Observership and training

Short observerships in robotic neurorehabilitation and lymphoedema management, and structured training for therapists. Applications are reviewed quarterly.

A structured period observing clinical practice across the rehabilitation programme — assessment, therapy sessions, technology-assisted rehabilitation, team review and discharge planning. It is observational rather than hands-on, and patient consent governs attendance at every session.

It suits clinicians establishing or developing a rehabilitation service, and those wanting practical exposure to rehabilitation robotics in routine use rather than in a demonstration.

Physicians in physical medicine and rehabilitation, physiotherapists, occupational therapists and speech and language therapists. Also service managers planning a rehabilitation unit, for whom the operational side is often more informative than the clinical.

Applications should state what you want to get out of it. A programme built around a specific question is worth considerably more than a general visit.

No observer attends a session without the patient's agreement, and consent can be withdrawn at any point without explanation. Some sessions — intimate examinations, distressing conversations — are not observed at all.

This limits what can be guaranteed in a programme, and it is not negotiable.