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August 24, 2010

Evaluation

Every semester at our clinical internship, we have mid-term and final evaluations. The APTA has developed an evaluation tool called the Web-CPI (Web clinical performance instrument) which both the student and clinical instructor must fill out in order to complete the course. It involves 18 items ranging from safety to communication and professionalism, to the five elements of patient/client management, to utilization of support staff.

It takes hours to fill out. That is, if you are thoughtful and thorough in your evaluation. Joy. Since my last day of clinic was this past Friday, I must finish this behemoth and meet with my clinical adviser so we can go over it together. I must also fill out an evaluation of clinical site itself, get signatures and turn a copy in to the school. As I write this post, I recognize that I'm procrastinating.

After this particular clinic, I'm so over paperwork. Most places are automated with computers to record documentation. My first clinic with the VA Hospital had computer documentation, and while it was time consuming, documentation was entered on a client, maximum 4 forms and we were done. At my most recent clinic, all documentation was written by hand on paper forms. I touched on this topic in my post about "A day in the life . . . ." Much of the information was recorded on several forms, making for redundant documentation that requires consistency (how many ways can a question be asked? -- this is the way they trap people in lies!) which is where computers excel. I actually have a list that is almost 2 pages long outlining all the documentation I need to handle on a patient at any given time during their stay at this facility.

Why do I mention all of this? If I'm evaluating the facility, "ridiculous amounts of documentation" is going to be one of the more critical items of feedback they are going to get from me.

Posted by linda at August 24, 2010 8:55 AM