibly sleep a minute or two longer). Well, these are the advantages that today’s learners benefit from!
Assistance wherever possible
Even at a distance, our lecturers always try to provide assistance, for example over the phone, when one of our learners in his first practical assignment agreed to find out about the possibilities of a prosthesis after an amputation. Here, too, we can help with a corresponding network. So only a short time later, Max Sattler from course X06 was able to drop by APT Prothesen and find out first-hand. At this point, we would like to thank @thomasprotzel for his commitment and support of the trainees since 2015. Ein perfektes Team! This motto literally lives here in Bonn.
Regional support also at X-PHYSIO
and how could it be otherwise, of course it’s sports support 🏀 Mr Dreesbach accompanied Managing Director Sergej Borkenhagen to a special appointment at the Telekomdome on the Hardtberg, famously the venue of the Telekom Baskets Bonn and home of the Telekom Baskets e.V.. Especially in the current times, it is important to support regional sports. Both founders of X-PHYSIO were active basketball players and maintain close ties to the sport. For this reason, the X-PHYSIO logo now adorns the tour bus of the Telekom Baskets Bonn junior team. Of course, we wish the young athletes a safe journey!
Five quick questions for
Ben Dreesbach showed an insight into the versatility of a lecturer working at X-PHYSIO. To finish off, there is always our “five quick questions to” category. Of course, we do not want to withhold these:
- Mr Dreesbach, why did you become a physiotherapist?
“I’ve always had contact with physiotherapists as a footballer, injury-wise…. and I always found it fascinating. Back then I thought ‘what they can do with their hands’, and nowadays you can argue about that. But that’s what I always wanted to do.” - What was the most embarrassing thing that ever happened to you in a treatment?
“So I think treating the wrong side, every physiotherapist has, I don’t think that counts. But I actually had someone fall down once in hospital. I found that ultra-awkward, although I could only do something about it to a limited extent.” - What annoys you most when learners do it in class?
“I think as with any lecturer “talk”. When they just pay zero attention to you, I find it almost outrageous. It’s really annoying. But it’s also part of everyday life somehow. - What would have to happen for you to give up your salary?
“Then I would like to win the lottery first, then we can talk about it. - Academisation ‘yes’ or ‘no’?
“Yes. I believe that in order for physiotherapy to finally get the status it deserves, we cannot avoid academisation.”
