My practicum site was at Rios Medical Center while the practicum site population was the elderly or gerontology. Rios Medical Center is a Clinic in Miami, Florida.
The facility provides healthcare services to patients of all ages. Within this facility, family medicine doctors and general practitioners play a key role in evaluating and treating patients
. My mentor suggested that I make contact with the onsite supervisor to gain an optimal experience from the site. Besides, I had to create a list of learning goals that would guide my practicum experience. I started my first rotation on May 7 with each rotation lasting 8 hours.
The subsequent rotations were done every Friday up to the end. So far, I have managed to complete several Direct Care activities. During my first rotation, I observed that many older patients had challenges in daily living because of different factors including chronic illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease, Alzheimer’s.
These challenges were hindering their ability to engage in self-care. I had an opportunity to interact with an older patient aged 71 years who revealed that her decision to visit Rios Medical Center was due to her inability to self-care.
Given the conditions that the older adults were in, I participated in helping them undertake daily living activities such as bathing grooming, dressing, using the toilet, and moving out of a chair or bed. I also helped some patients who wanted to communicate with friends and families but had trouble using the telephone. I can recall an instance when I helped a patient who complained of neck pain to an extent that he could not eat. I helped the patient by positioning his head slightly flexed
