EWU and the Board of Directors meeting 3/1/08

EWU students would like to contribute to the PTWA Board of Directors meeting that is taking place tomorrow by giving feedback to Brett's question: "What will we as students need from our employers upon entry into the work field? What can be done?". Some of us at Eastern would like to go into a working environment that encourages learning and offers the ability to ask questions to fellow colleagues in order to provide quality care to all of our patients and not feel embarrassed to do so. As students, some of us have the impression that we need to be experts in our field from day one, and that if we are not experts we will lose respect from our peers and other health care providers. If an employer could foster an environment that reduced the fear of making mistakes we feel we would become better physical therapists sooner in our career. Employers could demonstrate that such an environment exists in their workplace by scheduling pt's every half hour or longer, not "dove-tailing" or scheduling a pt every 15 minutes. They could also incorporate weekly staff meetings where pt cases could be discussed (while still abiding by HIPAA laws). To some of the students at EWU this kind of workplace would be worth a few thousand dollars of our wages.