Clinical Affiliation I
My first integrated clinical experience was at Jack Hughston Memorial Hospital in acute care. Heading into the experience I had developed a few goals; by the end of the first week I wanted to be able to accurately write a patient note in the medical chart with minimal cues from my clinical instructor, and I wanted to be able to accurately and efficiently perform a patient interview without cueing from my clinical instructor. Additionally, by the midterm of the clinical experience I wanted to be able to perform patient transfers and gait training, along with managing lines and leads.
Prior to my first day at my clinical experience, I was nervous; I was scared that I would not be able to do the things that were expected of me and that I would not be able to effectively treat patients. Overall my clinical experience was a positive one, I felt that I was able to achieve the objectives that I wanted to achieve, and exhausted each opportunity that was presented to practice my skills. I left the internship feeling that I got better at writing patient notes and at performing transfers and gait training, but I think that both areas could definitely still use some work. I felt more comfortable managing lines and leads towards the end of the experience, than I did before, but I still am unsure about my efficiency with managing more complex lines and leads like those in the cardiopulmonary unit. I do not, however, feel like I made much progress toward becoming better at performing patient interviews; in the acute care setting the pace was quick and the interviews were not well planned as I thought it would be. During my last week of clinicals, I did get a little interview experience on a patient but it was not enough experience to make me feel confident in my interviewing ability.
Throughout the experience, my clinical instructor exhibited the APTA core value of excellence. She consistently pointed to the evidence for various interventions that we used, and she wanted us to be sure to look into the latest research before treating new types of patients. For example, we treated one patient who was admitted for having a stroke and had parkinson's disease; we wanted to test his spasticity to see how the stroke and parkinson's disease has affected him, and we used the Ashworth scale as a measure. Our clinical instructor made sure that we all researched the Ashworth scale to be sure that it was relevant for use with this patient. My clinical instructor seemed to have the drive to further the profession and always looked for the best way to treat her patients, not settling for doing things just because that’s the way things have always been done.
This clinical experience was really great for seeing a variety of patients and for gaining new experiences that I have not seen in any of my other observations. In my next clinical experience, I hope to have more of a chance to interview patients, evaluate them, and development a treatment plan on my own; this experience I did not feel like I got to really use my mind to its full potential.