Good morning, and Happy Monday. I'm coming off of a good weekend
and I hope everyone is doing the same. The Tampa Bay Lightning came
away with an overtime win on Friday night, my FSU Seminoles put a
beat down on Boston College Thursday night, and I had a couple of
fantasy football wins, so I can't complain.
Even with all the great sports on this weekend, I did manage to
get some good chiro-practice in this weekend. I'd like to think
that I'm pretty good at different exams and orthopedic tests that
I've learned over these past two years. Unfortunately, as I
realized last week, without practice those skills can quickly head
down hill.
I performed a lower back and lower extremity assessment on our
very own Dean of Academic Assessment Chad Maola, last week, and
needless to say there was some room for improvement. This exercise
made me realize that with all the material we are constantly
learning, some of our more basic practices can fall to the wayside.
We all tend to forget that we are in a graduate program, and we are
expected to master all the techniques and information we are given,
whether it is in the classroom or on our own.
To help sharpen those skills once again, I took some time this
weekend performing all my basic exams on anyone and everyone I
could get my hands on. Take the initiative and find a professor
that you feel comfortable with and at lunch one day, ask them if
you can perform some tests on them--guaranteed they will be
thrilled to make fun of you until you get it right.
Dr. Stark demonstrating shoulder taping on Guy.
Last week was very sports-oriented in our classes. Dr. Tim
Stark, our in-house functional assessment and rehabilitation guru,
helped us out learning some different taping techniques. For the
future docs that are looking to break into the sports aspect of our
profession, being proficient in taping is a huge tool to have on
hand. In an hour of lab, each of us in class burned through a roll
and a half of athletic tape learning how to stabilize shoulders,
ankles and wrists. The end result of the class was not only a loss
of a lot of my hair on tape, but a much better appreciation of a
complicated technique that can work wonders if done correctly.
Hopefully, today's blog inspires some of you to keep practicing
and keep learning. Being a part of the medical profession means we
will be students the rest of our lives in one capacity or another,
so continue to keep your minds open.
I hope everyone's week goes well and flies by. I'm already
looking forward to the weekend because the weather down here in
Florida has been too nice to spend inside.
Take care,
Dex