Summary: Clinic Attachment

Finally, this year is the time for me to have clinic attachment as a student practitioner to start treating the patients. The clinic where I have my internship is Sparks clinic at Desa Petaling and the clinic shifts are on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. I feel very pleased to be assigned to another five of my batch mates, as we have worked well together with the willingness to discuss about certain doubts and to share knowledge between each other. These have enhanced our learning and growth as a chiropractic intern. We would usually share the information that we have gathered through a Facebook group and would help out each other when there is a need to do so. In clinic, there is only two modalities machine, so we would usually place the machine

I felt very disappointed with myself as I know I am responsible for it. I have tried going for spinal screening activities to help promote health awareness in the community regarding the health of their muscle, joints and bones. I also joined the taping workshop or events to provide another treatment option for my patients who needs it. However, I think that the reason why the patient count is still low is the result of patient not understanding the importance of receiving early treatment and consequences with no treatment. Therefore, I strongly think that it is very important to provide patient education about their health. If the patient education is not done properly, some of them would think there is not a need for them to follow up with the treatment as they believe they might recover by themselves. This can be seen in some instances where the patient do not come back for subsequent treatments after getting symptomatic relief temporarily with a few treatments. This experience allows me to realize that I need to explain the prognosis and outcome of not being compliant to the treatment plan to the patient, so that they will not stop in the middle of the treatment which may impede their healing process. Calling strangers to ask whether they would like to come in the clinic for a checkup is nerve-wrecking. For the first person that I called, I was feeling demotivated and scared to make the

I have adapted to the previous ways of adjusting in the practical class whereby we are not allowed to generate the thrusting force in one go. I noticed that I always make this same adjusting mistake whenever the adjustment is delivered on the patient. I have tried to practice my skills including palpation skills and adjustment skills at home using inanimate objects such as pillows, books and bottles. Advice given by my batch mates in class also contribute to improvement in my adjustment skills. From this incident, I realize that putting effort in developing skills on my own is not enough, I need to ask for guidance and feedback from others to correct my mistakes to be good in adjustments. Other than adjustment, I was having a tough time to conveying information to my patients, as I am not confident in myself and I am not good in my communication skills. I believe that my poor communication skills is due to lack of practice and lack of experience in dealing with real life patients. I think it is important to improve on my communication skills, as it is crucial for the patient to get a better understanding of their conditions before the treatment plan can commence. When I have free time, I will rehearse by looking at myself in front of the mirror to practice communicating the information and assessing myself