First Clinical

mmartinez527 · Joined: 27 Mar 2008 Posts: 8

Can someone please share there experience as a first-time clinical student. I recently completed my first semester and just received my grade in clinical. I'm not happy with my grade and would love some advice. My instructors have advised me that when I am in the clinic I need to be more agressive. They told me that noone is going to ask me to perform specific tasks...it is up to me to kind of push my way in. I'm primarily talking about triangulation. The therapists I am working with now, automatically triangulate/biangulate the patient...i was told that I should literally force my way in and take control of the table. Is this what the therapists are expecting me to do...obviously I want to make there jobs easier, but I thought they would kind of instruct me on what they expect me to be doing. Should I discuss this with the therapists I'm working with or just take more initiative. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

radtherapist103 · Joined: 10 May 2009 Posts: 4

to mmartinez,
I just registered on this site and am aware you posted this link months ago but hopefully you'll get my response

--btw, i'm a radiation therapist and know exactly what you're going through

--first and foremost, you seem like the type of student who doesn't quite know when to contribute to the dept

-the most important aspect in being a student imho is being to "read people"..that means you have to be able to decipher between different personalities at the clinic

--as a student, once you observe a type of setup, mentally prepare yourself for it..once you think you're ready, go for it..if there is a therapist who says, flat out, "I got this", then back off, plain and simple

--if they don't say squat, that doesn't necessarily mean you did really well so don't get ahead of yourself...but at that point, ask for pointers and if there are areas of improvement

--you need to assert yourself and show your skills..lemme know if that helps

mmartinez527 · Joined: 27 Mar 2008 Posts: 8

i appreciate you taking the time to respond. i’m very happy to report that i am doing much better now; as opposed to when i submitted my original post. that is NOT to say that i don’t need advice/help, i only wish that had received your message in the beginning of my program. especially the part concerning being able to “read people”.

you are 100% correct when you say that i was the type of student who didn’t quite know how to contribute to the dept. i felt like a fish out of water, i was nervous, confused and felt absolutely useless. any common sense i thought i possessed seemed to abandon me the minute i entered the treatment room. it didn’t help that one of the therapists got a kick out of the fact that i was having difficulty adjusting. he made some pretty obnoxious comments. my plan for survival was to stay out of their way. i observed the setups, asked as many questions as i could, and in the end managed to get my logs done. it wasn’t until i started my 2nd rotation that i realized i had learned quite a bit from those therapists, i knew way more than I thought.

i am currently in a hospital, there are about 12 therapists and so far i have worked with about half of them. some of them enjoy teaching and some of them don’t. if I happen to be working with a therapist who clearly does not want to be teaching, i stay out of his or her way. i get the patient changed, make sure the treatment room is setup, let them know if they need films…etc. on the flip side, i do try to take full advantage of the therapists that are willing to share their knowledge with me.

one of my issues now is figuring out what to do when i’m working with two therapists in the same treatment room, who each like things done a certain way (their way). for example, when setting up a prostate patient on the calypso, one therapist wants me to rotate the gantry to 180 before setting up the array, and another tells me to only go to 100 or 120. any suggestions on how to handle this situation?

again, thank you very much for your advice. fyi, i will be starting my summer rotation this week, so I will be in the clinic everyday. during the semester we only go twice a week.

radtherapist103 · Joined: 10 May 2009 Posts: 4

Good job in getting through your first rotation..I noticed that by the time I responded, you were probably at a different clinic..nonetheless, good job

--as far as therapists doing it a certain way, you simply just do it their way..and trust me, once you graduate and become official it's not like you'll have all the respect in the world from your peers; you have to earn it..sure upon graduation, you'll be treated better than a student but just remember that all these grueling things will help mold you into becoming a better therapist

--if you're working with a ton of therapists who are telling you to do it 10 different ways and it's driving your brain insane, it may be helpful to maybe jot down to key notes in your notepad (example: therapist john got mad when I rotated too early)..stuff like that..don't get too bogged down on that b/c you want to focus on treatments but a few reminders on paper wouldn't hurt..let me know if you have any other q's..good luck, keep it up