Collaboration and Supervisory Relationship
As PTA I need to be knowledgeable about my role and responsibilities under our practice act. Being aware of PTAs’ role and responsibilities will help me better communicate, clarify and resolve any type of miseducation and misunderstanding. PTAs need to be in constant communication with the supervising PT and show through our clinical decision making and problem solving that we are capable of caring outpatient care. I think we need to be advocates for ourselves and future PTAs by providing quality patient care and demonstrating that PTAs play a valuable role in patient care.
The PTs and PTAs at this facility work with nurses, doctors, and OTs to coordinate patient care. The Methodist physical therapy…show more content… The roles overlap because at the clinic this clinic the PT discipline sees patients with lower and upper extremity diagnosis. The PT told me that she doesn’t have a lot of experience treating hands injuries. So when she is unsure how to approach a hand diagnosis, she refers them to OTs at Health West to make sure they get the best care.
Most of the communication is done through documentation in the medical record. When something needs to be addressed immediately the communication is done through emails or phone calls. In rare cases the PT will go the doctor’s office or vice versa to discuss patients’ cases. One case I saw two weeks ago was about this patient who came in two sessions in a row smelling like alcohol. The PT was suspecting that the patient was self-medicating and wanted to discuss that with the doctor instead of documenting that in the record. I have not witnessed a team meeting when the patient and family member were…show more content… One of our patients who have been in therapy for 9 weeks after a quad tendon repair is still struggling to regain knee flexion range of motion. After discussion, his surgeon agreed that the PT order a custom Jaz splint for the patient to help increase the range of motion. The PT took patient’s measurements and communicated them to the Jaz rep. The Jaz rep came in after a treatment session to fit the patient. The patient could not be fit because the requirement is 70* minimum for the knee flexion ROM and our patient had only 56* of knee flexion. What is really frustrating about this is that in the information packet sent by the Jaz rep the ROM required was 50* of knee flexion. Also the PT has been in communication with the Jaz company the entire time nobody told her that 56* was not enough range for the