Cons:
- I'm supposed to work 7:30 to 6:30 every day but Thursdays. However, this apparently includes a 2 hour lunch break, which isn't so bad. I could use an hour of it to go work out in the gym and another hour to eat. BUT, so far, my CI and I have not had the opportunity to actually take a 2 hour lunch break. They're approximately 30 minutes long, making me the one and only person working in the sportscare rehabilitation clinic that does NOT work out at lunch because having time to chew my food is important to me.
- I feel like a complete idiot every minute of every day. It would have been nice if our program had dedicated a course to teaching us what the different types of orthopedic surgeries were, the rehab protocols after each one, and indications/contraindications for various treatments. But no.....Not to mention the fact that our basic therapeutic exercise class was a joke. I don't even know what the heck I am doing. I stand around and follow my CI around like a lost puppy dog and clarify with him every single thing that I do for any patient before I do it.
- All of the sudden, I completely suck at evaluating patients. At my previous clinicals, I was so confident in my ability to do this and felt like it was no problem at all. Here, I feel like I have no idea what to do/say because the only thing to fill out on the eval form is "chief complaint" and the rest is all objective stuff. So I stumble my way through the evals, making myself look like an idiot and wasting everyone's time by asking irrelevant questions, not asking the relevant questions, and making my patients sit, lay on their side, lay on their back, lay on their stomach, repeat 1 million times over again every time I evaluate someone.
- I can barely write a problem list and goals anymore. All of the sudden, I have lost this ability and pretty much just stare at the plan of care form for about 20 minutes before I can think of any other goals besides "pt. independent with home exercise program," which is a goal that every single patient gets.
- I think my CI thinks that I am a total idiot when it comes to paperwork and documentation. At the end of the day yesterday, he told me to go ahead and go in the office and start working on writing up an eval at 5pm, while he did an eval on his own. When he finished his eval and came back to the office at about 5:45, I was still working on writing up the eval he told me to do. And at the end of the day today, he told me to just go home and he would do all the paperwork later. I'm pretty sure he is sick and tired of me taking so long to do it.
- I have severely underestimated how smart kids and teenagers are. I always end up talking to them like they are small children and then my CI comes over and starts talking to them like they're adults and I feel like an idiot for babying them.
- I am getting really tired of waking up at 5:30am every day.
- I am going to an all day symposium on Saturday, February 27 (which I really did want to go to, it should be interesting), but I just found out that it's going to cost me $60 and it lasts all day...on a Saturday.
- My brain is ridiculously short-term. My CI tells me stuff and 2 seconds later I have forgotten it and have to go back and ask him to repeat it. I'm pretty sure he's getting sick of this. I would be anyway.
- All the hot athletes that we see have girlfriends.
- I am not allowed to date any of the hot athletes anyway.
- I have to do 2 huge projects for this clinical - a service project and a presentation. I'm not looking forward to doing either one. I'm trying to get started studying for boards, and I feel like doing these projects will interfere with that.
- Everyone wears these comfortable shirts that say "sportscare" on them, but I'm sure no one is going to give me one during this clinical, so I have to keep getting dressed up in uncomfortable polos.
Pros
- Even though I'm pretty sure he hates me, my CI is a really nice guy. He has never really made me feel stupid, even when I know I should feel stupid. He has a really nice way of going about it when he feels that I need to change something that I am doing or correct the technique I am using. I have (knock on wood) not felt like I wanted to cry yet.
- All of the employees there are super nice and fun to work with. I have not met one rude person yet. They're all really good-natured and good-humored and seem to really like their jobs. They all work really well together and I have never heard anyone complain.
- I get to observe 3 surgeries for at least 4 hours on Tuesday next week. Even though the surgeries are going to be at Bay Park, I'm super excited about them. I've only ever observed a total hip replacement before, which was pretty boring because I could see pretty much NOTHING the whole time.
- We are so extremely busy at this clinic that the days just fly by so fast, especially the afternoons. I barely have time to look at the clock. I am NEVER bored.
- My CI is giving me a whole library of articles related to sports rehab. He tried to copy all of them onto my USB drive today, but there wasn't enough room. I am so excited to have all of them as a reference. Plus, it will save me so much time trying to organize them all on my own, because he already has them all organized.
- I am getting the service project and presentation out of the way quicker, because this is my specialty internship, and most people in my class aren't doing their specialty internships until next clinical. Since that is when I will be really focused on studying for boards, I'm glad to be getting these projects out of the way sooner. Plus, the weather is really crappy right now so sunshine and warm temperatures aren't distracting me from getting my work done.
- My drive to/from work is only 40-45 minutes every day and I can get there and back 3 times on one tank of gas. This is a huge pro, because I could only get to/from my last clinical 1.5 times on one tank of gas and it took me 55-65 minutes to get there every day.
- This clinical is by far the best learning experience I have had so far. Even though it is challenging and I feel like a complete idiot, I am learning so much more than I ever have before. I am just keeping my fingers crossed that I can learn enough to be independent by the end of the 8 weeks.
Wish me luck!
No comments:
Post a Comment