Internship Info

Hello! Since I came here for an internship, I thought I would give you all some more info about my internship and what I have been up to here!

My intership is at COMIN Centro Medico, which is a branch of medical centers across our region. I work at the center in Villa Alemana, which is about 30 minutes away from Viña and I take the metro train every day to work.

I have only been there for 7 days, but I am loving it so far and learning so much already! Matias (Mati) is my supervisor, and Francisco is another intern who is working with Mati as well. Francisco is Chilean though, and he has gone to the equivalent of PT Assistant School and so he knows a lot more than I do regarding exercises and modifications and stuff. He was gone on Monday and Tuesday so it was just me and Mati and so I got to do a lot of things and was in charge of a few patients.

We have a rehabilitation room that has an open space with area for various exercises, a big water tub, exercise balls, weights, bands, chairs, machines, etc. Then there are three small divided areas with curtains and beds that are used for evals and people with back stuff that need to lay down for their exercises. One thing that is very different here is that the appointments are not 1-on-1 like they are in the US. There is rarely just one patient at a time. Today we had 7 patients at one point between the 3 of us. So they are all in the room together doing their various things and it is kind of cute because they all become friends and chat with each other and know what is going on with each others' injuries and how it is healing. (LOL because they do not have HIPAA here). Another thing that is different is that in the US, a patient usually is required to come to therapy about two times a week for 30 or 45 minutes and then is given some exercises to do at home on their own on the other days. Here, the patients come every single day and go through quite an extensive run of therapy including heat, ice, EMS/TENS, Ultrasound, Shortwave, exercises, stretching, lots of things. Mati is basically supervising and overseeing everything and giving orders, and Francisco and I are doing various things with the patients and they are required to be kind of independent as well. For example, Mati might tell them to do 3 sets of 10 bicep curls, and then walk away to help another patient so they are responsible for counting their own and doing them correctly, as they would be if they were at home.

COMIN is a traumatología focused place, so most of the rehab is done for injuries or surgeries, not for chronic conditions or disabilities. They are referred by their doctor and then get 10 sessions of therapy. Some of the cases I have been seeing the past week are fractured wrist, sprained wrist, meniscus surgery, Achilles tendon, a few sprained ankles, hip surgery, Sciatica, multiple rotator cuff injuries, and some back stuff.

The types of things I get to do frequently are perform ultrasounds and hook up the Electrical EMS/TENS systems as well. So I have learned how to program those depending on what type of injury we are dealing with and how to explain to the patients what I am doing and why. Since I have a very advanced level of Spanish, I am also getting to do more with the patients and instruct them in their exercises and correct them if necessary which is kind of fun. I love when I explain an exercise and they understand me and perform it totally correctly. Because we see the same patients every day, I am learning their routines and Mati is trusting me more and so I am able to guide them from step to step in their therapy routines and give them instructions for their exercises and such without having to ask him what is next all the time. I also get to do a lot of stretching, so I have learned how to stretch biceps muscles, quad muscles, and forearm muscles. Another cool thing about seeing the patients all the time is seeing how much and how quickly they improve. It is crazy to me and it is so fun to see. Today Mati taught me how to mobilize an ankle joint and I got to do it which was crazy. It was really scary actually, but I did it right. He obviously trusts me to do a lot which is nice, and I think I am going to learn a lot from him.

Mati also gives me homework assignments once a week, which are going to help me learn a lot as well. I told him in the beginning I want to learn more about the muscle testing and evaluation. For example, if a person is unable to rotate their shoulder upward, what muscles are probably injured? So my first homework has consisted of reviewing the important muscles, their origins/insertions, and their functions. It is important to remember that stuff first. He started me off with the cerebral column muscles and I had to make a table chart of all that info, which will be useful for me in the future as well. He downloaded some Spanish anatomy books onto my flash drive which I can use to help me as well. Thankfully most anatomy stuff like muscles and nerves are pretty good cognates with the English words. Haha! I feel like when I come back and take anatomy in the fall I will want to be identifying muscles as Spanish words! My favorite so far is esternocleidomastoideo.

The patients here are SO great. They are so sweet and caring, and love to talk to me. One of my older lady patients loves to bake and cook so she brings me little treats once in a while and they are SO good. Another one of them made me a cute bracelet one day. The people in Chile are so caring in general and it is neat to see them interact with Mati and each other. Today I worked with a new patient for the first time and she was already so warm and welcoming to me and wished me well at the end of the day.

I have not really taken any photos of me doing work, but I will have to do that some day! Here are a few pictures we took on Laura's last day at the clinic. I got placed at the same place she was, and we overlapped for 3 days of work which was fun.

Here we are with Mati, our supervisor! He is young and very fun to work with, and he does a really nice job of explaining things to me and always keeping me on my feet by asking me questions. He told me the other day that I have a "fast head" aka I catch on to things very quickly. He only has to explain ultrasound settings, etc. to me once for a certain type of injury and I am able to remember them. Yesterday he taught me how to program and use the shortwave machine, which is really complex, and then today told me to do it myself and watched me and I did everything right and he was proud. Our personalities mesh well together and I think I have a similar approach to therapy as he does, so we work well together. I have gotten really used to talking to him and I am able to understand everything he says, which is SO good when speaking with a Chilean. Haha their Spanish is really hard sometimes. From working with Laura he said he got better at enunciating his words and using his S's and D's, which is nice. He can speak a bit of English, but he never really uses it with me because I knows I can speak Spanish and that I want to speak it, and he is not that comfortable with his English. Sometimes he will ask me how to say certain things in English and I help him learn as well. Today he was doing an eval on a child and he presented me to his mom when I was going to ultrasound him and he told her I speak very good Spanish and that her son would be in good hands. That was such a compliment!

Say hello to Francisco! He was obviously thrilled to be part of this random intern selfie. HAHA!! He is a year younger than I am and studies at at University here in Viña. He has a low voice and kind of mumbles, so he is really hard to understand sometimes but I am getting better at it as I get to know him better. He's a pretty quiet person in general.

And here I am with Laura at work! You can see the old school x-ray viewer in the background ha. I was so glad I got to take over her spot, and that we got to spend those 4 days going to work together. We bonded a lot in that time, whether it was at work, walking to the metro station, or squishing onto the busy metro after work. She loved having me with because she did not have to fear falling asleep on the metro and missing her stop haha. The first day at work after she left, Francisco was gone too so it seemed so quiet! But we are settling into a new routine. I miss her though! She used to be in the kitchen making coffee every morning when I woke up, and now when I wake up the house is dark and quiet! The patients are so cute and sweet and always ask me how she is doing. 

So yeah, that is what I am up to during my days! I work from 10:00-2:00 because those are Mati's hours, but with the commute on either side I am gone from 9:00-3:00. Tomorrow I am leaving work a little bit early because the international center is taking us on a little field trip in the afternoon. I will keep you posted with my newest PT adventures, things I learn, and any photos I take!