Life with a New PT Grad : Patient Care

Background in Physical Therapy

Lisa West — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:22:00 GMT

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)

Packers Games and Patients

Lisa West — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:17:00 GMT

Last Sunday was my first experience of working during a Packers game. The other times I have worked on Sundays, the Packers have played at 3:00 p.m. By 3:00, I'm nearly done with my schedule and only have one or two patients left to see. With a noon game,...(read more)

H1N1 Virus

Lisa West — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:19:00 GMT

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)

Clinical Judgment and Lab Values

Lisa West — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 11:52:00 GMT

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)

Learning Experience

Lisa West — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 12:26:00 GMT

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)

Mandatory Lunch Meetings

Lisa West — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 16:57:00 GMT

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)

Is Detox the Same as Skilled Therapy?

Lisa West — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 13:26:00 GMT

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)

A Big Problem

Lisa West — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 18:51:00 GMT

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)

PT = Exercise

Lisa West — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 19:58:00 GMT

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)

Isolation

Lisa West — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 15:48:00 GMT

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)

Patient Inconsistency

Lisa West — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 11:41:00 GMT

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)

Co-Treatments

Lisa West — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 14:17:00 GMT

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)

ICU and Oncology

Lisa West — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 12:56:00 GMT

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)

Ignorance is Bliss

Lisa West — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 12:21:00 GMT

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)

Professionalism

Lisa Catenacci — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 12:50:00 GMT

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)