My First Affiliation
My first clinical starts tomorrow, so in an effort to be prepared (and not panicked) in the morning I decided to take a dry run to the site to make sure I could find it. This was a good idea until I realized that the clinic was not where I thought it was. The whole ordeal continued to fall apart, especially when I had no option but to call my CI and ask him for directions. In an attempt to prove to him that I wasn't a complete flake, I asked him if he would prefer for me to come in before our scheduled 7:00 start time. Then he told me we were starting at 9:00. It was a disaster.
Hopefully now I'm back on track, but the whole situation fed into my fear of looking incompetent at the clinic. I know I'm not the first PT student to be nervous about "performing" during my affiliation. Even though I won't be expected to know much, that doesn't mean I won't feel ridiculous if I can't answer a question in front of my CI or a patient. I suppose this is all a part of the experience and I have to start somewhere. My goal for tomorrow: Find the clinic and show up at the right time.