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.