Tuesday, September 25, 2012

week 4 already??

Well here we are, already in week 4, almost 1/3 of he way done =)
Right now I am seeing 3 patients, adding a 4th tomorrow and an eval tomorrow. I will be doing my first eval on a pt with CVA. I am a little nervous about it but I know it will go okay, and my supervisor will be there to help if I need it. I read a little bit of information on him today and he has significant global aphasia (problems with receptive and expressive communication) and he only understands about 1/2 of what we say to him! So this should be a little tricky.

The past two weeks, I have been a little board with my patients so I have asked for some different diagnoses as they come in, I am getting the CVA pt tomorrow, will hopefully had a TBI and SCI before its over. Census has been low still so there just isn't much going on-most of the pt's are gen debil, amputees or joint replacements. I'm kind of at a standstill with my patients right now.

I have also been slowly realizing that its OKAY to not know the answer to something, my supervisor likes to ask me random- well not really random as far as content goes but timing wise- questions and sometimes i just have to say "i don't know". Interesting fact I learned today: A metronome is used for pt's with parkinson's in order to work on gait training and their rhythm when walker. Yeah, I didn't know that and was asked today.

Oh, last week, since the census is so low on our floor, we have been going to help out on the LTAC floor (i may have mentioned this already) but I am certain that acute care is NOT for me, I cannot handle the smells, the tubes/lines coming out of everywhere on the pt...it just makes me nervous and slightly nauseous. I thought I was going to have to leave the room the other day.


So that's what's been going on with me.
Oh and I also picked up my NBCOT book for the first time last weekend =\ YIKES i got a lot to review and learn still before taking that!  #wakeupcall

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Level 2 number 2 weeks 1-2

Well here I am, in the middle of week two of my second (AND LAST) fieldwork placement! I Arrived in Newport News almost two weeks ago- on a thursday morning- and spent all day thursday and friday organizing and unpacking. It was a little rough thursday night after my mom left bc I was just so sad and nervous about being over 4 hours from home but things are getting much better now and I'm settling in pretty good.

That monday I had to be at the facility at 8:30 for orientation most of the day. The lady that did my orientation was nice, but kindof odd and I didn't really feel that comfortable around her. She had way too many awkward pauses and gave me some odd looks. Then I met my supervisor and the other people on the 3rd floor around lunch time. That just wasn't a good day for me. I sat with them all during lunch and no one said anything to me the entire 30min lunch break...i mean NOT ONE WORD. I was just sitting there wondering why they are so unfriendly?? oh and that day, the doctor's bought them a few papa john's pizzas and they were all digging in right in front of me and didn't even offer a piece.... i just thought that was extremely rude.

Luckily, things have gotten better and people are much more friendly now, BUT you only get one chance at a first impression...and that wasn't a good one.

Anyways, the place I am at is an Inpatient Rehab Hospital. I am on the 3rd floor which is mainly Ortho, General Debilitation and SCI. The 2nd floor is the Neuro floor (CVA, TBI) and then there is a 4th floor that is a long-term acute care unit.  The patients on the 2nd and 3rd floor get 3 hours of therapy a day meaning they get 1 1/2 hr each of OT and PT (if speech isn't involved). They usually break it up and see each patient 3x a day for 30 minutes at a time. So it makes scheduling kindof weird.

Last week on Wednesday, I got my first patient to treat. He had a R BKA (below the knee amputation) We have been working on transfers, dressing, bathing, core strength/stability, balance, and upper body strengthening. On Friday I got a second patient- she has back surgery and ended up leaving today to prepare for her son's wedding on friday. Today, I got a third patient and actually did her eval. She is the cutest old lady and so tiny. She fell at home and fractured her patella (knee cap).

But, there are only 6 patients on the floor right now which is just RIDICULOUS. So they are possibly going to close the floor and send the rehab staff to a different facility until they get more admissions.

So that has been my week and a half in a nutshell.