Over the past 3 years in the PT program I have learned a lot about myself both personally and professionally and feel that I have grown greatly through classes and clinical experiences. Over the past 12 months, I feel that I have had the a lot of improvement in my ability to interact with patients and my ability to confidently complete a subjective and objective assessment of patients. Starting PT school I was least confident with talking to patients and hoping that there was not going to be a difficult conversation. Following my acute care rotation I have been able to learn how to deal with these patients and have been able to gain real world experience.
Over this past year of clinical rotations I have learned so much and have really found the physical therapist that I want to be. I have been able to apply all of the information that I learned and studied in the classroom and I have been able to talk to patients and families about how PT has helped them. On my rotation this past fall at Sparrow Pediatrics I realized how much I enjoy working with pediatric patients and how I love being able to watch the children go as well as work with the families to find solutions that will help improve quality of life and help the kids to do the most they can. I also was given an opportunity to spend 50% of my rotation in the regional neonatal intensive care unit. At the start of my 14 week rotation this terrified me, but over the 14 weeks I was there I grew to love working with all of the infants and I could see myself diving deeper into NICU physical therapy. Looking at my future I would love to be able to work in a NICU. When at sparrow I realized how important physical therapy in the NICU environment is. It is more than just "snuggling" with the little babies and it is working to keep the infants calm, helping the nurses to complete procedures that might be "unpleasant" for the little ones and teaching the parents handling techniques that can help to promote strength and growth of their little ones. During that rotation I also got the opportunity to work in the pediatric ICU where I was able to work with patients of many different diagnosis and was able to treat 2 pediatric patients with auto-immune encephalopathy as well as a patient with guillain barre syndrome. During this I was able to teach the families techniques of facilitating movement and safe movement techniques all while working with the patient and making it a fun and engaging environment. This rotation confirmed my love for pediatrics and has helped me to solidify my goal of becoming an inpatient pediatric physical therapist.
Following graduation I am planning on moving out to Arizona in July where I am currently applying for positions at different hospitals and outpatient clinics. I will continue to keep researching to find the most effective techniques for all my patients and I will work to create fun and engaging exercises for all my patients as I think that if an exercise is "boring" a patient is much less likely to complete them on their own. I am scheduled to take the NPTE next week and am planning on submitting my application for licensure in AZ following the examination.
PTH 646 Orthopedic Interventions
Skeleton Recovering from Ruptured Achilles Tendon
