Life with a New PT Grad : Rehabilitation

Thanksgiving Blog

Lisa West — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 15:29:00 GMT

Last year I wrote a "Thankful Blog" including a list of things I was thankful for over the course of the year. Likewise, I have many things to be thankful about this year. They include: Great patients, coworkers and managers -In just 5 short months of...(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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

Aphasia

Lisa Catenacci — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 11:32:00 GMT

Alright, let's talk about how you handle non-verbal patients. I have twice experienced working with patients with expressive aphasia. The first patient, at my last clinical experience, was a recent CVA (within three weeks from the time he was admitted...(read more)

Support Groups

Lisa Catenacci — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 20:07:00 GMT

Since I have been interning at this hospital, I've been involved with two support groups for our patients- the Amputation Support Group and the Stroke Support Group. Each group has a list of about 40 participants, and anywhere from 5-30 people show up at the monthly meetings. Weather, of course, is an issue for participation, as is remember what day the meeting is on! (If something only happens monthly, I would have a tendency to forget as well.)

Each of these groups meets monthly to talk about different topics related to their injuries. For the amputation group, there was a patient in the hospital who came down, just a few weeks after his below-the-knee amputation. The other members of the group welcomed him and answered a lot of his questions about getting around, how his new leg feels, and phantom pains. It was very interesting to see how the group worked together. For the stroke support group, we discussed balance exercises and the risk of falls- a lively discussion that ended with a group trial of the Nintendo Wii game!

The interesting thing is, in 3 years of PT school, we never once discussed support groups. I can't remember talking about them and the impact they have on patients. I still have a lot to learn.

What about you? Any other support groups out there that seem to have a positive impact in your community?

Life in Rehab

Lisa Catenacci — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 19:56:00 GMT

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, being detailed in my notes and thinking of treatment ideas in less than 5 minutes when my patient is waiting for me. Learning the rhythm of the clinic is part of the process, too.

It's been really nice to be in the clinic and working with patients. This is why I've been in school for six years, and am in serious debt. I see my patients smile, or attain huge goals, and I am so grateful that I'm in this field. Just one week in therapy can turn a patient's life around, and I'm so happy to be part of that.

Anyways, back to rehab. So, I never realized how important therapy minutes are! Our patients have to spend three hours in therapy a day-between a mix of OT, speech and PT. Thankfully, most of our patients have the endurance and the motivation to participate in this much therapy. Our department is blessed with wonderful rehab aides, who take care of a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff for our patients. There are a lot of wonderful things in the rehab unit, and I can tell I am going to learn a lot in the next 8 weeks (well, 7 now).