Shadowing Experience #3 (St. Luke's)

*Completed on November 30, 2006*

This was a fun experience as well. I followed around Barbi on the second floor and went on her final go around that night. I met with an older woman that fractured her spine when she fell. I watched Barbi work with her on practicing getting dressed by using a mechanical gripper and making sure that she did not try and flex her spine to do the activity. I then met with a guy that was paralyzed after a car accident. He had been driving to a party when he fell asleep and hit a tree with his car. Barbi had to administer a test to him on a book he was reading about life after that type of injury. Then he showed me how he transfered from his bed to his chair and back.

The last 30 minutes or so of my experience was with Barbi back in her office. There she showed me the type of paperwork and computer work that she has to do at the end of everyday. She entered everything that she did with her patients, along with recommendations of what to do next. This is saved in the computer system, which is networked with the entire hospital (along with the other hospitals in the greater Spokane area). That was basically the extent of my time with Barbi at St. Luke's.