April 2010

Stuff, Stuff, and More Stuff

  Since the semester is slowly coming to a close (still a few more weeks until finals), every week seems pretty crazy with group assignments, projects, presentations, and quizzes.  Also, since school isn’t free, we’re all in the middle of trying to get our Financial Aid stuff in order.  Most of us use subsidized, unsubsidized, and Graduate PLUS loans to pay for school and stay alive, and each year we have to re-fill out information and come to terms that we’ll be paying this off for many years to come (plus interest, of course. . . I wouldn’t want it any other way, right?) 

For a Neuromanagement assignment, 2 groups of 4-5 students were assigned to provide Physical Therapy to a volunteer patient (the majority were current/old patients from our faculty) with a neurological disorder (TBI, stroke, SCI, to name a few). For each patient, there were 2 groups, as this picture depicts, so as to have an oral discussion from a faculty "neuro panel" to talk about the different ways each group approached their particular patient.

  Although I don’t know much about the new bill President Obama passed recently about loans and education, what it means right now is the process is a little slower since the Financial Aid Office here is trying to transition from us “getting” our loans from our own lenders (mainly banks, such as Wells Fargo, US Bank, etc) to a centralized lender.  Not a big deal or anything, just new.  If only school was free.

Here we are posing right before the Easter Egg Hunt. Although Spencer made a quick dash towards the eggs, he wasn't quite sure what to do once he got to them.

  Other than that, not too much going on.  Easter, of course, was fun with Spencer.  He had a blast collecting Easter eggs at a park in the morning, painting eggs in the afternoon, and getting lots of candy the next morning.  We even had gotten that Friday off from school.  It was a fun weekend.

Here's a picture of the baby shower for one of our classmates, Dani. She's pretty close to her due date, but I think she's hoping to make it until finals. For those curious about our class, of the 54 students, 12 are married, 3 are currently engaged, 4 of us have kids (5 kids in total), and one soon-to-be mother. Good luck Dani.

Read Full Post »

July 2009

I’m writing this entry just as finals week is approaching, today being the Friday before. It’s funny they call this “Reading Day,” a day of no school, a day I should lay out in the sun and read a chapter of a book that doesn’t talk about Physical Therapy, but, here I found myself at the school library, and I believe a more appropriate name for this day would be “Cramming Day,” or how about “I’ve Seen Every One of My Classmates In the Library Day.” Go figure.

Our first of two summer semesters have been good for some and better for others. This last month has been full of the usual projects, assignments, tests, and skills checks. For example, Semester 3 (this semester) is when we begin “tutorials,” which involve being put into a random group of 6-7 students with a faculty facilitator and we meet every Friday morning and discuss a case scenario. At the end of each session, we create objectives to research for the next week. You get the idea. Needless to say, we have all become very intimate with internet “search engines” to find current research articles to bring to these sessions. We’re going to be “Evidence Based Practitioners” whether we like it or not!

A few weeks ago, each group presented a 10 minute presentation on a specific aspect of APTA-related material. Our group shared about the different sections and specialties in the field of PT. All groups were creative (which, in fact, is part of the grading scale . . . they call it “Establishing Set”) in one way or another, from cheerleading with “spirit fingers” to marching in the room with a flute player. Checking out our snap-shot, can you guess what section each of us represented? It was lots of fun.

Our Group poses after our presentation, each of us representing an APTA section

This semester has been full of LABS, LABS, LABS. Don’t get me wrong, I love not being in the classroom all day and actually applying more and more information to a person. We just had our practical exam yesterday in Musculoskeletal Management I, which focused JUST on the ankle and knee. We all had a patient case, a patient (affiliate faculty volunteer), and we were asked plenty of questions about what we’d do, why we’d do it, when we’d do it, how long we’d do it, our SSN, things of that nature. If I was ever in an interrogation camp, I think I’d be able to handle the questioning. I just hope there isn’t a grade attached to it. Then I’d be nervous.

Another major lab was from Kinesiology II. It entailed pretty much a little bit of everything. From the picture, I tried to get a little bit of our whole class: this day, we learned and then taught the correct patterns for tennis serves, pitching, and a golf swing. Not your typical Physical Therapy, but this class is focused all on movement and movement patterns. Don’t even ask me to analyze your walking gait!

Class members teach how to throw a ball and swing a golf club. To the far left (out of the picture), others are performing a tennis swing.

It’s crazy to think our first year is almost over. It’s even crazier to think we’ll be in a real clinic in a few weeks, actually applying what we’ve learned. No more using your classmate as a patient; no more pretending you’re a patient with pain in your right calf that your friend is “trying” to treat. I think we’re all excited, nervous, and at this exact moment, I realize that I need to pass my tests before I can even think about entering a hospital door. Wish me luck.

Read Full Post »