Clinical Reflection Essay

As I reflect upon my thoughts before my first rotation at the student health clinic, I remember feeling what I described as “cautiously excited.” I was looking forward to having the opportunity to gain experience in the clinical environment with real patients but was also hesitant due to the overwhelming realization that I still have so much to learn. Throughout my three rotations, I learned a significant amount about clinical decision making. However, I feel that the most valuable information that I have been able to extract from my three rotations lies within a newfound knowledge of myself and the people I have been surrounded with during this experience. The first and most obvious benefit of this experience is the time that it affords us to take various technical components of our physical therapy education that we have learned thus far and practice applying them in an organized clinical setting. This is vastly different than the role play opportunities we participate in during class with our classmates, who for the most part, are perfectly healthy. I gained an entirely new perspective once I was able to see elements of the physical therapy

It helped me to identify weaknesses that I need to work on resolving in order to be successful this summer during my clinical experience. One area in particular that I struggle with is the fact that I sometimes lack confidence in myself. So many times, I felt that I knew the correct answer and wanted to speak up but ultimately chose not to out of fear that I would be wrong. I have a habit of being extremely hard on myself and a perfectionist, so I feel that those elements were a definite factor during my first two rotations. By the third rotation, however, I could tell that I was starting to become more confident in myself and my abilities. I realized that the times in which I am wrong make way for an excellent opportunity to learn and become