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Fieldwork Student Expectation in Hand Therapy
592 Plays1 year ago
Miranda and Josh talk about FW student expectations. We also discuss common assignments given and the rationale behind these assignments.
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Transcript
Introduction and Purpose of Assignments
00:00:05
Speaker
Hi, I'm Josh McDonald. And I'm Miranda Materi, and we are Ham Therapy Academy. We're gonna talk today about our field work students, what we ask of them for assignments, why we have those assignments for them, and maybe what we did back when we were students, if we can remember that far back. Yeah, in this one, I would be interested in hearing our audience's comments on what they have their students do, because I think we hear a variety of things from our students, and sometimes our students complain about our assignments, we get them.
00:00:33
Speaker
Yeah, it's interesting to hear students. I have as many students say that they liked the assignments and the purpose they served, as I have students that say like, this is too much work. And so maybe it's somewhere in the middle. Yeah, I agree. I think it probably is somewhere in the middle. And I think it just depends on the student too, right? Yeah, for
Blog Writing and Its Benefits
00:00:52
Speaker
sure. So we have our students do a total of three different things. They need to work on writing, because if you're with us for 12 weeks, they have to write three different blog posts.
00:01:02
Speaker
And the blog posts are what you guys see. Sometimes Miranda writes them every once in a while I write them, but sometimes students provide them. And so they write blog posts. That's so that they can get comfortable explaining the concepts of what we do in an easy format. So much of what they come out of school with is hyperverbal. And it's all this deep explanation. I'm like, I want you to know the stuff.
00:01:24
Speaker
But I want you to explain it to a coworker, a patient, a caregiver on a much easier, more conversational way. So find something that's interesting to you and write a blog post about it. Three of them, one for each month are with us. That explains some concept in a very attainable, approachable way. So it's not something that's this deep heavy. Not everything has to be a 15 page paper.
00:01:48
Speaker
Yeah. And for that one, I tell students to pick something too, that you want to learn more about like, Oh, you have a patient that came in with, you know, thoracic outlet. Well, you know, maybe you could explore special tests and write a blog post about what those special tests are. So I think anything that they're kind of interested in that can help guide some of their treatments too, you know, and guide their patient care experience or the patient care experience, um, for the patient that they're seeing.
00:02:14
Speaker
and encouraging them to be that deeper learner. Like, this is what you go do outside of work as a new grad. You go like, what should I do with this patient? And what are some fun things? And looking at treatment ideas and looking at fun activities and like, okay, that's the kind of thing you need to be doing.
Impact of Article Reviews on Clinical Practice
00:02:30
Speaker
Do that as a student. Just spend 30, 40 minutes writing a blog post about it.
00:02:35
Speaker
Yeah, that's definitely true. And I think we all have like where the student schedule is not completely full or there's cancellations or you know, there's lots of times like, oh, you don't have anybody for this half day. Why don't you take this time and work on that blog post that you need to write?
00:02:48
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. We then ask them to do journal article reviews, our rapid reviews. So again, sometimes it's Miranda or I writing those that you see. Sometimes it's a student that's written one of those that we then edit and publish. But those are taking a relevant article that's going to have a direct impact on plan of care.
00:03:09
Speaker
and writing an article review that is not the kind of thing that they wrote for school because no one wants to read those. We want something, that's why we call it the rapid review, that they can easily digest and convey this to someone else to say like, hey, this is valuable for my patient care. Here it is for someone else to benefit from too.
00:03:28
Speaker
Yeah, and I love getting these from students. And I think, you know, if they're done well, students enjoy them too, because it really can change your clinical practice, right? So sometimes I'll have students present, you know, I'll never forget, I have one presenting where ultrasound helps with phone healing, you know, with certain parameters and settings. And we had a patient that was struggling, you know, so we were able to apply those concepts instantaneously. And I think the student feels good. The patient feels like we're invested in their care and we're looking up what's the latest and greatest
00:03:58
Speaker
And so I think the article reviews and the rapid reviews, I really love when students do those.
00:04:04
Speaker
and it comes from a really genuine place of let's make your patients' lives better, or maybe there's something I shouldn't be doing, or like making the day-to-day practice in the clinic better. We're not just picking random articles about a surgery technique. Let's pick something that that student is going to benefit from because they need to be reading research on their own long after they graduate, but also hopefully sharing and making other people's experiences better.
Creating Treatment Guidelines
00:04:28
Speaker
Both patients in the clinic, ours as educators too sometimes. Like Marin said, we learn a ton from receiving those from students.
00:04:34
Speaker
Yeah, and a lot of times students will come and ask us questions. And I think a lot of times, too, we might not know the answer, right? We'll be like, well, you know, I don't know what the latest is on that. Why don't you go look that up? And if you find a good article, that would be a great thing that you can teach me and teach everyone else. Yeah, yeah. And be able to do it in a non-15-page format. Like those article reviews, let's just get to the important stuff. Let's skip the T scores and let's skip some of that stuff. Get to the important stuff that we can use in a day-to-day basis. Yeah. For sure.
00:05:03
Speaker
The other thing we have them do is write three different, typically three, there's some variation depending on the diagnosis they pick, but three different evidence-based treatment guidelines. We want them to go find research, original sources, not spitting out what someone else's treatment guidelines said, but find a journal article that says this was an evidence-based successful treatment guideline for a given diagnosis. And we have them do that so they can learn. If I have a patient who walks in with a diagnosis I've never seen before,
00:05:33
Speaker
and they're sitting there waiting for me to do the eval, I need to go find some stuff real quick. Maybe I need to look up the night before. How are you going to do that? Here's an efficient way to make that happen. Yeah, I like those too. I think those really help students a lot. And then it also encourages them so when they are out on their own, they're going to be able to find some resources for themselves. Yeah, it is an interesting exercise sometimes to realize how little of what we do is evidence based.
00:05:59
Speaker
like try to find an evidence-based treatment guideline that's clear for lateral epicondylalgia. Like there's a whole bunch of people that will say what you should or shouldn't do as an individual like you should do needling or you shouldn't do eccentric or you should do eccentric. But what should I do from when they walk in the door to when they're discharged and how long should that take? That's just not out there for as prominent to diagnosis that
Informal Information Sharing vs. Presentations
00:06:24
Speaker
is. Sometimes it's very hard to find that stuff and that's kind of enlightening for students to realize
00:06:29
Speaker
Well, sometimes we're just kind of using, making it up based on what other people showed us, but there's not like a hard and fast, this is what to do. Yeah, so I think those are really great. I know other places, they have students do presentations, so they might have to get up and talk to a bunch of doctors or the rehab department. And that's not something that I've really had my students do because we're usually such a small clinic and we are always sharing information in more of an informal format.
00:06:59
Speaker
Yeah, we've taken that out too. It's something I had to do at my rotations when I was a level two student. I did one at Mayo Clinic presenting to the entire therapy staff. And then at my pediatric rotation, I presented stuff to the therapist there. But like Miranda said, we're such a small clinic. It's kind of this artificial, we just kind of started doing it, but it's not really like a, yeah, it doesn't really apply in our setting as much.
00:07:24
Speaker
Yeah. And I think when students complain about the projects or maybe that we don't hear it directly, sometimes we hear it from their school, we always have an argument for why they're doing it. And I think the people that really, the students that really invest the time see the value in it.
00:07:40
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. And it is a lot of work, but these rotations are a lot of work. And so we, I've, I had a stretch of two or three students and I started to second guess and say like, you know, maybe I shouldn't be asking them to do nine different projects. Although six of them, the journal article reviews and the blog blog posts are things that are, you know, spend 20, 30 minutes researching it. Maybe a little more spend 20, 30 minutes writing it. It should be a flow thing. You do it in cancellations.
00:08:07
Speaker
You know, these are things that can happen in a more organic way.
Generational Differences and Work-Life Balance
00:08:11
Speaker
And I think Miranda is right. The students that have told me, no, I got a lot out of that. There's a reason why you had us do that and I got value out of it kind of encouraged me to keep those assignments on.
00:08:20
Speaker
Yeah. And what do you say? Um, cause I think there's a big push now and has been for probably the last five years is that work-life balance, right? I think you and I come from probably different generations, but we're teaching the younger generation and, and they all have, um, I would say like healthy boundaries of work-life balance, right? Where you and I aren't afraid to go home and knock out a couple hours of work where, um, I think given our employees now and our students are like, no, I'm not doing that until I get back on the clock.
00:08:48
Speaker
And how do you respond to that? And how are you kind of like adjusting to those, I guess the changing times? Yeah, yeah. I want my therapists to not take notes home.
00:09:01
Speaker
but that doesn't come instantly. Like all of the skills of therapy, being able to write your notes efficiently while you're at the clinic takes time to learn that skill. So I'll encourage the new grads, like, hey, I don't want you to have to take notes home, but you're gonna have to write off the bat. Same thing with students. That's part of the learning process. And if you don't think teachers are taking work home, and if you don't think, yeah, you're getting paid to do a job, but sometimes you're not yet capable of doing that job within this workday,
00:09:28
Speaker
So if you want to make less, well, I can pay you less for less caseload so you have that time, but know that a manageable caseload requires a certain amount of workload. And until you are good enough to do that while you're at the clinic, it's okay to take some of that stuff home, but I don't want you to have to. I want you to get good enough. You don't need to take that stuff home. That being said, I do not have good work-life balance.
00:09:53
Speaker
I know. Well, and I think like what you said, being efficient with your time, right? I think so many people struggle with being efficient when they're in the clinic, right? They chat, maybe chat, and that's healthy too. But I mean, really getting your notes done while you're working with the patient. And I think you're more teaching them self-discipline than anything else, which I think is a skill that needs to be worked on or developed.
00:10:16
Speaker
Without sounding like the grumpy old man, I think half of work life balance is saying, I'm not going to take your work home with me to my personal space. That's totally fine. I understand that, but at the same point, be efficient while you're doing stuff here. I know it's possible because I have therapists who don't need to take their notes home and they are efficient about getting stuff done in the clinic. So be focused while you're here so you don't have to take it home with you.
Listener Engagement and Experiences
00:10:39
Speaker
Yeah, same. And I think people, you know, I, I think someone was telling me more about like work life harmony than like a balance. So when you have the energy to do the stuff, do it right. So I might come home and hang out with my kids for a few hours and then be like, Oh, I can knock this project out in 45 minutes. So I think it's just, I guess how you probably view it.
00:11:01
Speaker
and your perception of it. I chose not to stay five, 10 minutes later last night to finish a note. I brought it home because I just wanted to get home, get something to eat. And then this morning I finished writing that note. So it was done within 12 hours, but I made that choice. That was my choice. But I didn't stay at work to finish it because I wanted to find that harmony.
00:11:26
Speaker
All right, lots of interesting topics there. Share with us what projects you had as a student, maybe what you liked, what you didn't like, or what you found helpful. And you can always reach out to us, info at handtherapyacademy.com, email, or on our social media platforms at Hand Therapy Academy.