Internship 3: U of U Neuro Rehab

I was very excited for this internship and I wasn’t let down. The clinical instructors were very knowledgeable and willing to spend the time to help me learn, grow and become comfortable with my patients. My CI, Collin, gave me the space I needed to learn, but was also available to answer questions and give suggestions to improve my practice. He also should confidence in my knowledge and skills.

Collin helped me to become more comfortable with jumping in and trying things. I have a tendency to become intimidated in new and uncomfortable situations, I like to have a step by step plan of what to do, but each patient is different and sometimes those plans don’t fit well. Collin helped me to think basic and have several ideas of what I can do, so that if one thing doesn’t work, I can try something else. He and a few other therapists I worked with also helped me learn to push my patients further and not limit them to my idea of what they can do. When I was willing to do this, my patients improved more than I had expected.

I felt like this setting fit me; I can see myself working in this area and being very happy. I was excited about seeing my patients, I felt confident in what I was doing, but I was also continually challenged. There were points throughout my internship that I felt great at what I did and then other points that I needed a little more help with. Having this experience assured me that I am a good therapist while keeping me inspired to continue to strive to become better and more knowledgeable.

In this internship I had more opportunities to work with individuals from different backgrounds and cultures than where I come from. I worked with individuals from all over the world. I learned that each patient and their loved ones have different views of how they should be cared for and what the family’s responsibilities were. Some felt that we were working them too hard and that the patient needed more rest, others wanted more time in the gym. All of these situations required me to educate more and then compromise in order to keep a good relationship with everyone while doing what was best for the patient. Having to do this help me to become more comfortable with talking to the patient and the family. It also required that I look up information when I was unsure, so that I knew what I was saying was correct information.