Journey of a DPT Student

A DPT Student with Patients

2013-05-13T15:42:00Z

I completed the first full week of my six-month clinical affiliation, and things are off to a tremendous start. This past week, I was assigned two patients of my very own who I'll likely see throughout their course of care on the inpatient rehab unit. It might not sound very monumental; however this is the first time that a patient has been "mine" and solely mine, and where I'm the primary decision maker. There's a completely different vibe when you are a full-time student assigned to a place for...(read more)

How to Get Your Clinical Instructor to Trust You

2013-05-06T14:07:00Z

Please don't be fooled by the title of this post. I don't have a good method by which to accomplish this. However after starting my fifth clinical last Wednesday, I've realized that earning the trust of a clinical instructor is a very tricky game requiring a great amount of patience. I just began the first half of my final yearlong clinical internship on a traumatic brain injury unit at a well-respected hospital here in Pittsburgh. This technically marks my first experience working in an inpatient...(read more)

When Life Happens During PT School

2013-04-30T17:32:00Z

I've been fortunate over the past two years to have very few life-related interruptions in my attempts to excel at this whole "PT" thing. However last weekend, right before the start of finals week, I received news that my grandfather passed away. The last week has been a complete whirlwind, and obviously final exams and presentations took a back seat to spending time with family. I'm not the only one who has gone through this. Many of my classmates have lost loved ones since we started two years...(read more)

PT Night: Our Successful Goodbye

2013-04-15T19:23:00Z

I posted last month about PT Night , the tradition in my program where at the end of our second year, students put together a sort of "roast" of the faculty and poke fun at our most memorable moments in the program. Leading up to Friday night, I was unbelievably nervous that somehow, the night would be a complete flop. I mean let's be honest -- we went to school for physical therapy, not comedy. But I'm happy to report that the night was a complete success, and one of my most memorable moments in...(read more)

Should PT Students 'Prepare' for their Clinical Instructors?

2013-04-08T13:38:00Z

This afternoon at a department-wide scholarship reception, I ran into a student who is a year ahead of me in the program and happens to have a similar clinical rotation as I will have in the coming year. I was picking her brain regarding the hospital, her experience and most importantly who her clinical instructors were. As it turns out, the two clinicians I will be working with during my internship were also her instructors. I obviously got as much information out of her as I could. I wondered about...(read more)

Senioritis -- Acceptable in a Clinical Doctorate Program?

2013-04-01T15:28:00Z

With four short weeks remaining in the didactic portion of our education, the inevitable is happening -- the general attitude of my ever-engaged class is turning down a road toward apathy. I've been here before. At the end of college, my friends and I had similar mindsets as graduation came within reach. But I can't help but wonder if what was comical then is inappropriate now. At the end of a clinical doctorate program, can we use the "burnt-out" excuse to explain our general lack of interest and...(read more)

Asking for PTO as a Student

2013-03-27T21:50:00Z

With the start of our yearlong clinical only one month away, the logistics of having a full-time "job" are becoming a reality. We recently met with the clinical education instructors in our department to cover the do's and don'ts regarding PTO, stipends and general workplace expectations. For a lot of us, this is the first time we'll be considered full-time employees within an organization, so the associated structures and protocols are not something we've ever had to deal with. Over the course of...(read more)

PT School -- Everyone Will Get Married

2013-03-18T17:29:00Z

In case you're wondering what your years in PT school will bring, here's what you can expect -- everyone will get engaged or married. Exaggeration? Barely. Of my 52 classmates, seven are now engaged, three are married and two have had babies. All of this within two years! I'd argue that five or six others are on their way to any or all of the previously mentioned life events. It's remarkable. Two things stand out to me. First, I can't imagine trying to plan a wedding while in school full-time. Moreover,...(read more)

PT Night: Our ‘Goodbye' Celebration

2013-03-11T19:29:00Z

There's a tradition in my program -- at the end of the second year prior to departing for our yearlong clinical affiliations, the students get together with the faculty for a night of celebration that mostly revolves around the students making fun of the faculty. Ever prepared, my class started to gather material for this night in the first semester of the program and we recently started to compile all of our ideas. I can't explain how happy I am that we kept a diary of all this. There are so many...(read more)

Teaching is the Best Way to Learn

2013-03-04T17:28:00Z

Throughout the course of this semester, I've been a teaching assistant in the neuroanatomy course required for the first-year students in the program. I was very hesitant at the start to take this on, but I've been happy to see how quickly a lot of the information came back to me. More importantly, I'm realizing how valuable it is to teach material when you're really trying to learn something. Not only does it hold you accountable for having a true grasp of the information, but the repetitive nature...(read more)

Owning a Theoretical PT Practice

2013-02-25T17:58:00Z

As part of a very in-depth project for our "Leadership and Professional Development" course, I'm in charge of justifying the purchase of an electronic health record (EHR) for our theoretical outpatient private practice. I've been spending a lot of time researching the benefits, processes and considerations for EHR implementation, and I'm intrigued for a number of reasons. To start, I'm realizing that the "business" side of PT is far beyond my current understanding of the scope of physical therapy...(read more)

Capstone Projects

2013-02-18T20:14:00Z

Now that we've finally learned our placements for our yearlong clinical rotations, we can start the planning process for our capstone projects. The project assigns groups to a specific patient population based on the practice setting where we're working, and each group is responsible for creating a database for their respective population. The database is an extensive record of each patient's course of care, including evaluation techniques, intervention strategies and outcome measures. It allows...(read more)

Yearlong Placements at Last

2013-02-11T16:34:00Z

Four months of waiting are finally over -- I finally received word about where I'll be for my yearlong clinical. It took every ounce of maturity and focus not to have a breakdown while I was waiting, but I'm happy that I kept myself together because I couldn't be happier about the placement. During the first six months of the rotation I'll be at Mercy Hospital, a large urban hospital located in downtown Pittsburgh. The placement is on an inpatient rehab unit where I'll likely work with a neurological...(read more)

The Skype Diagnosis

2013-02-06T15:30:00Z

This weekend I had to stretch my already-struggling assessment skills to the virtual world during a Skype session with my uncle. He's been having shoulder pain for the past few weeks and sought out my opinion via e-mail. We chatted back and forth about his symptoms, onset and pain, and he eventually tricked me into the session by suggesting that we Skype so I could see my 1-year-old cousin. Turns out he had a hidden agenda. First of all, my confidence with all things outpatient musculoskeletal is...(read more)

Reflections on a Student's First CSM

2013-01-28T23:36:00Z

I just returned from my first trip to the APTA's Combined Sections Meeting, and I'm left with a variety of feelings about the experience. Overall, I would consider the trip a success, but there were definitely some aspects of CSM that left something to be desired. I did a lot of reflecting on the flight home, and here's what I came up with. There were some very enlightening and intriguing lectures about emerging research that really served to supplement my current knowledge base. I attended a lecture...(read more)