2. Details:
Site: Excel Rehab and Sports in Clemson, South Carolina
Preceptor: Doug Lauber, OT
Title: Clinic Aide
Dates: January 2016 – May 2016
Hours: 180+ clinical observation hours
3. About Excel:
Mission: The co-founders of Excel pride themselves on
providing quality care in Physical, Occupational, and Hand
therapy. When Excel first opened they stated “Patients and their
families know quality care when they experience it. It’s a result
of great people and skills, and Excel has BOTH…There is a
difference.”
4. My Preceptor
Douglas Lauber, OTR
Douglas Lauber is an Occupational Therapy Specialist in
Clemson, South Carolina. He graduated with honors in
2000. Having more than 16 years of diverse experiences,
especially in Occupational Therapy and Hand Therapy,
Doug affiliates with no hospital, and cooperates with other
doctors and specialists in medical group Excel Rehab and
Sports. Doug is an Upper Extremity and Certified Hand
Therapist.
5. Other Co-workers
Although Douglas Lauber was my primary preceptor, I
worked with several other Physical and Occupational
Therapists, and OT Aides during my internship. The
therapists I worked with were very welcoming and
taught me what it means to be a professional.
I also worked alongside other Clinic Aides and
administrative staff. The other Clinic Aides were the
ones I interacted with most. We had to work together
effectively and efficiently when shifts would become
very busy.
6. Position: Clinical Aide
Duties:
Maintain and Disinfect treatment areas
Prepare ice packs and hot packs for patients
Transition patients between exercises and from waiting
room to treatment area
Assist patients with therapy activities
Provide support for patients
Begin patients on warm-up exercises
7. Duties: Preparing hot packs to
warm up muscles
For occupational therapy, most patients
will warm up with a hot pack. The heat
allows for more blood to flow to the area
and relaxes the muscle, preparing them for
exercise.
I typically prepared and put up hot
packs for patients’ treatment sessions.
8. Assist Patients with Therapy
Activities:
In the picture above I am helping a patient
put on ankle weights for a particular exercise.
In the picture below I am hanging up
the pulleys for a patient to stretch.
9. Begin patients on warm-ups:
This machine is called the sci-fit. It is
typically used to get the legs and arms
moving to increase blood flow and wake
the nervous system up. Other warm up
machines include treadmill, nu-step, or
elliptical.
This is a picture of me helping adjust
a patient on the sci-fit machine.
10. Projects:
Performing the DASH assessment on new
patients/evaluations for Occupational Therapy
More information can be found on the following slide
Case Study Project
More information can be found on the following slide
Setting up patients for electrical stimulation
“E-stim” is a warm-up activity for muscles. For
occupational therapy there are typically two locations to
set up electrical stimulation on the shoulder.
Anterior/Posterior or Crossing the shoulder (which includes
medial/lateral locations)
11. Disability of the Arms, Shoulder,
and Hand (DASH)
When Occupational Therapy would have new patients to
evaluate, the Clinic Aides would perform the DASH
assessment on them.
This assessment consists of 15 questions or daily tasks
and has the patient rank their ability to complete them.
The ranking system is as follows: No difficulty, mild
difficulty, moderate difficulty, severe difficulty or
unable.
A low score indicates better health, while a high score
indicates poor health or more disabilities.
12. Case Study Project
One of the therapists I worked with, Jess Loudermilk,
had a patient in her 20s who was an avid runner but
suffered from Compartment syndrome. I was very
interested in this case because I also am an avid runner.
I talked to Jess more about this patient’s background
and treatment plan and decided to write a case study. A
case study includes patient background, initial
evaluation/examination, measurements, intervention
plan, and ultimately the outcome. This case study can
be found on my “Internships” tab in my portfolio.
13. Setting up patients for electrical
stimulation
Another warm-up technique is
electrical stimulation. I was responsible
for setting up the E-stim machines
and cleaning them up when patients
were done.This picture to the left is
me setting a patient up on the machine.
14. More tools: This picture includes a variety of tools
important to therapy. The “Faktr” tools are used typically in
soft-tissue massage to soothe the muscle. The goniometer is
used to measure range of motion angles.
15. Conclusion:
I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Excel Rehab and
Sports. The biggest thing my time at Excel taught me
was how to interact with the general public and what it
means to be a professional. I also learned a tremendous
amount about occupational and physical therapy from
the therapists I worked with. All the employees at Excel
were happy, upbeat, and welcoming and I feel very
fortunate to have had this opportunity. I can not wait to
begin my career as a Physical Therapist.
