Day 1 :) October 11th, 2011

    My work place is called Physiotherapy Associates and it gives physical rehab to people who have been in accidents or hurt themselves and they serve people who need physical rehabilitation. My internship is a medium sized business located in Hayward, CA and it is a medium sized building that is right next to Everest College. There are about 5 people who work there. The people employed there is either a physical therapists, physical therapist aids, or receptionist and the people who work at my internship has at least a 2-year college degree.  They serve people who need physical rehabilitation. A strength of my internship is that each person does their job and no one seems to slack off and I am no sot sure of a weakness that my internship has of yet.

Day 2 :) October 18th, 2011

My mentor’s name is Steve T. and he is a Physical therapist. A typical day for him is coming in around 6:00am then at about 8:00 or 9:00 his patients start coming in and he either examines them in one of the rooms for about 30 to 45 min. then speaking to them about exercise they can do her and at home. After that he usually shows them to one of the equipment so they can start improving their injury and he does this until lunch at around 12:00 and continues until the end of the day. What he needed to be a physical therapist was to get at least a master’s degree and to take the National Physical Therapist Exam.

Day 3 :) October 25th, 2011

My  title is "student" or "intern" the main responsibilityi have is to do research on the computer of injuries, to sometimes tidy up rooms after a patient has left and to sometimes observe the doctors work with their patients. A task I have completed so far was to make a chart of exercises for a patient. For the chart I had find exersises for a back injury and a shoulder injury I was given a few smalle boxes with different injuries and I found the back injuries and  sholder injuries the I took out the exercses that went with it. After I found the exercises I photocopied them on a seperate piece of paper catorgorizing them by injury. A regular day I have is I come in at 9:00 call my mentor leave a message saying I am there and asking if there is anything that needs to be done. If there is something that needs to be completed I complete it and either get one the computer to research and at 12:00 I have lunch. After lunch I see if I can help out with anything else then I help tidy out the rooms patients have been in. When tiding up the examination rooms I flip over the pillow put the towel that was on the pillow in the laundry basket, make sure the leg pillow is on the examination bed, and put the blow up bag that is used for the back (sort of like a pillow for the back) on the desk.

Day 4 :) Tuesday November 1st, 2011

What I am thinking of doing for my project is to get help from one of the physical therapist to find a patient so I can see what things the patient did to improve their injury. My advisor helped me with the idea for this project because I had no clue what I should do as a project. I can not help the patients with their injuries at all so I was interested in seeing the things they do to improve and how the PT records that information. I am excited to do this project because I am very interested in physical therapy (PT) and it would be so interesting to see how an injury is improved and what they need to do. What I need in order to accomplish this project is a patient with an injury that is easy to research and help from a PT to understand certain things or to answer questions I have regarding my project. I will also need a paper or an note book to record the information that I have found out; like what is their injury, how they were injured, what exersise(s) help heal the injury.

Day 5 :) Tuesday November 8th, 2011

Today I helped tidy up rooms and watched the PTs examine patients and watch a few patients exercise. The patient examination is the most interesting to me. I like watching that because the PT's are really focused on seeing what the patient can do with their injured body part. One patient had a shoulder injury so the PT told the patient to stand and lift their arm at a 90 degree angle and the patient really struggled to do that. So the PT told her to do some other things so he could see the restrictions of her injury. Then he wanted to do a electic treatment to he put a type of adhesive on her back near her sholder and connected to the adhesive was these plugs that pluged in to a machine and she needed the treatment for about 15 minutes. My mentor was absent to today so we did not talk about anything regarding my project, but he does have a patient in mind that would be good for the project. What I have accomplished so far was to pick out the patient whose progress I will track then I will research some things about their injury. They have a knee injury so i will look up things about that.

Day 6 :) Tuesday November 15th, 2011

A Leadership skill I have used at my WLE is Communicate Powerfully. I am ok at using this leadership skill. I could improve using this leadership skill by maybe explaining things better so that people will understand the first it is said. When i first started my internship my menor said thtat I could come in on Tuesday's at around 11am or 1pm. I then told him that I needed to calculate the amount of time I needed to to make sure I get 75 hours. Later on that day I figured out that I needed at least to spend 7 hours at my WLE site; so i called my mentor an asked if 9am to 4pm would be a good time to come in and leave, he said that would be fine. That was an example of me communicating to my mentor well. This Leadership skill, Communicating Powerfully, helps me because in order to complete this project I have to communicate with my mentor about my project he will know what is going on. I will need my mentor's help to find the patient and to give me the patient's medical records to see what they did to improve. I believe that my mentor also uses Communicating powerful because he has to speak with his patients about their injuries, make sure they understand what is going on with their injury, to make an exersise routine that they can do at home to make sure they can countinue to improve their injury.

Day 7 :) Tusday November 22th, 2011

What I have learned about myself is that I am really interested in physical therapy, I always have been interested but since I have a first had look at it I am real eager to learn more. Challenges I have faced during my WLE is communicating with the adults. This was a challenge because WLE is nothing like Impact so you really have to be on top of things and advocate for yourself. I addressed this challenge by reminding myself that this I preparing me for the real world and I need to communicate to my advisor to make sure thing I am doing my part and gain experience. I learned that communication is very important. My WLE affected me by letting me see first hand how physical therapist deal with their patients and how they record the patients medical information. What I understand now about this profession that I did not understand before is that you have to make sure your patient understands what is going on and its good t come up with an exercise routine for the patient to do at home. Skills that are important with this profession is patience and communication. Since a majority of physical therapy is dealing with people you need to be able to deal with them professionally and you can not rush the healing process. What I did at my WLE was important because I now have a better understanding of things that physical therapist do. What I earned at my WLE that will affect the choices I make in life is thati should communicate to make sure I have better understanding.

Day 8 :) Tuesday November 29th, 2011

In order to find my WLE and get hired I had to call a bunch of places. I first called St. Rose Hospital to see if I could intern there, but every time I called the person I needed to speak with was not available. Then one day I got a call from that person saying that they did not deal with high school interns in the physical therapy department. I then researched different physical therapy places around the Hayward area. I went to Kaiser to speak with some one there and the receptionist gave me a number to call. When I got home I called them and they did not do interns with students younger than 18, but they had a program or teens in February. I then went to an elderly center and they said I had to be in school for PT in order to intern there. Afterwards I called two places and one of the places did not do internships at all and the other place said that I would be able to intern there. So I went there for Shadow day to check it out. The most effective way to look for a job and getting hired is to research different places you are interested in, so you have options. Then you should call the places and set appointments and/or do to the place and give your resume and also you need to remain professional. As a result of my WLE, I think being professional or a responsible adult in the work world means to remain professional at all times, communicate well, and to be a patient person.

Day 9 :) Tuesday December 6th, 2011

At my WLE today I mostly worked on my Keynote for my project. I finished all of my slides and revised them. I also made all of my flash cards for the presentation. I have improved as an intern by communicating more I used to be a little shy being the only kid there, but I had to get over that because in the work world you need to be able to hold your own. What makes Pysiotherapy Associates a great place to work is that you can gain a lot of experience about the physical therapist profession. I saw first hand how the physical therapists interact with their patients. Hat makes it not so great is that they don’t really have things to do all the time. There was a time once where I didn’t have anything to do.

Day 10 :) Tuesday December 13th, 2011

Overall I am happy that I had this experience. I learned a lot being at my WLE. I saw how the P.T.s examine their patients, I saw patients come in and exercise, and I saw how the P.T.s record information about their patient in the patients file. Next year when I am looking for an internship I will visit the place before the shadow day to make sure I want to work there because I do not want to be stuck at a place where I am not happy at. I will also make sure that I will have things to do throughout the day so there won’t be a long period of time where I do not have anything to do. Another thing I will do is pick a place where I will be able to gain experience. At Physiotherapy I learned a lot so I want to go to a different place where it’s not an office, but a more laid back place where I can see how a more laid back business operates.