Second Competency

The first competency emphasized a good cooperation with other health care professions. The difficulty in developing this competency may due to the patient specific conditions that may give a health care provider more “tough time” if proper communication were not made before interacting with the patient. For example, during my first clinical rotation, My CI needed to treat her last patient of the day, however, the patient was in a bad mood and reluctant to participate to therapy. My CI asked me to bring the patient to the therapy gym. It took me a great effort to explain the benefit of exercise and finally he said he will come after napping for two hours. I went back to my CI and told her the patient decision. My CI said that she needed to leave in one hour because she has children in day care that needed to be picked up. So she went to the patient room and brought the patient to the gym for exercise. The patient was very unhappy to complete his therapy session, which might cause him giving a hard time to the nurse and CNAs, who would come to see him later of the day. I always reflect back about how to deal with this case better. The CNAs and nurse would have been frustrated since the therapy made him unhappy. Maybe communicating with the nurse and
The difficulty in developing the 2nd competency may due to the overlap of the scope of practice. For example, as PTs, we frequently get patient referred from physicians. Though we may have the same tested done on the patient as the physicians did the focus of intervention are different. For certain treatment approach we need to discuss with the physician and sometimes they have their own opinions on certain treatment approach. Understanding of the scope of practice of other health care profession and a good communication are essential to make the agreement on the patient treatment plan and promote his or her