Question

You are a new graduate PTA working in an outpatient pediatric clinic. Your supervising PT, Owen, is scheduled to work the same hours as you, to perform evaluation and reassessment, and to provide on-site supervision and patient/client treatment in the same gym. One morning as Ella, your first patient, arrives you are informed by Sthephanie, the occupational therapist, that Owen will not be coming to work because of illnes. What policies or procedures should the clinic adopt to deal with this type of situation in the future?

Answer 1

Some of the policies and procedures which the clinic can adopt to deal with these types of situations in future are

• A mandatory policy to inform any leave in advance including sick leave atleast a day before or at the earliest so that appropriate replacement staff can be posted to avoid shortage .This can also help any novice staff to get accompanied with the routine andcwork without any fear and confusion
• It is best to keep a bystander in every department to meet these types of situations and handle effectively
• During recruitment process ,the specific skills in regards to these types of situations can be raised to assess the confidence and the ability of the staff to handle patients without any help.