KATIE OSWELL

The course at RMIT was a 3 year undergraduate program followed by 2 year masters. During this time I started working at the Royal Women’s Hospital in Melbourne as a newborn hearing screener. I loved working on the maternity ward and and in the neonatal special care wards. This sparked an interest in obstetrics and paediatrics that went on to become the focus of my masters project. As a student, I was keen to discover how osteopathy could support women during pregnancy and labour and then, in turn, what newborn presentations responded well to gentle osteopathic intervention.

On completion of my masters, I worked in a suburban clinic in Melbourne and a country practice in regional Victoria. The two practices offered a diverse patient population ranging from office workers, Australian Rules football players, young families and dairy farmers. The variety of presentations showed me the scope of practice for an osteopath and fostered a love of general practice.

At 24, after working professionally for a year, I boarded a plane to London (an Australian rite of passage) to have an adventure and, if I ended up staying, to see how osteopaths were working internationally. That 2 year adventure somehow turned into 10 years.

In the last decade I’ve worked in numerous clinics in Edinburgh and London, which varied from general practice to clinics specialising in obstetrics and paediatrics. I’ve completed a 2 year postgraduate course in paediatrics at the Osteopathic Centre for Children and multiple short courses in both cranial and classical osteopathy. This experience has shown me the value of supporting families at critical times and how intervening to support an individual’s health can make a huge difference to a training program, work and general quality of life.

I’m excited to be back in Scotland, which was where I first came to work as a new graduate, to continue working in both general practice, obstetrics and paediatrics. I’m interested in continuing the development of osteopathy in the field of paediatrics through research and ongoing clinical work. I’m also, after lockdown in London, pretty thrilled to have escaped the big city and am ready to explore Scotland, a decade on from landing here.