Student Conclave

Much excitement on my part for the conclave I have helped organize for this Saturday. It is bound to be a great day with exceptional learnng opportunities. When I attended last years regional student conclave I met some great people and was exposed to many aspects of PT I would have otherwise never known. The day will include 3 nationally renowned speakers and one that should be, a chance for students to share their opinions with their peers on some hot topics in PT, a raffle with 23 chances to win a total of $1,500 worth of brand new text books.

I do want to stand up on my soapbox and say how dissapointed I am that 3 neighboring schools have a grand total of 1 person registered to attend between them. I am just a firm believer in extrcurricualr activites, especially ones that are free for APTA members and only $10 for non-members. All of the proceeds go to help PT as a profession. I cannot repeat enough how great an honor it is to have the speakers that we do have for the event, and how great an opportunity it is to come hear them speak. It ends up upsetting me because I have a vested interest in my profession, and I am planning for the future. I know that if we were able to get the hundreds of PT students in the NYC area to band together to some degree we could make a difference now and for the future of our profession. Alright, off my soap box...

It is a busy week, PT was just the focus of a Forbes magazine article entitled Health Tip: Can Physical Therapy Help Your Child?

This week the federal government will not be sending out checks to health care providers for payments due them on medicare recipients, as a way of saving money... Happy Medicare Festivus...

Personally: I have the student conclave to get ready for as the Master of Ceremonies and student organizer on top of getting my inservice finished (which I wish I had more time to perfect, silly procrastination), complete my Clinical Performance Instrument (a tool developed to help document student PT's learning experience at clinic) and all the other paperwork that goes into a clinical experience, on Sunday the Brooklyn Staten Island district of the NYPTA is hosting a booth at the 3rd Ave. Festival to help inform the public about PT which I am also volunteering for as well as coaching my football team... I need a day job... oh yea, I am paying 4 credits worth of tuition for the privilige to work 40 hours a week and not get paid...

I am done... back to inservice work
Good night

A-Line

One of my clinical experiences includes placing continuous passive motion machines (CPM's) on patients in the recovery room aka the PACU at my hospital right after surgery. There are a number of things to remember when doing this such as lining up the long bones of the lower extremity to the arms of the machine, placing something behind the CPM to prevent it from sliding, making sure it is not rubbing against the other thigh, making sure to put up the railing on the bed, etc...

Another part of the post-operative anasthesia care unit (PACU) is most patients having an "a-line" in. I had always noted it, documented it, but never fully understood what the point of it was. Today I looked it up and found that n intra-arterial catheter (A-line) is a very small plastic tube (called catheter) placed in one of your blood vessels (an artery) and is use dto monitor the oxygenation of the blood, monitor blood pressure, and even draw blood samples for testing.

Back to working on my inservice.

just using this space to store this picture... :-D

With one week to go in my clinic this means a few things... I have to finish up my inservice and make it real good... I soon have to go back to sitting in a classroom for hours on end, which is not nearly as interesting as treating patients... and I can dedicate my time in even more extracurricular areas such as getting more involved with the APTA, speaking of which here is a great speech I heard at the House of Delegates this year all is described below, but before you read that here is an abbreviation that threw me for a loop when looking at a chart earlier today:

NSVD x4 - Normal Spontaneous Vaginal Delivery... meaning the pt. had 4 kids without having to have a c-section or other complications when giving birth to her children...

HELEN HISLOP’S COMMENTS June 21, Page 198

The following comments were made by Dr Helen Hislop at the 2006 House of Delegates on Wednesday, June 21, during discussions the use of the title “Doctor” by physical therapists.

The first thing I would like to say, that as a profession, we have a duty to honor every member of this profession regardless of what degree they may hold. And I personally honor every BA, every MA of any kind as well as the new DPT's. And not to do that is to create tension and contention. So, having said that, I want to speak against the general motion of grandfathering anyone into anything. Or even grandmothering. I think these are, it's no use in my mind, dealing with illusions and make believes. We must look at history and the facts. The world is much too dangerous for anyone to be able to afford to nurse illusions. We must look at the realities. And the realities of our illusion is that to offer a pretend PT or a purchased DPT, each without substance, is to write our obituary in the annals of professionalism. To imagine that anyone can take ownership of an empty DPT without the scholarship that is embedded in each or in substantive earned degree, is an event so outlandish as to assure our dropping out of any dream of joining the major health professions, with similar standards, and similar ethics. Our present status is tenuous and even a little tragic. But I don't want to speak to you in anger for that is just establishing more contention. What I speak to you about is the very soul of physical therapy. An Association such as ours, without a conscience, is an Association without a soul. An Association without a soul is one that cannot live or survive. Every one who can recognize history knows when it happens. Everyone can recognize history after it happens. But it's only the wise people who knew the moment of what is vital, what is permanent, what is lasting and what is memorable. And our history, past, present and future lies in the quality of our education and our attempt to get to where we want to be.

Sleep

I need sleep. My longer than an hour train ride usually gets me a bit sleepier than I may actually be (I think it's the motion of the train, research needed...). I would theorize that 15 minutes of sleep on the train equal about 2 minutes of good sleep in my own bed, this of course would not factor in reaching the REM stage of sleep. I once read an article about the possibility of sleeping 30 minutes 4 times a day actually equalling 8 hours of straight sleep, but the difficulty of being able to space out these times.

All of this requires research, as does most of PT. (This whole entry is a bit of a stretch, but I am real real tired). This brings me to Evidence Based Practice which is focused on providing care to patients based on what the research has shown to be the most effective treatment.

"During his address to congress on behalf of people with disabilities, Michael J. Fox said that if you ask a person what their favorite therapy is, they will tell you it is the one that works. Using interventions that work is what evidence-based practice (EBP) is all about."

I would go on but fatigue is setting in... I need to start working out more and get my beauty sleep :-D
GOOD NIGHT!

Day Off

I am grateful for my day off, I just wish I could enjoy it... instead I had to:
do research for my inservice on hospital length of stay
go get fingerprinted by the board of education (because I coach high school kids)
pick up an interlibrary loan
attempt to get my financial status - which now stands at poor :(
meet with the planning committee for the student conclave we are hosting in less than two weeks try to get more funding for said event
get a haircut
meet with a clothing distributor for a fund raiser I am organizing at my school
blah blah blah

I like days off.

Fall Sports

September and October are probably the best time for sports fans. Although my Jets lost today, my high school football team that I coach did much of the same, my Yankees are about to decrease their magic number and win their 9th straight AL East title by beating the team who's name I don't even want to type... There's also college football, the US Open was earlier this month, Nascar is in full swing (although I never really watch it)... sports is good...

But how does all this sports talk relate to PT? These athletes are getting injured all the time, that's where we come in to get them back to performing their best. Granted there tend to be ATC's and personal trainers and a slew of other health related peoples, but PT is the real rehab specialists.

My injury as an athlete back in my high school days was what got me into the field. I realized that there was no NFL in my future and the human body and its ability to heal were very interesting to me so bada bing bada boom. In high school however my major was social science which led to me majoring in psychology in college and minoring in sociology... however I took all the "electives" necessary to get into PT school (chemistry, physics, biology - anatomy & physiology, etc.). I stayed involved in the medical field despite my major, got certified as an EMT, volunteered at a bunch of PT clinics, with a chiropractor, with an orthopaedic surgeon, worked with the athletic training staff at my college, and here I am in PT school.

Having gone through a year of classes and being at the end of my first clinic, I can gladly say I am ecstatic with the field I have chosen and hope I can add to it.

So that's my story, what's yours?... don't have one yet, what will your's be? Make it a good one.

Rushin'

I have to go see some patients in a few minutes but I thuoght I would check in here...

Last night I got to go to a lecture on Lymphedema that was hosted by the Brooklyn/Staten Island district. The lecture was excellent and very informative. This is a fascinating condition that many people do not understand, even many medical professionals. I would love to get more in depth but I have to go see some patients :-D

I am excited to be treating patients, and be doing all the aspects of PT for acute inpatient.

Good day ya'll.

Quote of the week

From a GMC commercial I saw during the J-E-T-S game:

"Amateurs practice until they get it right...
Professionals practice until they can't get it wrong"

I am off to be as professional as I can be...

Hooray APTA

Further reasons why it is important to pay your dues to the APTA... legal fees...

Like the Direct Access fight, there has been another long and fairly costly legal battle for the field of PT. The Federation of State Boards of PT (FSBPT) who are in charge of the National PT Exam (NPTE) have the legal rights to our exam and have made some rather unnecessary increases in the fee to sit for the exam. The APTA being the main organization representing the field took FSBPT to court to try to control the price to a reasonable rate. The APTA's statement today about this subject states that "The new terms ensure that the price to take the Examination remains affordable for licensure candidates starting their careers in the profession, while providing appropriate revenue to support the Federation’s continued development and administration of the Examination."

Apparently these tests cost a bit of money to make because of questions that get thrown out, and verifying the valididty and reliability of these questions aka finding questions that are actually worth answering. But the FBPTS could not justify the price increase based on their current expenditure.

This is great news to those of us struggling to pay tuition and being bombarded with loans, who also decide to spend a decent chunk of money in supporting the APTA. By the time I take the exam the FSBPT could have raised the price an extra 100 dollars so I am grateful that the price will stay where it is... and the next step is for me to actually pass that exam to get licensed... 2008 here I come...

Last thought... If you are going to be in the NYC area on Sept. 30 come to the Downstate NY Student Conclave, register at this link.

Labor Day

I just shut my mind off during the weekend. It's been taking a while to reboot... but I am getting back into the swing of things, the blog of things...

I am actually on my lunch break, so I will make this quick...

Phrases of the day:
CPM machine - (continuous passive motion) this is a machine that some people call the "bending machine". While they have these machines for other body parts I am most used to seeing them for the knee. After a knee procedure this machine continuously moves the knee between a certain range of flexion/extension while the patient relaxes.

ORIF - Open Reduction Internal Fixation - A surgical way to correct a broken bone. Open reduction means that they open the skin in order to re-arrange the allignment of a bone. Internal fixation refers to there being a piece of hardware that fixates the bones in a position and is left internally.

Weekend

A big part of the learning process other than getting the procedures/documentation down pat is making some clinical decisions. As a student I am under my CI's license technically so I won't actually make the decision to clear a patient but it is something I am growing into understanding.

It is still amazing to me how rapidly people can get up and walk after receiving a brand new hip or knee. The biggest barrier to them walking is probably the medication/anesthesia that makes them dizzy. While all that wears off, the pain goes away, the body is healing all the skin/soft tissue/muscle that was cut through for the surgery. Somewhere in that healing process we as PT's work to get those muscles stronger and instruct the patients on how to be safe with their new body part.

The whole process is amazing. To be walking the day of surgery. I may have mentioned it before and I will probably mention it again, but seeing more and more patients jump out of bed after going through this procedure is mind boggling every time.

I am off to research, I have no words of the day as of right now, except "rain rain go away".