Denny’s Experience in Switzerland

Denny went to Switzerland in 2018 to start working there as a physiotherapist. After working in Switzerland for half a year, Denny is happy to share his experience with us.

“I had been graduated for a year and had already gained some experience as a physiotherapist in the Netherlands when I decided that I wanted to look beyond working in my own country. Since I really enjoy mountain sports such as snowboarding and mountain biking, I started looking into whether I could work in Switzerland as a physiotherapist.

During the last few months of my internship, I started looking for work. At some point I saw an interesting vacancy on physiomatch.nl in Switzerland. They helped me by guiding me and, together with their partner agency in Switzerland, arranging several job interviews. In September I had a job interview, and I was able to start on October 1st. I was well supported and first had interviews over the phone. Then I went to Switzerland to have interviews at a few practices with Dutch owners. In the end, I chose the practice where I am currently working, which turned out to be a good choice. PhysioMatch gave me a useful step-by-step guide with tips for all the things I needed to arrange: visa, housing, language course, and registration with the Swiss Red Cross (SRK) for recognition of my diploma.”

Working in the mountains

“The reason I wanted to work in Switzerland was because of the nature. I live near a ski area, and there is also a lake nearby for water sports enthusiasts. Now that I live here, I keep discovering more things to do. It is also easy to meet people here. You can easily join clubs and associations. I have noticed that Swiss people can sometimes be a bit reserved when it comes to really becoming friends, but they are very kind and friendly.

Besides having a nice job and a good environment to live in, it is also important that you speak the language. I am taking a German course, which helps a lot. Swiss German is quite different though, much more dialect. Over the past few months, I have often asked patients if they could speak High German so that I can understand them. In addition, you have to complete a German course anyway before you can get your Anerkennung from the SRK. It is of course important to be able to communicate with your patients, which sometimes includes specific terms that are important for a physiotherapist, such as the names of body parts.”

Quality, peer review and administration

“I also really enjoy the work here. Every week we have a kind of internal training session where we discuss new techniques. If someone has attended a course, we can all learn a lot from that. Because I work a lot and have gained many hours of experience, I think that as a beginning physiotherapist I have already learned and seen a great deal. The biggest difference between working here and working in the Netherlands is that there is less administrative work required by the health insurance companies. In the Netherlands, they decide a lot about what you have to record. Here, I do document what I do, for example measurements, and I make a report about that, but it is more for the patient rather than for the health insurer.”

Recommendation

“I would say: do what you enjoy! If you think it might be too much work, go for it anyway! I was completely free to go wherever I wanted. Just do it. Look into the country you want to go to, make sure you speak a bit of the language. This makes it easier to become part of the community where you live and work. And above all, do not hesitate. If you have always had the desire, take the adventure and see what happens. You cannot regret something you have never tried, even if it might not turn out as expected.”

Want to know more?

Would you like to know more about your opportunities in Switzerland? Call us, contact us via our contact form, or click on the following link: www.physiomatch.com/switzerland