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Life with a New PT Grad

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...
42 views     0 comments »     
Feeling Incompetent
by Lisa West
There are a lot of times during treatments or looking at patient charts when I feel like I need to get a second opinion. Should this patient be put on hold? Will I need new orders for this patient? Is this lab value inappropriate? I usually know what Read More...
83 views     0 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...
136 views     0 comments »     
Learning Experience
by Lisa West
A few nights ago I picked up an extra evaluation at the end of the day. It was a very active 88-year old woman admitted for a GI bleed. She volunteers weekly and is completely independent at home. No device used. Upon introducing myself and my purpose Read More...
122 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...
182 views     1 comments »     
Is Detox the Same as Skilled Therapy?
by Lisa West
The hospital I work at is in urban Milwaukee. It is located a little south-west of actual downtown Milwaukee, but it is by no means a "suburban"-type establishment. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel published an article in today's paper citing Milwaukee Read More...
221 views     2 comments »     
A Big Problem
by Lisa West
I had a patient on my schedule today who weighed, no exaggeration, 450 pounds. This woman had been bed-ridden for some time and was admitted to acute care for treatment of cellulitis. During a co-treatment with OT, we were able to mobilize this patient Read More...
343 views     3 comments »     
PT = Exercise
by Lisa West
As physical therapists, we teach our patients every day the importance of remaining active, of increasing our endurance, the never-ending benefits of exercise. But, do we practice what we preach? On average, I ascend between 17-25 flights of stairs every Read More...
397 views     6 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...
225 views     1 comments »     
Patient Inconsistency
by Lisa West
On acute care, every day is different. There are days when my schedule works perfectly; other days, every patient is at a test or procedure, or refusing therapy. Likewise, there are days when my patient requires total assistance for mobility and the next Read More...
148 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...
285 views     2 comments »     
Discharge Planning
by Lisa West
I'm working in an acute-care hospital setting, where patients are discharged somewhat quickly, and many health care providers give their opinions on where the patient should be discharged. Sub-acute, nursing home, rehab, home... these are all possibilities Read More...
263 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...
236 views     1 comments »     
Ignorance is Bliss
by Lisa West
I was working in the outpatient clinic last week and had an evaluation for a 43-year old woman for "Left Shoulder". I had no information other than those two words, which isn't terribly uncommon for the setting I am in. (This is a whole different discussion, Read More...
272 views     2 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...
395 views     2 comments »     
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