We are Women’s offers the WCH community a chance to get to know each other and share our stories.
Name: Olivia Drodge
Pronouns: She/Her
Title & Department: Pelvic Health Physiotherapist, Toronto Academic Pain Medical Institute (TAPMI); Transition Related Surgeries Program
On the WCH team for: 2 year, 9 months
1. What does your typical workday look like?
To explain a typical workday, I would like to acknowledge the members of our team that perform secretarial and triage duties, as they truly are the foundation of our day-to-day clinical encounters and operations. As a Pelvic Health Physiotherapist on the TAPMI team, I have the pleasure of working with the interdisciplinary team to facilitate multiple group-based programs, such as the pelvic pain group and physiotherapy exercise groups. In these groups, we strive to develop an understanding of how to incorporate physical activity into one’s daily lives, through utilizing techniques, such as pacing, to ensure all client’s feel empowered, safe and capable to continue a self-management regimen for pain management. In addition to these groups, I provide individualized assessment and treatment for individuals with chronic pain, specifically in chronic pelvic pain. When I am not with clients, I am either charting, or in meetings with the team to discuss ways to optimize our communication and care for patients or providing post-operative care to clients in the Transition Related Surgery Department. When I am not in the TAPMI department, I’m providing pre/post-operative care to clients in the Transition Related Surgery Program!
2. What excites you the most about working at WCH?
If anybody knows me, they know how excited I get when I talk about my job at Women’s College Hospital! So, to answer this question (with excitement), I love working within such a knowledgeable interdisciplinary team to provide care to our clients. We know in the research that pelvic health concerns and pain are major barriers to exercise participation, and I’m honored to be able to educate and teach client’s ways to take control of their health! Knowing that Women’s College Hospital supports ongoing education, research initiatives and is one of the major leading hospitals in healthcare just makes me so proud to work with the TAPMI team, who strives for providing evidence-based care and supports lifelong learning/research initiatives.
3. How does your work contribute to creating a positive patient experience?
I am a true believer that people deserve to be treated the way we would want to be treated, so when it comes to providing client-centered care, I strive to create a safe and welcoming space, for patients to feel comfortable attending physiotherapy treatment. I aim to provide as much education for clients for them to gain a stronger understanding of their pain condition, as well as ways they can manage their symptoms and feel more empowered doing so in our individual and/or group sessions. Working with other members of my team, through group-based programs, allows us to create a space where clients can learn not only from the clinicians, but from each-other. Working together to explore goal setting based on one’s values, learning about stress and pain management, and even the connection between emotions, sleep, nutrition, and pain, all come from sharing knowledge and creating a place non-judgement and optimism for the future. I like to think that our clients feel a sense of empowerment following out programs.
4. Tell us one to three things that your colleagues would be surprised to learn about you!
I love to collect Vinyl Records! I am a big music fan, and I have always found that there’s something special about playing a record at home and listening to the album in its entirety with the family. To date, I probably have over 150 vinyl records!