Inpatient Observation

Inpatient Observation I was blessed with the opportunity to do an internship at the Kansas Rehabilitation Hospital in Topeka Kansas. At the facility, I worked in the inpatient therapy wing with patients aged sixty one and over. During my observation, I was under the supervision of Jamie Pfannenstiel who is a Physical Therapy Assistant at the Hospital. While at the facility I was able to perform many duties and take on responsibilities such as observing, cleaning, assisting in transfers and bringing the patient to and from their room, and exercising the patient with supervision. The length of my internship was approximately 30 hours with me coming in every Wednesday and Friday from 1:30 to 3:00 pm for an entire semester. This was extremely

For example, the most diagnoses seen were strokes, spinal stenosis, knee and hip replacements, and recovering from various surgeries. First, Jamie and I would visit each patient in their room and then proceed to walk or wheelchair assist them with their mobility down to the inpatient gym. While at the inpatient gym we performed exercises such as balance, fall prevention, and even teaching the patient how to use walker, cane, crutches, and wheelchair. Also, we performed tasks such as going up and down stairs, getting into a passenger side of a car, pushing up out of bed and even practicing basic skills such as how to put away dishes. On rare occasions, I was given the opportunity to be alongside a therapist as they took their individual patients on a trip to the grocery store where they needed to execute many different problem solving skills. When we got into the store I showed a patient how to read items off a list. Then use peripheral vision to spot items in an aisle or on a shelf, retrieve items from lower, higher or stationary shelves and place them into the cart. Furthermore, I participated in a core group where we had many different patients with similar diagnoses doing the same activities and exercises. In these core groups, we showed the patients techniques to engage other parts of their body to not put pressure and strain on their individual injury. In another circumstance, the patient needed help with their coordination so Jamie would have them compete against me in a game system called the Wii on the television. On the Wii, we played tennis and bowling to help the patient practice motor skills and improve their range of motion, balance, and coordination. Towards the end of my internship, Jamie let me work with several patients by myself with her supervision. During this time I was able to go through different stretches such as marches,