The remedial instructor is one of the specialised medical roles to emerge from treating injured soldiers.
Remedial instructors (RIs) are armed forces fitness instructors who provide physical training with a military attitude.
Unlike fitness instructors in health clubs, RIs are qualified to devise training regimes to focus on a patient’s specific injuries. Military values such as teamwork, discipline, commitment and personal excellence are a central part of the training regime.
“Patients value the military environment because that’s what they're used to,” says RAF Flight Sergeant Maxine Martin (pictured).
Flight Sergeant Martin is an RI at the Regional Rehabilitation Unit (RRU) at RAF Halton in Buckinghamshire. “Being part of the military, there are certain expectations,” she says. “For example, patients must be punctual and clean shaven.”
Personalised training
Patients on a typical three-week rehabilitation course at the Halton RRU have treatment between 9am and 3pm daily.
The unit has room for up to 32 inpatients and treats about 500 people a year with muscle, joint and bone injuries.
The treatment, which is designed for the individual patient, is planned by the RI in consultation with the unit’s physiotherapists and sports medicine doctors.
While one-to-one sessions focus on the patient’s injury with the aim of getting them back to operational fitness, the group sessions help patients to be more determined.
“Because they have a military background, RIs understand the military ethos and the attitude of the patients,” says Flight Sergeant Martin. “The majority just want to get better and go back on operation. Most of them are very motivated.”
Senior Aircraftwoman Rhian Smith, who was recovering from a back injury suffered on a skiing expedition, says she’s really benefited from the personal attention.
“They’re absolutely brilliant and really knowledgable. You ask them any question and they know the answer,” she says.
“There’s a lot of one-to-one attention. Even when you’re doing your group work there’s usually [an RI] walking round checking you’re doing everything correctly.”
Six-month training
To become an RI, trainees undergo a six-month training course to learn the basics of muscle and skeletal functions, possible injuries and the effects of those injuries.
Their knowledge of the range of occupations in the armed forces means RIs are ideally placed to develop treatments to get patients back to occupational fitness.
“The courses are adapted to the patient’s operational role,” says RRU commander Major Vinny Gallagher. “A computer operator won’t need the same level of treatment as someone in the special forces."
As well as working at the UK’s 14 RRUs, RIs are also deployed in the conflict zones of Iraq and Afghanistan.
“We have RIs at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan and other forward operating bases,” says Flight Sergeant Martin. “Treating patients on the frontline means they can return to operational duty much faster than if they were sent home for treatment.”
