Blog 16: Answer 2

1. My EQ: How can a physical therapist best ensure a patient is effectively cared for in an outpatient P.T program?

2. First Answer: A thorough initial assessment by the physical therapist is the cornerstone of effective care in any kind of therapy, physical or otherwise.

3. Second Answer: Proper patient education will ensure the most effective care in a physical therapy program.

4. Justification:

• When the patient knows what is happening in their body and how it correlates with the interventions they've been prescribed, they are more likely to carry out their treatment and be active in the healing process
• Knowing how the body works (what it can do and how it can do it) is key when it comes to preventing injury in the first place. Educating the public on the the vehicles their consciousness operates will help to prevent accidents.
• When a patient is well informed about their condition and injury, it decreases the chance that they will perform their prescribed exercises wrong and injure themselves further.

5. So far, the meeting brief of "Capturing Value: Increasing Efficiency in Health Care" by the National Institute for Health Care Management

6. My mentor straight up told me that education in physical therapy is more valuable than the therapy itself. Without proper education you could very well be running in place when it comes to the healing process

7. As of right now, I've barely scratched the surface of my second answer. I know just from reading the NIHCM brief that the depth of research I can do on this answer is pretty vast. I'm looking forward to my next interview to see if I can gain some insight on the topic of health care education.

Blog 15: Independent Component 2 Approval

1. For my 2nd independent component, I'll be taking a free online course in anatomy and physiology provided by Carnegie Mellon University's Open Learning Initiative. The class consists of 15 units and a total of 57 different modules to work on. If I spend 30 minutes a day studying and going through the course, I'll have well over 30 hours before the independent component is due.

2. Each of the modules has little quizzes and the units have tests, so I'm planning on taking screenshots and/or printing out my tests and quizzes to show that I actually completed the course.

3. I figure this is a great way to supplement my knowledge on physical therapy while simultaneously going to mentorship each week and applying that knowledge to some extent. I've found that a good amount of the things my mentor shares with me take some time to settle in my brain before I can wrap my head around the concepts, and I think it's because I haven't really taken a straight up anatomy course yet. I had some basic anatomy in sophomore year, but not enough to make me confident in my knowledge.

4. See Senior Project Hours

Blog 14: Independent Component #1

LITERAL
a.)"I, Ian Kam, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work."

b.)My mentor Andrea Haston DPT, ATC, helped me complete this component by allowing me to shadow her at Casa Colina.

c.) See hours log.

d.) My independent component was 30 extra hours of mentorship.

INTERPRETIVE
There's only so much you can get out of looking up articles and reading medical journals. Nothing really beats the real thing when it comes to medical knowledge. Annie is very passionate about what she does and is very accommodating when I tell her the requirements of my senior project. Every time I go in to do mentorship I learn a little more about anatomy, patient care, and patient relations, all of which are invaluable to forming answers to my EQ. I don't really have physical evidence of my experience, but you can contact my mentor and confirm with her that I put in the hours.

APPLIED
Well the foundation of PT lies in education, and applying knowledge of the body and it's systems to help people get better. I'm not really sure how to provide an example of how my understanding was improved; I'm guessing that would be reflected in my Lesson #2 and Final Presentation grades? I've learned that patient education is key, and that effective care in PT is dependent on both the health care professional's intervention and the health care consumer's compliance and understanding of what's going on. I don't know if that's a good answer. I guess because ALL knowledge pertaining to physical therapy is applied knowledge it's sort of difficult to answer.

January Extra Post

This month has been kinda hectic considering we had the second lesson presentations. I didn't procrastinate on my lesson as hard as I did last time, and it turned out a bit better because of that. I also practiced presenting with a stopwatch at home, which helped me on the timing. Last time I hadn't practiced beforehand, and I ended up having to really rush towards the end of the ten minutes. This time I was able to set the pace more comfortably.

The research I've been doing regarding my second and third EQ answers has gained momentum, and I'm starting to find the sweet spot when it comes to picking helpful articles. The only problem is that my possible answers may be too specific, and a lot of the journals and articles I'm finding are telling me the same things. I may have to change my approach a little bit so I have room to explore the answers more in depth, or I may have to come up with new answers. But regardless of all that, I'm sort of settling into the groove of senior project. I nailed my Lesson 2 presentation, and I know the final senior presentation will be a cakewalk.

One complication came up with my mentorship; my mentor is changing her hours, and soon she won't work on Saturdays anymore, which means it'll be harder for me to do mentorship considering the only other day I can go is on Thursdays. I may have to find another mentor to supplement this future loss of mentorship opportunity.

Blog 13: Lesson 2 Reflection

1. I'm most proud of that fact that I delivered over 15 minutes of solid research content, and it didn't even feel like very long. It came really easily to me, and I'm kind of stoked on how much information I've actually absorbed over the past couple months.

2.a I'd give myself a P.

2.b I turned everything in on time and I hit every bullet on the far right rubric column pretty much on the dot.

3. I think my presenting style works well with my topic. By that I mean, a lot very technical topics like medicine or engineering are pretty boring to hear about in a presentation, but since I present in a more active and conversational manner, it's good for capturing the audience's attention.

In my PowerPoint presentation, I had more topics than I had time to cover, so once I realized this, I decided to ask the room what they wanted to hear about instead of just carrying on with the planned slides. This gave my lesson a more interactive feel, and also freed up more time for my activity and conclusion. It was a good move in hindsight.

4. I would've scrapped some of my slides If I could go back, or at the very least planned out how I was going to present them a bit better. I found myself sort of rambling at some parts and in my mind I was thinking "dude stop talking about boring old ACL injuries," but it was too late to stop mid explanation. Next time I'll rehearse run my presentation a couple more times at home to work out more of the kinks.

5. Possible answers:

• "collaborative care"
• A strong healthcare team 
• putting the healthcare consumer at center of focus  
• prevention/prehabilitation

Blog #12: Mentorship 10 Hours CHeck

1. I'm currently doing my mentorship at Casa Colina Centers for Rehabilitation

2.  My contact is Andrea Haston DPT, ATC

3. I've done a total of 16 hours.

4.  I do a lot of observing at Casa Colina. I watch my mentor treat patients and listen while she explains anatomy and PT concepts to me. I also talk to the patients quite a bit. I learn about what they're going through and what exercises my mentor has prescribed them to help them get better. I help out in maintaining the PT ward as well; I throw dirty linens in the laundry basket and replace them with clean ones, wipe down tables, and make ice packs when one of the PT's/PTAs needs them.

Blog 11: Holiday Project Update

1. Over the break, I did some more hours with my mentor. It was pretty slow since I went in a few days before Christmas, but hey, hours are hours right? I also did a little catching up on research checks. I went back and finished notating sources I hadn't completed.

2. The most important thing I learned from the hours I did was that physical therapy can be very physically and emotionally draining for the patients. I was observing my mentor work with a woman who had shoulder pain for the past year, and all of a sudden the woman sort of broke down, like not really crying, but not really not crying, you know? Regardless, she appeared to be very distressed. I overheard her say how she was just tired. Tired of the pain, tired of not being able to handle simple motor function, and tired of being tired of all that stuff. Sometimes the marginal improvements from weeks of physical therapy can be underwhelming at best. I know from personal experience how frustrating it is when you feel like you're not recovering, or not recovering fast enough. That's just something that really stuck with me from this mentor ship experience. The emotional toll can be severe, and it's something you don't really stop and think about 'till it's staring you in the face.

3. If I could interview my mentor, Andrea Haston, again, I'd definitely interview her for this 10 question. She's very knowledgeable and passionate about her work. If that's not an option, I'd have to go with her co-worker Manny. Manny is a PTA, so he works directly under my mentor. He gives off this vibe of wisdom, which I think is rad. He's definitely someone I'd be down to interview.