Did I really just finish my first week of my first clinical?!

I survived my first week! :) I am already really glad I chose the site I did because I can tell I am going to learn SO much. Every day I get new responsibilities, so it's been a nice transition. My CI is really great about reviewing things and teaching when we have the opportunity. I even got to teach her a special test for the shoulder that she didn't know about. I'm also getting great feedback at the end of every day. We are really working well together so far. My goals for this upcoming week are to continue treating patients who are already established, doing the documentation and starting to do some evaluations. I'm really excited to keep practicing what I've learned and really working on my skills. I've been surprised at the amount of crush injuries that I've seen, although thankfully no broken bones yet. I think it is going to be very interesting to be working in a clinic that is for worker's compensation. I'm also amazed at how acute some of the patients are- we get patients who come in only a couple HOURS post-injury! Pretty neat to see how quickly we can start with people.

First Day of my First Clinical

Today was my first day at my first clinical experience! I was so nervous I could barely eat my breakfast before I was out the door to start at 7am. I had met my CI briefly before so I had an idea of what my clinic looked like, which helped calm me down (although not by much). I'm very excited about my placement after my first day, so hopefully my first impression is right.

When I arrived my CI and another PT student (from a different school) were already there. I have since gained access to the code to come in the side door so I don't have to wait for the main doors to be unlocked. My CI greeted me and gave me a quick tour around the facility. I am interning at a clinic that is attached to a larger, urgent care setting. I got to meet the head physician and some other support staff along the way. My CI warned me that the day was going to be very busy so there wouldn't be much "us" time in the form of orienting and talking. Lucky for me my placement had an on boarding system full of information and paperwork that I had worked through before starting, so I feel like I got a great orientation through that and then the tour pretty much summed it up.

I spent most of my day observing, trying to get comfortable with how everything worked, but my CI kept me very involved with overseeing patients exercises and simple tx (hot packs, e-stim, etc).

During our quick lunch, my CI laid out some expectations she had of me and we had a little bit of time to chat, which was nice. Most of what she expected hasn't been anything I haven't at least heard of, so I felt really good about how my school has prepared me for this first experience.

My CI says she will be working with me to see what I know and then eventually I will get my own patients. That is scary but also exciting! As she would see pts throughout the day she would ask me questions about different muscles, special tests, goniometry landmarks, etc. I was able to answer just about all of the questions she asked me, so that was a good confidence booster.

My CI asked what joint I was most comfortable with, to which I feel I've been equally prepared for all of them, so she told me to review foot/ankle and knee for tomorrow. Yikes! I haven't looked at ankle/foot and knee since around May!!

I also got a little orientation and observed my CI using their electronic documentation system. It is pretty user friendly and I will get to put my hands on it to document pts and there is also some online training that I can do to help me orient myself to the system better. I'm very excited to work on my documentation skills.

So, that was pretty much my first day! I liked it! I have a lot to look at for tomorrow, but I can do it! :) I'm looking forward to the experience.

Where has the time gone?

The last time I posted it was in January!! It's July! I can't believe it. Time has been going by so quickly and obviously school has kept me really, really busy.

My spring semester ran from January-April and I had a large course load with my first PBL experience. It was a lot of work, but I really enjoyed my small group and I thought that we worked really well together and I learned a lot. I also had Neuroscience which was a big challenge, but it was really rewarding to understand everything (thank goodness we had our amazing physiology professor to teach us Neuro as well!). We also spent a lot of time in the lab learning all kinds of things like modalities and e-stim and a bunch of other things that I can't even think back far enough to remember!

Today I'm taking my last final of my third semester and the end of my first year. I can't believe it!! We took an 11 credit course all about musculoskeletal dysfunction. Needless to say, it was a LOT and I am so glad that I passed all my tests and have been deemed "ready" to go to my first clinical experience.

I'll talk more about that in another post, because I've got to get my study guide finished for my last final!