Blog 22: Mentorship

Literal:
Hours log - See link on blog
Contact name and place of mentorship - Robbie Faustino, PT aide, Casa Colina Centers for Rehabilitation.

Interpretive:
The most important thing I learned during my time at Casa Colina was probably the flow of hospitals. I watched so many evaluations and saw so many plans of treatment play out that towards the end it became easy to predict the way things would turn out. One of the most interesting things I've taken from my senior project is how the human body is a machine like any other, and can be treated as such in physical therapy. There are treatments with such high rates of proven clinical effectiveness that once the PT gets that eval out of the way, the finish line is already in sight. Even though patients will come in presenting very different problems to the PT, the treatment flows the same way for the most part. The first portion of treatment always begins with tentativeness and anxiety on the patient's part, but later on treatment goes more smoothly as the patient gets more and more comfortable, falling into the routine of performing their prescribed exercises. This kind of thing is good to know and gives insight on why hospitals do things the way they do.

Applied:
The 50+ hours I put in at Casa Colina gave me a lot of insight on how exactly the healthcare system works, and what we need to do to improve it. PTs like Annie, Dave, and Manny have been working in physical therapy for a long time and gave me their views on streamlining medical records and improving patient education in hospitals. Cinnamon and Robbie, PT Aides who did more of the hands on stuff with the patients, showed me how to effectively treat and maintain the body in the event of injury/disease. I talked with a lot of patients about what they thought of their experiences in Casa Colina, which as cool, but a lot of the time I could tell what they thought just based on body language alone. A lot of the first time patients gave off incredible vibes of anxiety and fear, and I think the hectic nature of a physical therapy ward is not very conducive to stress-free treatment. More than one patient also told me that they wished they could have consistency with their physicians, and that having PTs constantly changing in and out with their schedules was tiresome. All this combined with my research on healthcare policy improvements made it clear to me that patient centered care was probably the best answer to my EQ. This care model addressed everything I had learned regarding patient needs and the required conditions for effective care. If I just did research using online sources and print resources, I doubt I would've arrived at the same answer. The PTs and PTAs at Casa Colina were very helpful in nudging my research in the right direction.