Let’s back track. I just (er, a few days ago) talked about moving west and beginning a new chapter here. But getting here started with having 2/3 of my clinical internships for PT school on the west. (My school does a clinical year after the first 2 years of academic work – each school can do it a little differently. This meant that each of these longer clinical experiences was 12 weeks. We had littlerer experiences during the previous two years.) After we took our comprehensive exam and were on our way to being 3rd years (EEEEEK), it was planning time for these clinicals.
Getting the internships set up was stressful (I mean I didn’t do a whole lot to truly set them up #thanksCarol…), in that I didn’t necessarily know if any were officially confirmed until I got there. There was always a chance a clinical could get cancelled (and it happened to a few of my classmates) at the last minute, and thinking about moving west, having that fall through last minute after I had already gotten out of my lease in Rhode Island, planned the Air BnB, blah blah, would’ve sucked. But none fell through! Hoorah! It was a surreal thing to realize we were 3rd years, especially when many of us felt like there's still so much to learn. Sure, we know more than the new 1st years, but now it's time to treat actually patients?! Say whaaat?!
My first internship was outpatient orthopedics at the Providence VA in Providence, RI. Second one was Swedish Edmonds Hospital in Edmonds, WA. Third was outpatient ortho and pelvic at Therapeutic Associates in Clackamas, OR. I want to talk about clinicals in a general way, rather than divulging personal opinions toward any specific institution. And, as always, these opinions are my own…The VA in Providence meant no moving, which was sort of nice to begin the year of so much change (and things are still changing).
The VA is a crazy island unto itself. Each VA is different, but it’s clear that the government system is different than the “regular” healthcare system. Pros and cons of both systems (though I guess it’s technically the same system?). I had been told/warned that I might just be “thrown into” things and was otherwise warned about some negative things that I might encounter there. I definitely just sort of had to “do it”, which was hard, but usually the vets were always happy to work with a student. It’s unlike any other place I’ve worked or observed. Any vet can get care, no matter how long they served (to my knowledge). Some were frustrated with the system (and let us know), others were super grateful for any help we could give. There’s a rotating cycle of residents (from Brown Univ), which makes it hard for the vets to build relationships with their PCPs, and pisses some of them off. Because of how many vets need to get seen and a shortage of resources/supplies/money/people, I may have only seen patients 1x/week or 1x/every other week. It’s hard to build a plan of care and feel like the patient is improving with a frequency like this, which did feel emotionally exhausting at times.
I made the comparison that the VA felt like the inner-city school – the one that needs resources, needs some TLC, but it isn’t always there. This was awesome in the sense that I could try whatever techniques I wanted and impart whatever education I wanted. But also hard because I feel really strongly about making sure I’m feeling like I’m giving quality care to patients, and it was hard to consistently feel that. It was a solid experience, like I’m glad I had the opportunity to be there, and I would take heed before signing up to work there. Treatment is a lot more than just giving exercises and joint mobilizations. It's working with people. Which, duoh. But humans are tough. We'll expand later.
This is already getting too long. So we’ll cut this here. If I still have your attention, I’ll add the other clinicals soon!