Clinical Education: Part 2


Physical Therapy | Utica University



Clinicals are a very big part of our education here at UU, so it is important that the sites we choose are in locations and settings that we’d really like to check out for the future! After all, our clinicals could easily turn into a job post-graduation. In my previous post about clinical education, I mentioned the process for site developments and making a site wishlist, but here I want to touch on the different locations we get to go to and when the clinicals occur within the curriculum.


Clinical education is split so that it occurs at 3 different times throughout our 3 years. Our first clinical rotation is following the first year, during the summer before our second year. This one is for 6 weeks and is in an outpatient orthopedic setting. This is really our first chance to apply everything we’ve learned and see how it all comes together. Then, our remaining 2 clinicals are during our last year of the program. There’s one in the fall semester and one in the spring semester. These ones run for much longer, ranging about 12-16 weeks. For these clinical rotations, we are able to choose where we’d like to go and our options are open to more than just outpatient orthopedic. This gives us a chance to take a look at some areas we’ve been wanting to learn more about. 


As my classmates and I start nearing the end of our final semester here on campus, we have been establishing our clinical sites for next year. My clinical in the fall is going to be a school based setting where I will be able to work with the pediatric population. Working with small children is ultimately where I would love to end up, so I am SO excited for the opportunity to start meeting some of those goals now and learning more about what it’s like to be a pediatric physical therapist. A few people in my class are thinking of taking a look at the entirely opposite population as me and doing clinical work with the geriatric population. Some of my classmates are doing clinicals at outpatient or sports clinics, so they’re going to have a chance to work with athletes and see that side of things. A few people are planning to do their fall clinical in an acute setting, so they will be in a hospital working with patients who are often in very vulnerable positions and who require a lot of attention, down to the smallest detail. Others are planning to go to neurological based facilities and work with a lot of cool technology and patients who may have a SCI or TBI for example. 


All in all, there are so many different locations that we as physical therapists can work and these examples of clinical locations that my classmates and I are planning to learn at are just some of them. As I reach the end of my final semester here on campus in a classroom, I am sad to be leaving behind some great people, but am so very excited for what the future holds and to learn in some great environments on my clinical rotations. 


If anyone has questions about clinicals here at Utica, please feel free to reach out at mmlazore@utica.edu. 




Goodbye for now, folks☺


Maryanne


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