PT Clinic Reflection Journal

11/15/06

I started the semester nervous and intimidated with working with patients not knowing that much. But working with the second years and SPTs I got to learn a lot. It helped to build my confidence in working with patients. Each week in clinic was a new and different experience. I got to work with different patients with helped me to learn how to change my approach with each one. Some were self motivated which made progressing the patient easier, while others needed more pushing. I am shy person, but the experience with working with patient helped me to become more vocal not only in the clinic, but outside. I still have more work to do this area, but these past weeks have helped. It was also nice to treat patients with the feedback of the instructors on how I can improve.

The clinic experience also gave me a chance to improve my skills learned in class. When learning skills in class, you learn how to perform them in the ideal situation. In clinic, however you learn on actually patients with actually problem, so sometimes you have to improvise and modify. Also, you get to practice more than class times allow. It also gave me chance to learn to think outside the box. By getting to work with different patients I got to practice different skills. Working in the clinic has given me more confidence in my skills.

The clinic was a positive experience. It has given me confidence in both working with patients and performing the skills I learned. I feel like I am ready for the next step working with the patients alone every week. I am nervous, but excited for the new challenges next semester.

12/11/06

Today, I worked with the patient that I have worked with the past couple of weeks. It was a nice relaxed day to end clinic. I felt confident with going through the exercises with this patient, more so than the other days I worked with her. I felt comfortable with making the treatment plan for this patient. The one thing I didn’t do well this week with is keeping a conversation going with the patient. This helps keep the patient’s mind off the exercises. I have found this helps the patient doing more than when they are strictly focused on what they are doing. The patient worked hard for me today. I felt like I used the treatment time effectively. I tried making this session fun by taking a cookie break and taking about the holiday. I need to work on think of things a patient can do to progress themselves in a treatment session and while the clinic is closed for break. I feel really good and prepared for next semester when I will be treating patients with out my second year around.

12/4/06

Today I worked with the same patient I did last week. The problem with my patient last week was she wasn’t willing to do any work to progress herself. I discussed what I should do with the second year last week and realized I would have to change my approach with this patient. Instead of asking if she wants to do more, I would have to be more firm with the patient in what we are going to do. This was a challenge for me because I am use to having patients that are self motivated. I came into today’s session expecting to have to struggle with the patient to get her to do more than normal. Surprisingly the patient was willing work hard. She did everything I asked her to do. I was surprised by the difference in the patient from last week. I learned I need to adjust my approach with in the same session once I assess how the patient is going to be. I need to realize that each patient is going to be different. They are not always going to be self motivated and I will have to work harder to get the patient to progress. Also, sometimes a patient needs to become familiar with you and learn to trust you before they give you their all. My assignment for next time is to think about what I can tell this patient to help them maintain their current condition over break. Some ideas I have are to make sure the patient does their home exercise program and maybe add a few exercises.

11/27/06

Today in clinic, I worked with my second year again. For the first patient, I got to help work on strengthening exercises in the lower extremities. With this patient I also got to do manual muscle testing of the knee. What I learned from this patient is the importance of making sure the patient is doing the exercises right otherwise they aren’t improving what they need to be. This patient is also teaching me to make sure I am giving the patient my full attention because he likes to cheat. I have to make I know how many reps he is on or he is doing things correctly, otherwise the patient will cut a few corners.

For the second patient I got to take the lead and do the treatment. The second year was there to give my feedback and help me out. The treatment went well with this patient. The second year showed me the type of question I need to ask the patient and what to question the patient on more. This is an area I feel I need to work on. This patient was a challenge for me because the patient is willing to do what she normally does, but nothing more. It was hard for me to try to challenge the patient because she was not motivated to do more. I haven’t come across this with other clinic patients. This is good because it challenges me to have to change my approach with different patients.

I also need to work on my documentation. I need to work on my word choices to make sure I use skilled words. I need to become more efficient at writing the notes. I want to decrease the amount of time it is taking to write the note.