First Days as an Intern

Yesterday I began my intership at Centro Medico Comin in Villa Alemana! I am really enjoying it so far and I can already tell I will learn a TON while I am there because I am already picking up quickly on things and still have 6 weeks to go. This is such a great opportunity because I actually am getting the chance to work hands on with patients and perform various techniques, which I am not allowed to do in the United States since I am not licensed.

Mati is my supervisor and he is really great. He is a great teacher and really wants me to learn. He speaks some English, but he is very excited that I have an advanced level of Spanish and that I already know quite a bit about anatomy, movements, and physical therapy techniques. Since I have a high enough level of Spanish to communicate well with the patients, he is letting me work with them a lot and practice giving instructions, which will be such good Spanish practice. Giving instructions is hard because it needs to be precise and includes a lot of phrases I do not commonly use like "Face the wall, bend your arm, and place your elbow at your side."

Yesterday I did a lot of watching and listening while he explained what he was doing and how he was doing it, but I also got to perform two ultrasounds, mobilize a wrist, instruct a woman with her shoulder exercises, and stretch a shoulder. He spent some time asking me what I most want to learn about while I am here so he can help me learn as much as possible. Mati is currently studying to become licensed in chiropractics as well, so he was studying a little bit and his test was about the cranial nerves. I read through his notes which was interesting because I loved learning about the cranial nerves in anatomy and I was able to understand his notes in Spanish.

Today he let me do a lot more talking. He basically gave me one of his patients and was just telling me what I needed to do with her and the exercises she needed to do. I hooked her up to the TENS electrical stimulation, did a heat treatment, explained her exercises and helped her with them, got her ready for ultrasound therapy, and applied ice. She is such a cute little old lady and I was actually surprised at how well I could understand her Spanish. When performing the treatments, there is a lot of down time so it gives me a good opportunity to practice conversation. I let Laura do the ultrasounds today because she only has one day left here and I want her to make the most of her last days. Mati also had me watching a woman as she did her exercises and I had to correct her and explain what she needed to change. I also got to look at some x-rays and he was asking me questions about them and I had to analyze them and anything concerning that I saw.

I am very excited for what the future holds and everything I will learn while I am working with Mati! The patients are so sweet and so interested in my life.