Another month has come and gone. Yes, it is still raining here in Portland. No, I have not yet hit clinical depression. . . . yet :). With my Clinical Instructor having her baby last week, I’m sort of bouncing between 2 therapists. It has been nice in the sense of I have been given full responsibility of the patients we were seeing together, and starting this week, I am at a full case load with as little supervision as is legally possible (depending on the insurance). It has been great so far. One more month of clinical internship before heading back to Denver for final wrap-up and graduation on May 6th-7th.
Being so close to the coast, we decided to take a short trip down Highway 101. All I can say is that the Oregon coast is amazing. It was great.
I just had to include this picture. His smile is perfect. He loved throwing rocks into the roaring ocean. How can a little boy's smile look so angelic and devilish at the same time? It's called being three years old.
While at school, I have been asking on several occasions about the strengths of Regis. Now that we are out on clinicals and are using the “stuff” we have learned, I asked a few classmates to share their thoughts on the specific site they are at: pediatric, neurological, and manual therapy.
Hannah
Here are Hannah’s thoughts about the “pediatric” side of physical therapy and our education at Regis. She is currently on internship at Children’s Hospital in Denver, CO:
Coming into Regis, I had a strong inclination that I wanted to someday work in pediatric physical therapy. Before attending Miami University for undergrad, I spent some time volunteering at The Children’s Hospital of Cincinnati in their inpatient and outpatient physical therapy department. But I decided to keep an open mind to the many other areas of PT I would be exposed to and not keep myself in the kiddie corner if any other interest developed.
After surviving the first year of PT school, we got into the Neuro Management series, where an entire way of thinking about impairments and how to figure out their components was introduced to our class. I remember thinking how futile it seemed to break down every skill into these little bitty pieces and find ways to address whatever was going wrong. I think we all thought they were just out to give us loads of busy work and weren’t actually convinced we were learning anything all that beneficial. I suppose you could say that I “saw the light” after my second clinical affiliation, when I realized how nice it was to have the ability to dissect movement and perform a good task analysis of a patient’s gait, sit to stand, rolling pattern, and overall posture. I remember giving a case study presentation about a pediatric patient I worked with during my second rotation, and being asked whether I felt prepared to work with her through our curriculum thus far. And before I could even think about it, my knee jerk reaction was an affirmative. Though I had not taken Neuro Managment II or my pediatric elective yet, I felt as though I had a strong foundation in how to THINK about treating this population. Kids can be very complicated and not necessarily tell you or their parents everything that is going on or holding them back, which is where the invaluable tool of refined observation comes into play to guide your interventions and treatment strategies.
So here I am, about to graduate, and on my last affiliation at a satellite clinic of The Children’s Hospital of Denver. Yes, I learn an immense amount weekly, and am challenged by my clinical instructors to take the foundational knowledge provided by Regis to the next level with every treatment session. Yes, I still struggle to identify ALL that is going on with many of my patients, especially the children who have severe cerebral palsy and are compensated and recompensated 20 times over. And yes, I wear colorful socks everyday and attempt to avoid spit up and little sneezes at all costs. But what can I say…I think I like it!
Through it all, I believe the kiddo-oriented classmates and I have been generally very satisfied with the way in which the DPT faculty prepared us. We received a good foundation from the beginning of normal development, observing both videos and real life babies and children in lab. It was terrific to have equipment vendors and guest lecturers from various organizations come in to speak about content that a simple power-point cannot accurately convey. I know it was sometimes a bother to those who weren’t extremely interested in peds, but I enjoyed having a little bit of pediatric content in every class. If I hadn’t, there would be no way to absorb it all in one short elective course. Heidi (one of our professors) did a great job with the elective course, bringing in excellent guest lecturers, setting up worth while field trips, and bringing tons of little ones into our class to work on handling techniques and administering standardized assessments.
The only area in which I felt slightly uncomfortable with regard to Regis’ pediatric curriculum was related to specific intervention strategies to target impairments, with a pediatric flair! Which is understandable, given the limited number of toys, balls, and other kid friendly equipment available to the department, and the fact that every clinic is diverse, and these things are easily learned on the job once you know what you want to accomplish during a session. This flows into the lack of actual handling practice we received, which also comes with experience and specialized courses, which will take years for me to develop.
So if you enjoy swings, hide and seek, and tickle fights like I do, Regis is a great place for you to be. The faculty draws upon their vast clinical knowledge and passion for the field to really teach what is most useful to the new pediatric therapist grad. They present the most current/available research to empower their students to impact the lives of children and their families.
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions!
Hannah Nawaz
Regis DPT 2011
nawaz344@regis.edu
Krystle and her dog, Packer
Now, here are Krystle’s thoughts on the “neurological” side of physical therapy at Regis. She is currently at Craig Hospital in Denver, CO, where they specialize in spinal cord injuries and other neurological conditions:
When making the decision of whether or not to attend Regis University for physical therapy, one of my main deterrents was that I did not know the strength or weakness of the neurological section of the curriculum. Regis is well known for having a strong orthopedic component. The staff at Regis has done a great job at consolidating the tremendous amount of information needed to learn regarding complex neurological diseases or injuries. I would comfortably say that the curriculum exposes you to common impairments related to common neurological diseases.
With that said, as a soon-to-be graduate, if I saw that I had a patient with Parkinson’s, Multiple Sclerosis, Cerebral Palsy on my schedule, I wouldn’t be apprehensive about treating them. Reluctance in evaluation and treatment would be because of lack of interaction with patients of neurologic symptoms. One of the weaknesses of Regis neurological section is that you do not get a lot of information on intervention on patients with neurological impairments. Regis University does have a great clinical education team that can place you in clinical rotations that are more specific to your area of interest so that you are able to capture the information that you would like to during your time as a student. If you have a specific interest in spinal cord injuries (SCI) or traumatic brain injuries (TBI), I would highly recommend attending Regis. They have developed a relationship with Craig Hospital which is a model system for SCI and TBI. Besides Colorado University, Regis is the only school to have a continuous relationship with Craig Hospital. New graduates that have interned at Craig have also accepted positions as PT staff. Other rotations that have been available include TEAR hospital in Texas.
There are benefits and drawbacks to each physical therapy program. As a soon-to-be graduate I feel comfortable with additional training that I am receiving in my rotations to treat a specific population such as spinal cord injuries after attending Regis University.
Dave at CSM (Combined Sections Meeting) in New Orleans.
Now, as most of you may have heard, Regis prides itself in the “manual” side of physical therapy. I asked a classmate, Dave, to give his thoughts on the subject since this last rotation has been spent in a manual-based clinic. Thanks, Dave. Here is what he had to say:
Prior to coming to Regis University, I was aware of its strong reputation for being a leading school in manual therapy education. The Musculoskeletal Management series of classes at Regis have always been my personal favorite and I feel they are the most applicable to those who plan on practicing in an outpatient setting. The manual skills that I have learned at Regis have given me a great basic skill set with which to branch from and expand upon in my clinical rotations. I think that there is room for improvement in the area of an applicable evaluation process that could be taught in each of these classes. Basic evaluation techniques are taught but more could be done to teach efficiency, relevance of findings, and problem solving in an orthopedic setting. More focus could be given to test-re-test process and the use of comparable signs to show progress or effectiveness of interventions. That being said, the argument could be made that these skills should be refined and mastered in a clinical setting. An important strength of the program is that procedure and technique with mobilization and manipulation are paramount.
After completion of the Musculoskeletal Management series, in my opinion, I felt comfortable with my basic skill set to the point that I would be able to perform all the basic treatments including mobilization and manipulation and diagnostic testing to evaluate and rule in or out a musculoskeletal condition. Another strength of the program is that knowledgeable and experienced staff are utilized in the lab to assure that students feel comfortable with these techniques and not only answer questions, but provide alternative methods for those who may need them. Given the experiences that I have had at Regis both in the classroom and the clinic, I am confident that Regis provides some the best manual skill education available.
Regis University Doctor of Physical Therapy Blog 