advice: where to request for ortho and neuro clinicals?

[DrEvil518]

Hey Everyone,

I'm finishing up my first clinical (sub-acute) and not super thrilled with my experience. I like the staff, but my CI does not seem to enjoy having a student. Plus, it's really disorganized, so I haven't learned much or gotten to even do much hands-on with the patients. It hasn't been awful, but I wish I had the foresight to pick my own site, rather than let the school decide for me.

I am writing to see if any current, or former, PT students have any advice for where to make special requests for my ortho and neuro clinicals. The most important consideration is that I have a great CI, and I also am looking for places with great reputations and facilities (who actually want students around to learn.) I am interested in aquatic therapy, too. I also would like to know where to avoid...for example, places that take on a bunch of students for free labor, but don't really care to teach them. I am ok with finding a place to live in a city where I've never been. I just want a great learning experience

I REALLY appreciate your input! Thanks, everyone!!!
DrEvil

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[MinnDasota]

I will have to say I was very fortunate with my clinicals and CIs and I learned a lot from each of them. Those of us who are PTs will tell you that you will learn the most while in clinicals (vs. school). So it is unfortunate you haven't had a good clinical experience.

Unfortunately, you can't really pick your CIs, that's kinda luck of the draw no matter if it's a great clinic/hospital. Lots of times, they don't even know who they are going to assign as a CI until weeks before you get there. Another thing is that most likely you have to pick from the pool of clinical sites available to your school which limits you more (schools and clinics have to have contracts set up to allow you to affiliate with them). Depending on how your school does placements, it's difficult to always get the best clinical site available to you.

That said, most well established clinics already have a set of schools they affiliate with so first you would want to check if your school is set up with them (do some research on top ortho/neuro clinics in locations you want to practice). Remember, many sites like to see that you chose them because of the potential of you working for them....very important if you are thinking of going to far off lands. However, if it's for a good clinical experience, might as well do it right?

I have found teaching hospitals well prepared to take in students as a million pass through their doors. They tend to have orientation packets and well thought out descriptions and expectations. Many have CIs credentialed through APTA. Teaching hospitals are usually affiliated with medical schools.

For Neuro, check out the model centers for SCI and TBI. They are highly sought after clinical sites. That said, they are known to be the best at what they do so it may be hard to get in.

For ortho, it's really hit or miss. I set up one of my ortho clinics because I really wanted to train there and it worked out well.

My school had a large file cabinet of our critiques of clinical site experiences allowing us to read what past students had to say about a site. This was very helpful, especially because many of us traveled throughout the country and even to Australia for clinicals! Does your school have this? We had a random lottery system and you chose based on where you were placed. Towards the final internships, preference went to those in the their specific tracks (ortho, neuro, peds, etc) and then was open to the rest (eg. if you were in the ortho track, already did a couple ortho clinicals and wanted to do a neuro clinical, you would have to wait until the neuro track students picked through the neuro sites).

Anyways, I was wondering what school you go to. Do they pick your clinicals for you?

Not sure if it will be of any help to you but here is where I did my clinicals:

1. New York Presbyterian Hospital, NYC (acute-vascular)-teaching hospital
2. California Pacific Medical Center, San Francisco (SNF/Sub-acute)-teaching hospital
3. Select Medical/Kerlan-Jobe Orthopedic Clinic, Los Angeles (ortho/sports)
4. Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, San Jose CA (outpatient neuro)-teaching hospital
5. Howard Head Sports Medicine/Steadman-Hawkins Clinic, Vail CO (ortho/sports)---I set this one up.

All of them are excellent and have great teaching clinicians from what I experienced. As you can tell, I went all over the country. I chose teaching hospitals because of what I stated above and it worked out for me. The ortho clinics I chose are affiliated with well known MDs who do a lot of research and train Fellows (Kerlan-Jobe and Steadman-Hawkins) which allowed me to work closely and observe many surgeries. I found those locations were also well prepared to take in students.

All in all, you can get a great experience from a small, unkown practice or a bad experience from a well-known hospital. It really does come down to your CI which is really out of your hands. Best you can do is do your research, try to get a place well known for what it does, see if your school affiliates with them, if not, contact them and try to set it up. If your school has a file cabinet like mine, scour through those (and limit your search to either locations you want to go or type of facility) and ask your DCE if they are offering a spot for your school. If not, then see if your DCE can pull strings.

Hopefully this helps....

 

[DrEvil518]

MinnDesota,
Thank you SO much for your reply! I will reply to your post in the next day or two...I have lots to write and have to get up early

 

[DrEvil518]

I will have to say I was very fortunate with my clinicals and CIs and I learned a lot from each of them. Those of us who are PTs will tell you that you will learn the most while in clinicals (vs. school). So it is unfortunate you haven't had a good clinical experience.

Unfortunately, you can't really pick your CIs, that's kinda luck of the draw no matter if it's a great clinic/hospital. Lots of times, they don't even know who they are going to assign as a CI until weeks before you get there. Another thing is that most likely you have to pick from the pool of clinical sites available to your school which limits you more (schools and clinics have to have contracts set up to allow you to affiliate with them). Depending on how your school does placements, it's difficult to always get the best clinical site available to you.

That said, most well established clinics already have a set of schools they affiliate with so first you would want to check if your school is set up with them (do some research on top ortho/neuro clinics in locations you want to practice). Remember, many sites like to see that you chose them because of the potential of you working for them....very important if you are thinking of going to far off lands. However, if it's for a good clinical experience, might as well do it right?

I have found teaching hospitals well prepared to take in students as a million pass through their doors. They tend to have orientation packets and well thought out descriptions and expectations. Many have CIs credentialed through APTA. Teaching hospitals are usually affiliated with medical schools.

For Neuro, check out the model centers for SCI and TBI. They are highly sought after clinical sites. That said, they are known to be the best at what they do so it may be hard to get in.

For ortho, it's really hit or miss. I set up one of my ortho clinics because I really wanted to train there and it worked out well.

My school had a large file cabinet of our critiques of clinical site experiences allowing us to read what past students had to say about a site. This was very helpful, especially because many of us traveled throughout the country and even to Australia for clinicals! Does your school have this? We had a random lottery system and you chose based on where you were placed. Towards the final internships, preference went to those in the their specific tracks (ortho, neuro, peds, etc) and then was open to the rest (eg. if you were in the ortho track, already did a couple ortho clinicals and wanted to do a neuro clinical, you would have to wait until the neuro track students picked through the neuro sites).

Anyways, I was wondering what school you go to. Do they pick your clinicals for you?

Not sure if it will be of any help to you but here is where I did my clinicals:

1. New York Presbyterian Hospital, NYC (acute-vascular)-teaching hospital
2. California Pacific Medical Center, San Francisco (SNF/Sub-acute)-teaching hospital
3. Select Medical/Kerlan-Jobe Orthopedic Clinic, Los Angeles (ortho/sports)
4. Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, San Jose CA (outpatient neuro)-teaching hospital
5. Howard Head Sports Medicine/Steadman-Hawkins Clinic, Vail CO (ortho/sports)---I set this one up.

All of them are excellent and have great teaching clinicians from what I experienced. As you can tell, I went all over the country. I chose teaching hospitals because of what I stated above and it worked out for me. The ortho clinics I chose are affiliated with well known MDs who do a lot of research and train Fellows (Kerlan-Jobe and Steadman-Hawkins) which allowed me to work closely and observe many surgeries. I found those locations were also well prepared to take in students.

All in all, you can get a great experience from a small, unkown practice or a bad experience from a well-known hospital. It really does come down to your CI which is really out of your hands. Best you can do is do your research, try to get a place well known for what it does, see if your school affiliates with them, if not, contact them and try to set it up. If your school has a file cabinet like mine, scour through those (and limit your search to either locations you want to go or type of facility) and ask your DCE if they are offering a spot for your school. If not, then see if your DCE can pull strings.

Hopefully this helps....

Thank you so much for your help, MinnDesota!
I'd like to talk to you more about what you asked, but I don't want to badmouth my school on a public forum. Do you mind if I send you a private message so we can talk about this? I really appreciate your guidance and input. It's not that my last clinical was bad per se...I liked the staff very much...but...well, I should really do this in a PM. If that's ok with you?...

THANK YOU!!!!!