Physical Therapy

Learning Report:
1. My responsibilities this week included timing the patients while doing exercises.
2. I learned new ways to stretch and strengthen the knee.
3. The best thing that happened was that the patients that I observed had just had a knee replacement and that is something my grandparents have done, so now I know how to help them.
4. The worst thing that happened was that I only got to see one patient in detail.
5. It was a fair week because I only got to meet one patient and I was mostly standing there and talked to the patient.

Experience record:
Technology-
I observed multiple things that land in this category. I saw all the different work out machines including a treadmill, bicycle and a leg lift machine. I also observed the vital sign machine and the computers.

Diagnostic-
There are not that many diagnostic procedure in a therapy room, because what they do is therapeutic care. I did see when the physical therapist went and got their patient and explained what is going to happened and why they will be doing it, that is diagnostic care.

Theraputic- 
Almost everything a therapist do is therapeutic care, every activity and advise is to improve the health of their patient. I observed multiple different exercises for the knees, both to strengthen and stretch them. The strengthening exercises included leg raises, laying on the side and doing leg raises, and bicycling. The stretching exercises included bending of the knee by heal sliding, swinging of the knee, and high stepping.

Diseases-
I only met one patient today and he had had a knee-replacement done and was now going to therapy to get back the strength and flexibility in it. I did see other people in the room, one patient had an amputated leg and was strengthening that, there was other patients with knee replacements as well.

Medical Terminology-
TKR- Total Knee Replacement
TID- Three times a day

Experience Journal:
I. The smell in the therapy room was one thing that stood out to me, it did not smell the same was as other places in the hospital, not as sterile but it did not smell like sweat. The room is very well light and things are put in specific places to create walking room. This room is also one of the louder rooms in the hospital, people are talking; patients and therapist, as well as, the therapist among each other. There is also music playing in that room, I believe it is used to be a distraction while the patients are exercising.

II. The staff in this unit is very skilled medically and knows exactly what to do for the different patients. The staff is not as uniformed as in other units in my opinion, everyone works very individually and do not ask for help from others. The staff is not very talkative either, they do talk when they have to, but the most of them do not try to make small conversations and make the environment more comfortable.

III. I did learn some new exercises to strengthen and stretch the knee, but I knew some of them because I had to do them for my knees in the past. I learned that you can slide your heal to improve the bending of the knee and do high stepping to improve bending, strength and balance of the knee. I learned that the knee is very stiff after a knee replacement, it can not go in circular motion and bend fully.

IV.  The rotation was good, I got to see multiple exercises and the patient I observed was really nice. I wish I saw more patients with different issues, so I would see different selections of therapy. I realized that I do not want to become a physical therapist, I did want to become one for a while but not after observing what they do. I feel like I can help more people if I am a cardiologist so that is what I am going to try to become.