As the dust begins to settle from separating one department into two, this extended break from school allows me to get a grasp on what being a manager really entails in an outpatient rehabilitation facility. From balancing payroll to juggling hours in three disciplines to staying productive, to completing performance appraisals and performing ...

Amazing what can happen in one week. In a major healthcare system of a large metropolitan area surrounded by water, we've successfully accomplished separating pediatric from adult rehabilitation in preparation for our growth as the Rehabilitation Institute of South Florida. Every day of this mission has started at 5 a.m. with communication with ...

A big year is in the making. I've successfully completed training to become a Guardian Ad Litem. The next step is to wait for a case to be assigned to me. Quite often, friends and family question me about how I'll manage the guardianship of a minor or minors while completing my doctorate. Quite honestly, I'm not sure. What I do realize is that all ...

Numerous case reports and journal articles later, I'm contemplating two separate case reports for my final project in the quest for my DPT. The position I'm in now is trying to decide between two trauma patients and their complicated surgical procedures, and the interesting approach taken to treat them. A while ago I had no idea what case to ...

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 ...

As the acuity of my vision improves in this new role of manager, I realize my attention has been drawn only toward work and home. Successfully completing a final exam in school has left me relieved, but perhaps a little too relaxed in regard to working on the abstract for my case report. I've noticed that when some assignment is due, if I don't ...

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 ...

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 ...

The first week at a different rehabilitation center has proven to catch me off guard, by giving me much to think about while I attempt to absorb the complexity of the entire situation. As the first manager of a busy rehabilitation center, I'm attempting to embrace the process of workflow that's in place. This includes trying to keep our patients ...

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. ...