Unit 3. The Physical Therapy Initial Evaluation.
To Do List:
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In Unit 3 you will learn to do the following:
- Accurately report physical therapy interventions in the patients' records
- Demonstrate 3 helpful suggestions to developing your communication skills with your multidisciplinary peers in the clinical setting
- Perform physical therapy modalities and therapeutic exercises in a safe manner in the clinical setting
- Instruct a home exercise program in a clear and efficient manner
1. Documentation skills.
Go to http://www.apta.org/Documentation/DefensibleDocumentation/ to view a popular page of APTA resources on documentation for patient/client management. Then, download and print the following articles:
Article 1. Defensible Documentation Elements Article 2. Components of Documentation within the Patient/Client Management Model Article 3. Improving Your Clinical Documentation: Reflecting Best Practice Article 4. Setting Specific Considerations |
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The above articles are great resources that are full of information on improving your documentation skills in the clinical practice setting. There are several more articles available other than the ones that I selected above. Feel free to explore the other articles if you feel that you need further improvement on your documentation skills. The reading of these articles will be reflected in your performance on the APTA CPI in your Major Assignment 4.
(*Please note that when you click on the link above that it will take you to a new tab within your browser. You will need to click back on this online course tab in your browser to proceed working on this unit. This applies to all articles and downloads within this online classroom.)
(*Please note that when you click on the link above that it will take you to a new tab within your browser. You will need to click back on this online course tab in your browser to proceed working on this unit. This applies to all articles and downloads within this online classroom.)
2. Effective Communication skills.
Effective communication skills are also essential to being a successful clinician. The following 2 tools will give you lots of helpful tips on developing and improving your communication skills.
Article: Developing Effective Communication Skills (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2793758/). This article is from the Journal of Oncology Practice. Oncologists must possess very powerful communication skills to express some of the most difficult diagnoses and prognoses to their patients/clients and their family. This article does a great job of pointing out key elements involved in effective communication. Also, I feel that these elements would be extremely helpful in developing your communication skills as a physical therapist. Read the above article and watch the provided video. Then, briefly comment on our class Facebook page with 3 tips that you found to be very helpful in your own personal development of your communication skills. Feel free to "like" or comment on any of your classmates' tips should you agree with their tips as well. Your participation with this task will be included in your participation points total. |
YouTube Video: Communication Skills - The 6 Keys Of Powerful Communication (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCc6-qr0Gww). This video was created by Leo Gura, founder of Actualized.com. Actualized.com is a website created to advance your personal development. I find this video to be very helpful with communication skills due to Leo's list of 6 pillars of effective communication, use of many realistic examples and scenarios, and very clear descriptions of each of the 6 pillars of communication.
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(*Please note that when you click on the links above that it will take you to a new tab within your browser. You will need to click back on this online course tab in your browser to proceed working on this unit. This applies to all articles and downloads within this online classroom.)
3. Physical Therapy Interventions and Modalities.
The first two weeks of your clinical internship were likely predominantly observational in nature. However, beginning your third week of your clinical internship, you should begin to get hands-on experience performing physical therapy interventions that you learned in your previous classes (e.g. Therapeutic Exercise, Fundamentals, Ortho 1, and Clinical Procedures to name a few). The physical therapy interventions that you should now be performing are therapeutic exercise, modalities, functional activities and transfers. Be sure that you are beginning to take the initiative to participate in these activities. If you feel unable to participate at this level at this point in your internship due to your limited knowledge base, now is the perfect time to review notes from your previous didactic courses to expand your knowledge and push yourself to begin gaining experience in physical therapy intervention. I encourage you to confide in your clinical instructor for advice and assistance as well. I will be able to see your progress in this area based on your ratings on the APTA CPI that you complete in Major Assignment 4, specifically in the safety and clinical reasoning criteria.
4. Midterm Report Due August 12, 2015.
Have your clinical instructor complete the Midterm Report Form that was handed out to you during the Clinical Internship Seminar in May 2015. This form is also posted below and is on Blackboard. All items need to be completed on this form and you and your clinical instructor need to sign this form in order to earn all participation points for this assignment. This Midterm Report is due August 12, 2015 by 11:59pm CST. This report will not be formally graded, however it provides me with insight on how your are performing in your clinical internship at this point. This report also gives the clinical instructor the opportunity to notify me if there are any significant concerns in your performance.
midterm_progress_report_ce_i_(2_pages).pdf | |
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5. Major Assignment 2. Design a Home Exercise Program (HEP).
Although this is listed as a major assignment, it is more like a fun 'minor' assignment. This assignment will allow for me to assess your knowledge, clinical reasoning, and instruction/presentation skills all at the same time with relatively low stakes grading (meaning this will not affect your grade that much in comparison to other assignments). In other words, have fun and be creative!!!
To get started, have your clinical instructor select a new patient evaluation on his/her assigned patient load that based on the diagnosis alone would likely be a complex patient. Observe your clinical instructor completing the entire physical therapy initial evaluation on this selected patient and take notes. Collaborate with your clinical instructor on documenting the initial evaluation on this patient. Then, you must independently design the HEP for this patient based on the patient's identified impairment(s). Once you choose the exercises for your HEP (about 2-3 exercises), record a presentation of yourself instructing the entire HEP for the patient (without the patient pictured to avoid HIPAA violation) using illustrations or you physically modeling the exercises. It is not expected for the actual patient to be present for this recording, but design your instruction with the patient as the audience. Most clinics have software to use in order to quickly and easily compose and print home exercise program pictures for patients (e.g. VHI PC-Kits). Also, please be sure to exclude the patient's actual name. Rather, respectfully rename your patient (i.e. do NOT use any silly names). This can be done while in the clinic or in the convenience of your own home. You can record yourself or your illustrations with your verbal instructions using your computer, camera or using your own personal cell phone. I will not be grading you for quality of your video. You must begin your case scenario with a brief statement of the patient's impairment(s). The elements that I will be looking for you to include in your HEP are: applicability of the exercises chosen in relation to the selected patient's impairment(s), accuracy of your instructions, quality of demonstration or illustrations used, and prescription (frequency, intensity and duration) for each exercise. Your video should be no longer than 5 minutes in duration. This assignment will be graded using the HEP Rubric below. Submit your video to me as an attachment to an email to me. This assignment will be due at the close of this Unit (August 16, 2015). |
Samples of physical therapy home exercise programs using VHI PC-Kits Exercise Software.
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