Unprofessional behavior from PT student

[darkangel77]

Hello all! I have a question on how to deal with a PT student, as a CI, who exhibits unprofessional behavior.

He is 8 weeks (out of 10) into his third affiliation and I am a co-CI for him with one of my colleagues. He has been quite good up until recently, and gets along with the rest of the staff and his hard skills (treatment, evaluation) and bedside manner are fine. He started his affiliation one week late due to a situation on his end and thus, is ending one week later than his classmates.

He is scheduled to work Monday-Friday, and our staff rotates Sundays (and we take off the following Friday). It just so happened that the next Sunday I am working happens to be during his last week, so I would not be there for his last day (but his other CI will be there). He asked me if he could work that Sunday with me, essentially ending his affiliation a day early. We normally do not have our students to come in on Sundays unless there is only one CI (in which case, the student follows the CI’s schedule).

I spoke with my colleague and we decided it was best to have him remain on his regular M-F schedule, due to several patient-related circumstances. My student then became resistant and started saying he didn’t want to come in on that (originally scheduled) Friday, and he felt it was unfair to have him do so. His reasons were that he wanted an extra day to prepare for his next affiliation (which starts that following Monday), and he was asking for a favor since he’s been a good student so far, that he needs to advocate for himself.

And then he said he was going to speak to our supervisor, essentially going over his CIs’ heads. He asked to meet with both of us and proceeded to argue with us, and then said he was going to talk to his school about it and that they would agree with him.

I feel we are doing nothing wrong here. If I wasn’t working that Sunday, he would have had to come in on that Friday regardless. We are not asking him to come in on a day he wasn’t scheduled to be in. We also don’t give him much work and he has had ample time to prepare for his midterm and final inservices (required for all our students). I have also been quite lenient with him and have let him go early a couple times during extenuating circumstances, and perhaps he is taking that for granted.

My question is - have any of you had an experience like this? And what would be the appropriate thing to do from here - talk to his school? My supervisor? Both?

This is the first time I’ve dealt with a student acting like this. Any advice is appreciated!

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[kdubz7w7]

Hello all! I have a question on how to deal with a PT student, as a CI, who exhibits unprofessional behavior.

He is 8 weeks (out of 10) into his third affiliation and I am a co-CI for him with one of my colleagues. He has been quite good up until recently, and gets along with the rest of the staff and his hard skills (treatment, evaluation) and bedside manner are fine. He started his affiliation one week late due to a situation on his end and thus, is ending one week later than his classmates.

He is scheduled to work Monday-Friday, and our staff rotates Sundays (and we take off the following Friday). It just so happened that the next Sunday I am working happens to be during his last week, so I would not be there for his last day (but his other CI will be there). He asked me if he could work that Sunday with me, essentially ending his affiliation a day early. We normally do not have our students to come in on Sundays unless there is only one CI (in which case, the student follows the CI’s schedule).

I spoke with my colleague and we decided it was best to have him remain on his regular M-F schedule, due to several patient-related circumstances. My student then became resistant and started saying he didn’t want to come in on that (originally scheduled) Friday, and he felt it was unfair to have him do so. His reasons were that he wanted an extra day to prepare for his next affiliation (which starts that following Monday), and he was asking for a favor since he’s been a good student so far, that he needs to advocate for himself.

And then he said he was going to speak to our supervisor, essentially going over his CIs’ heads. He asked to meet with both of us and proceeded to argue with us, and then said he was going to talk to his school about it and that they would agree with him.

I feel we are doing nothing wrong here. If I wasn’t working that Sunday, he would have had to come in on that Friday regardless. We are not asking him to come in on a day he wasn’t scheduled to be in. We also don’t give him much work and he has had ample time to prepare for his midterm and final inservices (required for all our students). I have also been quite lenient with him and have let him go early a couple times during extenuating circumstances, and perhaps he is taking that for granted.

My question is - have any of you had an experience like this? And what would be the appropriate thing to do from here - talk to his school? My supervisor? Both?

This is the first time I’ve dealt with a student acting like this. Any advice is appreciated!

I have never been a CI but I feel like I would talk to his school. I sympathize with the original request but his reaction is unprofessional.

 

[CherokeeWahine]

Hello all! I have a question on how to deal with a PT student, as a CI, who exhibits unprofessional behavior.

He is 8 weeks (out of 10) into his third affiliation and I am a co-CI for him with one of my colleagues. He has been quite good up until recently, and gets along with the rest of the staff and his hard skills (treatment, evaluation) and bedside manner are fine. He started his affiliation one week late due to a situation on his end and thus, is ending one week later than his classmates.

He is scheduled to work Monday-Friday, and our staff rotates Sundays (and we take off the following Friday). It just so happened that the next Sunday I am working happens to be during his last week, so I would not be there for his last day (but his other CI will be there). He asked me if he could work that Sunday with me, essentially ending his affiliation a day early. We normally do not have our students to come in on Sundays unless there is only one CI (in which case, the student follows the CI’s schedule).

I spoke with my colleague and we decided it was best to have him remain on his regular M-F schedule, due to several patient-related circumstances. My student then became resistant and started saying he didn’t want to come in on that (originally scheduled) Friday, and he felt it was unfair to have him do so. His reasons were that he wanted an extra day to prepare for his next affiliation (which starts that following Monday), and he was asking for a favor since he’s been a good student so far, that he needs to advocate for himself.

And then he said he was going to speak to our supervisor, essentially going over his CIs’ heads. He asked to meet with both of us and proceeded to argue with us, and then said he was going to talk to his school about it and that they would agree with him.

I feel we are doing nothing wrong here. If I wasn’t working that Sunday, he would have had to come in on that Friday regardless. We are not asking him to come in on a day he wasn’t scheduled to be in. We also don’t give him much work and he has had ample time to prepare for his midterm and final inservices (required for all our students). I have also been quite lenient with him and have let him go early a couple times during extenuating circumstances, and perhaps he is taking that for granted.

My question is - have any of you had an experience like this? And what would be the appropriate thing to do from here - talk to his school? My supervisor? Both?

This is the first time I’ve dealt with a student acting like this. Any advice is appreciated!

I can sympathize with him wanting to have an extra day to prepare for his next rotation. However, the needs of the patient must come first, not his own personal needs. As a soon-to-be PT, he should understand that. As a fellow CI, I would be in contact with his school to discuss this behavior.

 

[ya1]

I am not a CI, but I would probably just excuse the student from the last day then. He is not going to get much extra experience from 1 more day... No need to fight about that...
But since the situation escalated to this extreme now, I would probably ask the school if it is ok for the student to miss 1 day. If school is ok with it, just let him go. You can put your feedback about his unprofessional behavior in your assessment if you want.

 

[truthseeker]

I am a CI and have been for, gulp, 31 years. The sooner you get him out of your clinic the better. I agree with Ya1. reflect his whiny behavior on his final. pass him if he is competent but with an asterisk. If he would have worked the Sunday with you, he leaves a day earlier, no skin off your back and he doesn't whine.

 

[Azimuthal]

We don’t even give students the option at my location. Typically weekends are covered by only one therapist or a skeleton crew due to our short staffing. Although I can sympathize, sometimes we have to be inconvenienced to develop some grit.

I would go the extra length to discuss the issue with the student and explain how his professionalism is perceived. He may be asking for 1 day but it doesn’t seem like it would make much of a difference since he still has that weekend. There may be something else that he is not disclosing, like time to get some labs done for the next affiliation, background screen, or extended weekend to surprise his partner or something. Who knows.

 

[Skyris]

Just another perspective, although this has surely been long resolved by now, professionalism in terms of the CPI doesn't mean the exact thing the word "professionalism" does in the greater zeitgeist. I believe it is more oriented toward professional culture, advocating for our profession, learning about and keeping up to date about professional issues, but also that component of being mature and 'professional' toward your patients and coworkers.

It sounds like this guy is entering a field where employers are going to try their hardest to bulldoze PT's of all experience levels and he's going to fight for himself. I'd give him a Beyond Entry Level lol, especially if he stated his case calmly and rationally.