Bridget Dean

Pursuing a career in physiotherapy

From a young age, Bridget Dean played sport which lead her to competing in Oztag, hockey and athletics at international, national and representative level. Her love of sport motivated her to train as a high school PE teacher, and while she was teaching, she enrolled in MQ Health’s Doctor of Physiotherapy.

She knew right away it was her ideal career because every class was practical. “There are physio beds in the classroom and you’re practising one-on-one with your patient, who is another student,” she says. “It’s not like you just sat taking notes.” Dean had four placements during her three-year degree, but her favourite was at MQ Health’s physiotherapy clinic. There, she had the opportunity to work with Associate Professor Munjed Al Muderis, the renowned orthopaedic surgeon and NSW Australian of the Year 2020.

Al Muderis is a pioneer of osseointegration, which involves inserting a titanium implant into the remaining bone of an amputee that connects through a skin opening to a robotic limb prosthesis.

“I realised this was really the field I wanted to be in,” says Dean.

Al Muderis’ work had personal meaning to her because her grandfather – who had been a Dutch naval sprinter – had both his legs amputated due to complications from diabetes. “It was hard to see the strong man that I grew up admiring, becoming frustrated and grumpy and not being able to walk because of the pain and fit of his sockets.”

By the time she graduated at the end of 2015, Bridget was offered a role as a physiotherapist, now at MQ Health Physiotherapy. Today, Dean is living her dream. She’s involved in clinical trials, treating patients in the Physiotherapy Clinic, teaching in the Doctor of Physiotherapy degree, working for Hockey NSW as a physio for their under 18 teams and playing internationally for the Australian Oztag team.