MHKH 2/13/15 and GC

MHKH 2/13/15

Responsibilities:

• Find and follow a physical therapist.
• Observe a patient receiving physical therapy.
• Get equipment for the physical therapist.

New Knowledge/Skills:

• Learned what a physical therapist does
• What a whirlpool is used for
• Learned that some of the staff are students in training
• There is an on-site interpreter for patients

Best Thing(s):

• Getting to see therapy be done
• Actually doing something after having done nothing
• Being the interpreter for a patient while the on-site interpreter was on their way.

Worst Thing(s):

• Had to wait for the physical therapist to show up
• All other therapists were busy or students
• Not being able to see the finish of a procedure.

Overall:

The rotation got off to a rocky start as most of the therapists were busy but once the head therapist cleared up I got to see a procedure be done.

Technology:

The physical therapy room has many different machines for exercise and therapy. There are treadmills, elliptical machines, dumbbells, and other equipment. There is also a whirlpool bath for wound and burn care so that blood gets flowing and infections are prevented.

Diagnostic:

The physical therapy room performs a lot of diagnostic procedures to make sure a patient is making progress. Therapists will check on a patient's level of pain, chart any progress they've made, keep track of recommended exercises, and other things. Therapists will also check for certain vital signs like pule and respirations.

Therapeutic:

since it's the physical therapy department there is a lot of therapies going on. There is strength training using dumbbells, treadmills, and gait belts. There is speech therapy that goes on in another area of the room and next to that is training in doing simple ADL's. The whirlpool helps treat burn/wound care victims.

Diseases/Disorders:

The therapy department deals with a lot of different diseases and disorders and I got to observe some. As I was entering there was a burn care patient who was just finishing therapy with the whirlpool. There was also a patient who come in with a broken  leg who was doing some gait training and crutch exercises.

Med Terms/Abbreviations:

The therapy department doesn't really use that many med terms or abbreviations but there were a few I heard here and there. Supine- laying on the back. Abduction- laying on the side and lifting arm and leg. Brachial Plexus- a network of nerves that runs from the spine and when injured can cause shoulder disabling injury.

I.Environmental Assessment:

The therapy room is a rather large one with a lot of exercise machines around the room. It smells quite clean and there is a faint sound of music coming from the therapist desk in the center of the room. There are windows in the room to let natural light in and make the atmosphere less like a hospital. The staff is rather unresponsive to me entering as they are either busy or telling me to look for the head therapist. There are a lot of treadmills, elliptical machines, dumbbells, and a whirlpool.

II. Observation:

The staff is pretty busy but for the longest while they kind of just shrugged me off. As a unit, everyone works well together from what I observed. The room is sized just enough that therapists can communicate back and forth without phones. There are a lot of safety precautions like a fire exit and extinguisher, safety releases on certain machines, and therapists making sure a patient doesn't get hurt. Therapeutic services offered are strength training and muscle reconditioning, gait and crutch training, speech therapy, and ADL therapy. Diagnostic procedures taken are charting and checking a patient's progress in therapy, taking Vital signs like pulse and respiration.

III. Knowledge:

While in the unit there wasn't much hands-on things I could do. I was able to get some equipment for therapy though. A few words I learned were, supine, abduction, and brachial plexus. Supine- laying on the back. Abduction- laying on the side and lifting arm and leg. Brachial Plexus- a network of nerves that runs from the spine and when injured can cause shoulder disabling injury.

IV. Evaluation:

I personally feel that the department has it's work cut out, but it should really be more student friendly. I get that the therapists are at work but I'd at least like to follow someone. The professional experience that can be gained here is extensive as one can learn how to communicate with both patient and coworker. For someone interested in becoming a physical therapist, this is the place to go.

GC

Social workers handle a lot of the behind-the-scenes work at the nursing home and are constantly being called about some kind of complaint that arises. Gerontology- the study of the aging population and physical, psychological, and environmental factors that affect them. Geriatrics is the work that is done on the aging population in the medical field. Geriatric medicine looks to treat the elderly and research on factors that cause faster aging in one person than the other. The scope of work that can be done in geriatrics is very large as it encompasses many fields of study and medicine.