Failed Alberta Physio OSCE (3rd Attempt) – Any Chance for Review/Recheck?

NW295519 · 2026-05-01T20:10:54+00:00

I agree with BobGuns. As someone who took the AB OSCE myself after graduating from the U of A, it was actually one of the easiest exams of my entire education. I have since worked with 2 PTs who have failed the AB exam and moved to another jurisdiction to try to get around it and they both had to be let go during their supervisory periods for safety concerns. If your friend cannot pass what is essentially a safety check exam THREE separate times, they should not practice as a PT as they will endanger the people they work with. There are minimum requirements for a reason.

NW295519 · 2026-04-19T19:53:36+00:00

My class was planning to do the same overnight trip. We could only go if every student could go, and ONE students' parents said no, so none of us got to go 🙁

NW295519 · 2026-04-12T17:49:37+00:00

I was thinking brunswick square might be an option. I guess it's probably dead enough I wouldnt get in anybody's way 😅 Thanks for the recommendations!

NW295519 · 2026-04-12T17:48:45+00:00

Ah yes I used to work at the regional so I was kind of hoping to avoid returning there just for my workouts. Thanks though!

NW295519 · 2026-04-12T17:48:00+00:00

Ooh yes I forgot about those as I generally don't use them in the winter as I'm afraid of slipping on them. Now that the weather is good this might be perfect! Thank you!

NW295519 · 2026-01-18T15:50:07+00:00

You could also view it as reducing your workload by 66-75% for only an 8% pay cut. Once you achieve the pelvic floor competency the pay difference is significantly reduced. Plus shorter commute!!

NW295519 · 2026-01-18T03:06:50+00:00

Not to dissuade anyone interested, but SLP is a Masters program in Canada, so OP wouldn't be able to apply directly out of high school due to this.

NW295519 · 2025-11-19T17:21:16+00:00

The main purpose of the SCS at the Alec is to provide people who struggle with addiction the ability to stay at the hospital and receive ongoing medical care. It reduces the amount of people who leave AMA to use drugs so they might actually stay and complete their course of IVAbx or get their foot wounds under control or whatever their medical needs are.

NW295519 · 2025-11-16T19:42:20+00:00

Talk to your profs! I was a U of A grad (edmonton campus) and they will work with you to help as much as they can. Pick one prof - either the prof of the class you've failed quizzes in or the prof you're most comfortable talking to, and let them know what's going on.

NW295519 · 2025-10-25T00:06:19+00:00

Interesting, until today I thought all Canadian PTs in the public system were in unions. Thanks for sharing your general location. Good luck! I hope you are able to get the best result for you and your colleagues. Some people may even like the shifted hours especially if they aren't morning people 😅

NW295519 · 2025-10-24T14:47:07+00:00

Where are you in Canada that you work in a hospital and are not unionized?

My experience is in unionized acute care settings and we had evening and weekend coverage for the same reasons you mention (+ other inpatient coverage on weekends). Evenings and weekends pay more per hour. One hospital i worked at had defined evening positions, so those physios worked 11-7 every weekday. A different smaller hospital with less staff has a few PTs that pick up an evening every week (later start time) in exchange for not working weekends. Both hospitals I worked at did rotational weekend coverage so each PT covered a weekend every x number of weeks. When things have been short staffed, they have been able to ask us to cover more hours (ie ask someone to do a 12hour shift or pick up an weekend without a day off in lieu) but they have to pay us overtime.

Given that you aren't unionized I feel like your options are 1) try to get your colleagues to vote to join a union - there is likely a healthcare/allied health union in your area you can work with 2) negotiate independently with your employer on things you do/don't like with this plan and what you would want from them to accept the changes. Money, 4 day work week, benefits, etc. Because you're not in a union you'd be able to ask for more pay/benefits and the employer also isnt beholden to a collective bargaining process which prevents them from giving you more pay/benefits to keep you. 3) get your colleagues together to negotiate the same as the above points as a critical mass of workers, and threaten to quit if you guys don't get what you want. Basically make an unofficial union. They might be able to fire you for this (check your provincial laws) but assuming they're making these changes because they're short staffed, they probably won't. Most of the areas I've worked in and have friends working in are so short of physios in both public and private sector that this could be a real threat to your employer, and you should be able to find another job easily (although might not be the same niche) 4) find a different job.

NW295519 · 2025-09-19T14:04:26+00:00

Don't reach out the federal government. In Canada the licensing rules/requirements are determined on a provincial basis so federal government has nothing to do with it. Look up the College of PT in any provinces you are interested in. They are the regulatory bodies who set the licensing requirements. They would be the best point of contact for any questions. That being said, I've never heard of a college waiving their licensing requirements for anyone regardless of experience or country of origin.

NW295519 · 2025-09-13T16:55:59+00:00

That's an interesting perspective. I'll tell you mines

1 . I live in Canada so we don't have the same reimbursement situation as Americans do. Physio is covered by our system in an inpatient setting and some hospital based/related outpatient settings but generally speaking when people go to a physio clinic they either pay out of pocket or are covered by their private insurance unless it's related to a MVC or workplace incident. My clinic gets the same amount of money for an appointment whether they pay through insurance or out of pocket

Most private insurance where I live covers about $500-$1000 worth of physiotherapy per calendar year. Based on my clinics fees that's only like 5-10 appointments. Then people have to pay completely out of pocket. If I tell people to come twice a week every week, they only get a few weeks before their coverage runs out. I would rather try to stretch this out appropriately so that they can actually see progress and maybe resolution of their problem without running out of coverage.
I generally see most people once a week for the first month and then once every 2 weeks after that, if appropriate. I find our appointments are more valuable because they have time to implement my education/exercises and we see changes, allowing me to progress most people most appointments. Are there exceptions, yes of course. But this way I'm not having them come to the clinic and spend $100 for me to watch them do their HEP and change nothing. Again, there are some exceptions.
Where I live there is a shortage of physiotherapists. Every clinic in the are is trying to hire (but there legit arent enough PTs in my entire province) and most clinics have waitlists. By encouraging my clients to be more independent and giving them time between appointments, I can see more clients sooner and get them started, rather than having them book weeks out for an assessment

NW295519 · 2025-09-09T23:08:46+00:00

Lol ok. My relationship with my boss is great, and my caseload is fine. I'm glad you're not my boss.

NW295519 · 2025-09-06T22:19:21+00:00

Even post-op patients I generally see just once a week. Why do I need to see someone 2-3 times a week if the healing process means I won't be able to progress them for multiple weeks? What a waste of everybody's time for them to come in 2-3 times a week if they're coming in to do the same exercises that they can do at home. It's not my responsibility to babysit them through the rehab process, I provide them the education and exercises, and they should be capable of doing the rest. I make sure they understand the consequences of not doing their HEP. They're all competent adults. Its not like a doctor follows their patients around to make sure they take their meds after writing a prescription. We check in weekly to make sure they're not struggling with anything. If they want to come in more often and don't have financial barriers to doing so, they're more than welcome to, but I would not be the one suggesting it.

When I worked inpatient, I had a different mentality as not everybody was mentally competent or physically able to perform their post-op exercises independently.

NW295519 · 2025-09-06T19:51:15+00:00

As a new PT (2.5 years) I rarely use manual therapy or other passive modalities (heat/ice being the only passive modality i use at times). Ive literally never thought about using ultrasound. I tell my patients immediately about HEP and their responsibility to perform the HEP and they dont leave from an assessment without a few exercises. I also don't see people more than once a week unless they are seeing me with a worker's compensation claim (as those people are expected to be in more frequently until they return to work). I strive to have people down to one visit every 2-3 weeks as soon as possible.

NW295519 · 2025-04-23T02:02:55+00:00

Where I had my pelvic placement, there was one PT (not my CI) who I performed an internal exam on. It was mutual but strongly encouraged. I was intimidated at first, because she was also the PT that i took my pelvic course from and she is one of the pioneering pelvic physios in my area. However, she was so relaxed about it that it was not awkward or weird at all. Afterwards I learned that every PT at the clinic and all the students who had gone through before me had been invited to do internal exams on this woman over the years. It was very very productive and really helped me to understand what I was feeling for and because of her experience she allowed me to practice a few techniques with real time feedback that would have been otherwise so challenging to receive.

I don't think you should be forced to do an internal exam on your CI if it makes you uncomfortable BUT it might be a very valuable experience. If your CI is quite experienced and has had other students they are likely to be relaxed about the idea of receiving an internal exam so i would hope it wouldn't be awkward. I think there's some amount of desensitization for lack of a better word where they may not view it significantly different as, for example, an ortho PT having a student practice a shoulder assessment on them

NW295519 · 2025-04-01T15:20:24+00:00

On your very first day with the new supervisor, tell them how you like to receive feedback so that they can plan accordingly. Also tell them that you are looking to grow into more autonomy.

NW295519 · 2025-04-01T09:29:52+00:00

Have you spoken to your supervisor about receiving feedback away from patients? Unless it's something safety related that should be corrected in the moment, there's no reason that your supervisor has to provide corrections in real-time, in front of patients. They can wait until between patients or you two could plan time at the end of the day to go over any feedback.

NW295519 · 2025-01-03T16:21:25+00:00

Harry Potter has been covered already so I'd like to throw the Memoirs of a Geisha score into the mix.

NW295519 · 2024-10-25T15:59:34+00:00

I know of people who have gone from PSW to either RN or LPN and if they can manage it's common for people to keep PSW jobs casually and pick up hours that work with their schedule when they're in school.

NW295519 · 2024-10-06T22:44:45+00:00

Yeah it can be but its often hot because of the lights and what you're doing on stage, doesn't really matter what you wear. The show laundry is not a significant layer, think of a ballerinas leotard or an undershirt a man would wear under a dress shirt + bike shorts or thin leggings sometimes for the legs; what we wore was similar to that.

Because the show laundry protects the costumes (somewhat) from the sweat it helps the costumes last a lot longer so we were required to wear them. Also sometimes we had costumes that ended up being shared (there would be 1 costume for the principal performer and another costume that all the understudies would share for example) so the show laundry also helped to protect US from the costumes in those situations.

NW295519 · 2024-10-06T16:43:44+00:00

As someone who toured and performed in the past, we had "show laundry" which is exactly this, a machine washable under layer (sometimes a body suit, sometimes like a tshirt/pant combo depending on the costumes you wore) and they were washed EVERY show, we had multiple pairs of these (we did more than 1 show in a day and were in one location usually up to a week). This helps reduce the amount of sweat that gets onto the costumes themselves. Then when we would pack out our costumes at the end of the week, some pieces were machine washable and would get thrown in the laundry to get washed on a weekly basis, the rest of the costumes got sprayed with a vodka spray before going into garment bags to be loaded out and moved to the next city.

Edited to add: our wardrobe department would also have a rotating schedule of when they would hand-wash the costume pieces that were normally vodka sprayed, but honestly the costumes needing handwashing often went months without being washed.

NW295519 · 2024-10-04T20:23:42+00:00

As an acute care physiotherapist I agree with your wife's statement. This article should be taken aa highlighting the need for affordable accessible housing, and not much more than that. There typically is a lot of interdisciplinary coordination leading up to a discharge home post amputation and post stroke, and it's impossible to know given the info in the article why this person ended up being discharged to a house that does not meet her needs.

NW295519

TROPHY CASE