My Student PT Wife Needs Help

I'm not a PT, so I'm not sure if this is the right move here, but I'm desperate. My wife is currently trying to finish he DPT. She's in a her third clinical and last semester. She is struggling, hard. She's never had great self-esteem and confidence, but this place just killed whatever little shreds she had left. I'm just not sure what she should do anymore.

To start, she's placed at a clinic that definitely treats athletes. The place is more like an open gym than anything else. This already destabilized her, as she's not used to this environment or patient population. Her CI is also an aggressive Type A personality. These two facts have put her on edge from the very beginning. Her school did not prepare her with a strong base in Therapeutic Exercise, and combined with an entire gym's worth of new machines and equipment, she started the clinical lost. The clinic is also very heavily skewed towards orthopedic patients as well. This was the very first thing she covered in school, and has spent her last two didactic portions of school going over neurology and integumentary. So it's been awhile since she was heavy into orthopedics. All this has left her feeling like she's playing catch-up more than actually doing her job.

Now this would be plain to deal with, if it was just that, but it's not. I'm getting the impression that her CI is starting to created a hostile work environment. To start, he wants immediate answers to some pretty obscure questions, and is asking them in an unclear way. For instance, he has a habit of asking a really basic question "What is machine doing to the patient's knee". She answers, but it's not what he's looking for. He's asking super basic sounding questions, but that answer he wanted for that one got way down into joint lines and kinesiology. But he refused to tell her that's what he was looking for. He just kept saying that's not it, and threatening to "get grumpy" if she doesn't answer. He puts massive amounts of pressure on her like this, on a multiple-times-a-day basis. In front of patients, other PTs, etc. He's publicly embarrassing her. They'll make her get up to put her through the exercises, but make fun of her form and technique the whole way through. They don't answer questions she asks. She'll ask simple questions or request reminders for some machines, and every request is met with attitude, denigration (you should know this, can't you remember anything, what are you even doing here, etc).

She's hesitant to ask for any help now from anyone there, because it's always met with the same reactions. She can't go in early or stay late to learn the machines because no one is willing. She can't even get a schedule, because her CI won't give her one. He always says, "You'll have a schedule when you have your own patients", but refuses to let her have her own patients. They won't even set her up with the patient schedule, because they can't be bothered. She can't even prepare for patients because of this. And she can't bring her work home to study, because the CI/Owner doesn't believe in an EMR system. Or microwaves, but that's another conversation. Her CI won't let her use any study aids or her laptop throughout the day. The whole thing, I feel, is just setting her up for failure. She can't make any progress, because this guy won't let her. And is basing this on her inability to answer confusing questions on the spot.

But she feels like she can't ask the clinic for help, because even if they do, they're going to be hostile about it. She feels like she can't ask her school for help, because they're just going to talk to her CI and she feels the CI will retaliate. I feel like she's going to get failed by this go for absolutely no valid reason. I feel like she's not even getting the chance to do her thing because of her CI. I know this isn't appropriate, but she won't talk to anyone for fear or not getting any help or making it all worse for her. I just don't know what else there is to do for her. I'm worried. And meanwhile she's crumpling into a nervous wreck that feels like she's not a PT anymore. This CI/clinic has absolutely sapped everything out of her. She's having panic attacks on Sunday night just thinking about going in Monday. Every night is an exercise in calming her down, just for the next day. She can't get any of her extra school work done, because nothing is ever enough for this guy. Now she's starting her 4th week out of 12, and still doesn't have any patients and he has no intention of giving her any.

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Edit: I've seen some people suggesting she talk to someone at the clinic before going to the school. While I'd normally agree with you, I don't think it's going to work out the way some of you might imagine. The CI is the owner of the clinic. It's him, 2 other PTs, and 2 ATCs. There is no clinic coordinator, or HR, or practice manager or anything. The buck stops with her CI as far as the clinic goes.