Growing up in Abergowrie in northern Queensland, Brett Baxter APAM wasn’t exposed to a variety of career paths. 

In fact, it wasn’t until his father impaled himself through the thigh on a family fishing trip that Brett was unexpectedly introduced to the healthcare field and what it means to care for someone who has been injured. 

When Brett began working as a physiotherapist at Princess Alexandra Hospital, Brisbane in 1995, he moved through numerous areas of the hospital before taking on a clinical educator role in acute orthopaedics. 

The breadth and fast-paced nature of orthopaedics drew him in. 

‘The beauty of orthopaedics is that in any one day I can be relying on a range of physiotherapy skills. I can have a patient with a high cervical spine cord injury who needs respiratory physiotherapy. 

Then I can be working with a patient who’s fallen and fractured their hip and relying on my rehabilitation and geriatric knowledge.’ 

His clinical expertise as a physiotherapist isn’t all that Brett relies on. 

The acute nature of the orthopaedic unit means that he is often meeting patients on the worst day of their lives. 

‘When I work with people who have experienced significant loss or trauma, the initial sessions may not appear to involve high-level physiotherapy skills. 

However, my ability to listen and empathise often means that we can achieve goals together under very difficult circumstances.’ 

As a clinical educator, Brett found that teaching young physiotherapists not only increased his passion for the subject, but also revealed a gap between university courses and hospital expectations. 

‘From an orthopaedic perspective, the students didn’t consistently have the sort of skills or the knowledge that we were looking for from a graduate physiotherapist.’ 

As a member of the Queensland Orthopaedic Physiotherapy Network, Brett worked with the network to address this issue by targeting universities directly, ensuring that practising orthopaedic physiotherapists were actively involved in curriculum delivery. 

It was also through the Queensland Orthopaedic Physiotherapy Network that Brett worked to establish the APA’s Orthopaedic national group. 

‘We did a lot of work early on to show the APA that this is an important area and that we are doing some great work.’ 

Sustained lobbying and highlighting the longterm benefits of orthopaedic physiotherapy led to the creation of the national group. 

‘We’ve developed a lovely symbiotic relationship with the APA now.’ 

Throughout his career, Brett has seen himself as a facilitator within his multidisciplinary team and the broader hospital network. 

‘In the multidisciplinary team, physios are linkers, getting the right people involved in discussions or projects that need to happen.’ 

This collaborative mindset led him to contribute to the development of a criteria-led discharge position at the Princess Alexandra Hospital, enabling allied health staff to discharge patients. 

‘The idea is to try to take some of the work off the time-poor doctors and improve the overall efficiency of the hospital.’ 

This ‘linker’ role extends beyond hospital systems to patient wellbeing itself. Brett’s research into domestic and family violence revealed that victimsurvivors were accessing healthcare on a daily basis, yet often remained invisible. 

‘Unless we create an environment that patients feel safe in, we will know next to nothing about what’s going on in their life at home. 

Through the research project we had training to identify some of the risk factors for domestic and family violence so we can work toward a safer discharge. 

I think as physiotherapists we’re well placed to have these interactions because we spend a lot of one-on-one time with people and develop a genuine caring relationship.’ 

Whether linking multidisciplinary teams, shaping curriculum or supporting vulnerable patients, Brett continues to demonstrate that the most profound impact often comes not from technical expertise alone, but from creating the systems and spaces where genuine healing can begin.

Check out the APA Orthopaedic National group here.