Reflection #3

Stephanie Ortega
2-16-09
Reflection #3
Internship


I decided today on a Monday to go to my internship, because I want to complete my hours and because I have to work on Wednesday. I am also trying to get very familiar with my internship and seeing what every patient has and familiar with what they do so I can have an idea about what to do for my exhibition and think of a project to present as well. Today I went in at 9a.m. instead of 8:30a.m., when I got there it was a little busy there was patients already there. So that got me a little excited, for that fact that I didn’t have to sit down and wait for them to come in. There was one patient that I remember that comes in every morning and didn’t come in today, her name is Lillian, she’s an elderly lady that usually comes in around 9 or 10a.m., she has a problem sitting down and walking because she doesn’t do much exercising so her body hurts. I also remember the exercises the physical therapists make her do. So I’m kind of getting use to everything and what each equipment is used for. What I did mostly today was follow the physical therapist around, and watch them massage, do an ultrasound, or practice the activities with the patients. It was like another regular day just watching. I got the chance to play catch with one of the patients that has a balance problem. Well this lady that I played catch with, she is an elderly woman named Lucia. There was a patient I got to work with him individually, like Mark gave me his sheet of the things the patient had to do, I felt happy because I feel like a physical therapist helping this guy out. This patient, I see him all the times I come in and he’s one of those patients that don’t complain about anything, he just does it. I didn’t understand much the list but I remembered everything he has to do and he also does it because he’s use to it. All I had to do was set up the activity that he was going to do, which wasn’t hard at all. The problem that this patient has is that a car crashed one of his arms and I think he has some type of metal inside there too. But he’s very strong and does everything without complaining. The first time I came here, I remembered a woman that has a balance problem and her eyes kind of dance. I had asked Mark, one of the physical therapists that I mostly follow around, about that lady and he said that she comes in at 2:30p.m. So I was happy that she comes in today because I was planning to do my project on her. Like I wanted to research the problem she has and maybe interview her and make something out of it as my project for my exhibition. When she came in, I started to follow her around and see if she has been progressing with the problem she has. I noticed that she has been doing better and her eyes didn’t dance. The physical therapist, Mark, was also explaining to her and me that her eyes haven’t been moving around and that her balance problem has become better. She was also talking about how she feels better and that therapy and the activities she does have been helping her a lot. I watched her walk around the room like two or three times and she did fine and when she was laying down and Mark told her to look up, down, left, and right, she did well, there was no problems when she was doing it. I also remembered like two weeks ago when she came in she had a little trouble, but now it feels like she’s doing very well. Now I don’t know if I should still do my project on her, because she has been getting better and I’ve only been here three times. I’m still a little bit undecided.