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Background in Physical Therapy
by Lisa West

A friend of mine is an MD, and he often does other work using his MD education as a basis for other jobs. He serves as an "expert opinion" in some court trials, does consultation work for medicine companies, and teaches lectures occasionally. Although Read More...

126 views     2 comments »     

H1N1 Virus
by Lisa West

Well, I hate to jump on the media wagon with more commentary about the H1N1 flu virus, but I'm wondering how other health care systems are tackling this nation-wide problem. I got the H1N1 flu shot today at work, but many of my coworkers are declining Read More...

164 views     1 comments »     

Clinical Judgment and Lab Values
by Lisa West

Many times before a treatment session I will speak with the RN and discuss if the patient is appropriate for skilled therapy. Literally 99 percent of the time, the RN will say "Oh yes, please go get the patient out of bed." Occasionally a nurse will ask Read More...

214 views     0 comments »     

Mandatory Lunch Meetings
by Lisa West

At our hospital, the baseline for productivity is 75 percent. In acute care this is attainable on most days, but on some days can be difficult. Other tests/procedures, medical hold due to unstable lab values, dialysis, and simple patient refusals often Read More...

236 views     1 comments »     

Isolation
by Lisa West

In the acute-care hospital setting, words like MRSA, VRE and C-diff run wild. Many patients are in isolation, and many require specific sanitizations prior to and following patient interaction. Droplet isolation is, for the sake of argument, fairly easy Read More...

265 views     1 comments »     

Co-Treatments
by Lisa West

So, the hospital I work at has a habit of doing a lot of co-evaluations and co-treatments between OTs and PTs, especially with patients who requires total or max assist. While I think it is good to work with other disciplines and have another set of hands, Read More...

301 views     2 comments »     

ICU and Oncology
by Lisa West

So, this sassy therapist (me) has been getting into the hang of acute-care. I enjoy the challenges of fitting in a therapy session with a patient's busy schedule, I like the population I have been working with lately- mostly general medical, some low Read More...

260 views     1 comments »     

Professionalism
by Lisa Catenacci

Okay, kind of a controversial subject here. And, I will clear the air before I begin- I am not pointing fingers or even implying that the current staff I'm working with is guilty of such behavior. What I'm about to write is a compilation of many settings, Read More...

406 views     2 comments »     

Do Your Best
by Lisa Catenacci

So, I realized something today at work- I have a tendency to get anxious and worked up about my documentation. Seriously, I stress out about it. I had THREE, count ‘em, THREE evaluations today - that's a lot for me. And, as I was in the middle of my second Read More...

243 views     1 comments »     

Life in Rehab
by Lisa Catenacci

Well, I have one week of working in inpatient-rehab under my belt. It has been wonderful! I've seen a variety of pathologies--Parkinson's, hip fractures, stroke, along with many others. Challenges thus far: learning the computer system, documenting efficiently, Read More...

232 views     0 comments »     

Starting a Rehab Clinical
by Lisa Catenacci

This week I will begin my third clinical, in a rehab setting with an emphasis in neuro patients. I am anxious to get back in the clinic after a semester of listening to lectures and studying! I think I'm going to enjoy rehab because I'll be able to spend Read More...

261 views     0 comments »