PT School Life-Mid-Year 1

In January we entered our first of three "symptom" complexes. Basically, this means that we were finished with 9 months of physiology, neuroscience, anatomy, kinesiology/biomechanics...the core sciences...and ready to start applying it all. Officially titled "Nutrition Symptom Complex" this 3-month module was about all the reasons that patients are hospitalized (coronary artery bypass graft, emphysema, congestive heart failure, bronchitis, pneumonia, diabetes, etc.) and what physical therapists can do to help them.

A short-term clinical affiliation supported our classroom instruction. All 41 of my classmates were assigned to a site and paired with a veteran PT. These sites were mostly acute-care hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, and home health. I was assigned to a skilled nursing facility (in the medical world, they're called a "sniff"), which is a sub-acute setting where people go if they aren't well enough to go home yet (post-hospitalization, surgery, illness, fall/fracture, etc.) and/or they don't have the support system at home to care for them. I worked at the "sniff" every Thursday for 8 weeks, then every day for 2 weeks. The facility looked similar to a nursing home, but with more critical-care equipment (ventilators, feeding tubes, etc). There were RNs, CNAs (certified nursing assistants), OTs (occupational therapists), and a social worker also working there. All of my patients were over 55 years old (the majority in their 70's). Laura, my friendly clinical instructor/therapist, and I spent all day walking through the halls treating patients in their rooms and bringing them down to the PT gym for treatment. In all, we typically saw about 8 patients a day and walked a ton!!! I made lots of new boyfriends (one even gave me a roll of toilet paper as a gift the day he was discharged), exchanged high-fives, hugs and smiles as I passed by the rooms, and even challenged my new friends to wheelchair races down the hallway. Of course, I taught a patient to say "Buenos dias senora" (with his thick southern accent) to the nurses!

The hardest part of this rotation was dealing with death. Four patients I treated passed away (medical lingo="expired") during my time there. The toughest was the morning when I arrived to the news that Ms. P had died. She was this adorable Cuban woman that I started treating during my weekly visits. She and I spoke Spanish and she told me stories about Fidel Castro, Miami, and her grandchildren. Even after she was discharged from therapy, I still visited her room daily and sat at the edge of her bed for a nice conversation. Her face just lit up every time I stuck my head in the door. After the deaths of a few other patients, I told a friend, "I just don't know what I'd do if Ms. P died." Then, it happened...that was a sad day! :( But, I learned a lot during my time at the sniff (smelled a lot of urine and other not so nice scents) and, most importantly, helped many elderly patients improve their functioning. I've posted some fun pictures from my rotation.