Now that I have completed the summer semester do-over, there’s things I have learned quite a bit about myself and what it takes to be a successful student (and eventually a better PT).
You can recall that my second year of PT school was not easy for me for reasons you can find in previous posts:
I still don’t know which setting I want to work in.
And that’s okay. During PT school orientation, our class went wround the room to introduce ourselves – where we are from, where we went to school and what setting/specialty we want to pursue. That day, I told everyone I had a pretty opened mind, but I defintely wanted to travel after graduating from PT school. Up to now, I have had an equal exposure between inpatient experiences in hospitals as well as outpatient experiences in both big corporate clinics and private practices. I enjoyed my acute care rotation, but I also like learning about outpatient orthopedic techniques. [This is partly due to the fact I understand that better than neuromuscular diagnoses.]
That’s the great part about physical therapy – there are so many career paths. You can truly make it your own!! You come out of PT school as a generalist – not a specialist. I can choose to work in a hospital system and then migrate to an outpatient clinic. I could make money on the side non-clinically through this lifestyle blog or managing a business’ social media. Heck, I could start a cash-based PT practice for friends and family. Talk about the endless possibilities. I guess this is something to talk to God about.
I’m better at critical thinking now.
Since I was in middle school, my reading comprehension and critical thinking skills were limited. This past summer semester, I noticed something clicked for me this time around as I took my exams and made significant improvements in my grades. I truly was reading every part of the question and considering all the factors to select the best choice. I would eliminate answer choices based on what I studied and what I read about the patient in question. I started thinking like my professors, and curated questions they would potentially ask in an exam or what would be seen on the boards [aka outcome measures].
Even though I say I’ve improved my critical thinking skills, my critical thinking can be better. The reality is treating patients is not a multiple choice question – it’s a short answer. I still need to work on applying my critical thinking skills to practicals and patient cases. Previously, I went into practicals thinking, “Do this test because it’s the easiest to perform.” Looking back, I know that’s obviously not the method for aceing the skills competency. Even with tons of practice and graded competencies, critical thinking only gets better with experience.
My study buddies: Repetition and Recall
I will say that repeating this semester gave me a slight advantage. My previous exposure to the information in 2019 and how that information was presented this year really helped me this second time around because I was able to use my old study guides. I mentioned this briefly in a previous blog post, but I’m gonna say it again: Sometimes you have to hear the same thing in 9 different ways to finally understand it. In this case, it was a change in professors and changes to the learning environment that solidified my understanding.
Repetition can also be applied to my change in study frequency. Before, I would type out the PowerPoint lecture slides mostly verbatim into an outline. To me, this study strategy does not work for me as I’m not active studying the information. Plus, I am a slow typer, so I didn’t have time to look back at the information I had just typed until the week of the exam [AKA I was cramming at least 6 weeks of information in 5 days]. Reviewing what I just learned after several hours, days, and weeks upon hearing it the first time is KEY.
Recalling what you’ve learned in PT school can come in many forms. It can be the classic study strategy of writing everything you can remember on a white board OR it can appear as a random thought or question when you’re in the shower. It’s important to not only remember the list of symptoms but also the name and category of the diagnosis. Being able to recall how the information was organized can help with understanding (see below). If you were only able to recall less than half of the lecture. That’s okay. Study the information some more, take a break, then try recalling it again. The constant practice (or repetition) of recalling the information is what makes the information stay in your long-term memory.
I’m very conservative when it comes to treating patients.
I have the tendency to overguard the patient. I choose to do pre-gait activities when the patient is clearly able to do more intence gait interventions. Simply put, my gauge on how much the patient should do is flawed and skewed. I even struggle with finding the appropriate intenisty for my personal strengthening exercises as I would go for the lighter weights. This comes from a innate fear of hurting the patient and underestimating the patient’s abilities. I just care so much about patient safety and not making the patient’s problem worse.
This semester, I learned more about motor learning and error augmentation. I also learned how an average of 24 minutes is truly spent in therapeutic interventions (and the remainder of time spent in a PT session is rest breaks). I need to remind myself that a patient needs to make mistakes in order to get better. I need to look over my plan of care and see if I’m making the most of my 1 hour session with my patient. Of course I still need to be there by the patient’s side for safety purposes and sometimes a patient will benefit from pre-gait activities, but I just have to shift my mindset and push my boundaries and really challenge the patient.
I started publicly documenting my life as an PT student right at the end of my first year of PT school. That first year was hard because the class is adusting to grad school life. The second year of PT school is also hard, but for different reasons. The courses are harder because the information is more complex. The theme of the second year is transformation. It is the bridge that connects the basic knowledge we learned from the first year to the clinical decisions we’ll make when we’re out on the field in our third year. But the transformation to becoming a dpt isn’t over…
As always, you can follow me and my journey #forthedpt on Instagram (@jordaineenriquez).
Until next time,
Jordaine Enriquez, SPT
*This post is loosely inspired by a blog post from The Curly Clinician.