The biggest challenge I've faced at my internship is that I haven't been able to do much because of my injury and lack of experience. However, I have been able to follow the speech therapist and learn a lot about what she does and observe how she evaluates patients and how she can connect certain illnesses to a patient based off of their speech. A problem that the company faces is when patients don't want to apply themselves to the therapy. Therapists have charts that they fill out with short and long term goals and when those goals aren't met after a certain period of time the patients insurance stops paying and either the patient is discharged because they can't pay for the therapy or care provided. A lot of times the therapists have to work their schedules to the patients needs and see who the patient works with best to help them reach those goals.
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I commented on Cindy, Marlene and Camerons blog.
They all seem to be really enjoying what they are doing and it truly appeals to their passions. I noticed that Cameron changed his career path and interests a bit through his internship and I share that with him because I have been thinking about changing my career path and I also have gained more interest in speech therapy throughout this process which is something I have never considered. Cindy and Marlene both chose something that really excites them and they both went into internship with excitement and a burning passion for what they were going to be doing for a month, where I went in not knowing much about physical therapy or if I wanted to go into it as a profession. Im very excited for all of them and to see where their internship takes them. I originally went into my internship hoping to learn more about physical therapy. I have recently changed and began to follow the on sight speech therapist. I plan to follow her more throughout internship and continue learning about how much speech therapists are involved in the diagnosis of certain neurological disorders.
During the day, our team has to be very vocal and communicate every detail of the patients day with each other in order to provide the best therapy for the patient. If our teams did not communicate, it could cause someone to be discharged when they are missing a valuable part of therapy. We stay very connected and socialize with each other throughout the day by sharing funny stories, connecting with patients and planning out the best possible care for each patient.
My project is to help create certificates for patients that will be discharged. The certificates will be customized for every patient to congratulate them on graduating from rehab.
At my internship we help to get elderly people back into an independent state after they have broken a leg or even suffered from a stroke. This can benefit all the elderly in the community because we assist them to be able to rely on themselves by helping them learn to stand up, walk, get dressed and eat by themselves again. We set short and long term goals that are customized to fit the patients need.
I talked to some of the therapy staff today and learned a lot about them and why they enjoy doing what they do and why they were intrigued to begin therapy. Perlas is a physical therapy assistant. She is a foreign graduate and went to school in the Philippines with the intentions of becoming a nurse. She decided to become a therapist as a last minute thing because she could find work sooner. Dana is a speech therapist who originally studied music and voices. Eventually looking for work became harder and it was no longer fun to her. She decided to go back to college for something in the medical field and because of her knowledge of voices, speech therapy made sense. She now helps people connect their words to their mind, form words and helps them to swallow correctly so they arent putting themselves in danger.
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