McKenna Moore

I feel so lucky to have had IMGPT be my placement for my clinical. The staff are all amazing and so are the patients. I have been at three other clinics in the past between shadowing and working, and IMG is one of my favorites. They put the patient first during treatment sessions, not productivity, and that is how I want to be as a practitioner. You can see that the patients enjoy their time in the clinic and are always laughing and smiling during their sessions. The staff is always in a good mood too, between the office staff and the aides. A normal day at the clinic involved getting there at 6:45am to be ready for the 7am patient, seeing patients until 12pm which was when the clinic closed for lunch, having an hour-long learning session if it was a Wednesday, and then resuming working with patients at 1 or 2pm until 6-7pm. Documentation is completed by the end of the day and reviewed by your CI. I saw 5-10 patients a day.

As a student, I feel very grateful for my experience because I got a lot of experiences that not all of my classmates got. I liked how specific time was set aside each week for a learning session, I feel like this really helped me grow in the clinic and feel more confident and comfortable treating patients. I also really liked working with Chris and Eric, the CIs at the clinic. They are both so knowledgeable and willing to help. They both were very willing to teach us new concepts and set proper expectations for all of the students. Chris likes to say that they don’t believe in the “sink or swim” teaching method, and that is true. They make sure you are prepared and know what is necessary, so you feel confident when treating a patient, and so the patient has a good experience as well.

I was Eric’s student, so I worked closely with him. By my second day of clinical, I felt so comfortable and able to be myself in the clinic. Eric was welcoming to everyone and is always cracking jokes and having great conversations with patients and the staff while providing quality care. I know that I could ask him for help whenever I needed. Whenever I had a question, he would explain it to me in a clear way that I could understand or would explain it a different way if I didn’t. He never made me feel like I was wasting his time or like I was incompetent. He provided feedback in a great way, always constructive and would highlight things I did well. He would also hear my critiques about myself and would help me work through those and make sure I got to work on anything I felt like I was lacking in. He helped me build confidence in my ability to treat and evaluation patients in my time at the clinic. He also wanted to get to know me as a person and made an effort to know about my life and interests. He would talk to me about my family and friends and made a conscious effort to check in on the sport I like, Formula 1, so we could have something to talk about during the day. His effort doesn’t go unnoticed, and I deeply appreciate it.

In the clinic I got to work with aides, a PTA named Ruth, and 3 other students at a time. Working with the aides has allowed me to work on my ability to work with other staff members with a patient, practicing handing off the patient and communicating about any updates during the session. It also has allowed me to work on my delegating skills, having them run the patient through their exercises and asking for help with cleaning up my table and supplies for the next patient. Working with the PTA was great, I never delegated patients to her but it was good to hear about her experiences with patients and talk about patients with her. She is always making people laugh and brings a good energy into the clinic when she arrives in the afternoons. Working the other students has been a great experience as well. I have worked with 5 students in my time there, and It has been nice hearing about their programs and seeing all of their skills. I was at the clinic during the summer so each CI went on a vacation, meaning that there was one CI for 4 students for a couple of weeks. We all worked with one CI so most of the caseload was on us while our CI was available to help. We were all willing to help each other and would team up on treatment sessions if one was free so the other could catch up on documentation. We also have worked together on evaluations, and it was nice since we each get to work on our weaknesses while witnessing the other’s strengths. I have witnessed behaviors from the other students, such as how they take a subjective or handle a patient, that I want to add to my own practice. It has been nice getting to see some of the students cycle out and watch how they grow as their clinical experience progresses and helps me to reflect on my own and how much I have grown. It has also been a great opportunity to teach what I have learned to the new students coming in. I think Chris and Eric handled having 2 students each very well. I never felt like I didn’t get enough attention or help from Eric due to this and feel like having another student there only benefited from me.

Overall, I would 100% recommend having a clinical at IMGPT. I looked forward to every day of this experience and feel like it helped me gain a lot of confidence in my ability to treat patients. I learned a lot of new skills that I wouldn’t learn in school (advanced mobilizations!) and had fun while doing it. It was a great learning environment and I wish everyone got to have this experience for their clinicals. Chris has made sure that this is the clinical experience everyone deserves, and I greatly benefited from his efforts. I would much rather be learning from Eric and Chris than sitting through a lecture at school, that’s for sure!

McKenna Moore, SPT, CPT
University of South Florida
School of Physical Therapy & Rehabilitation Sciences