Pediatric Therapy Partners

Logo for Pediatric Therapy PartnersThis summer I was able to complete my internship at Pediatric Therapy Partners located just outside of Columbus. This was an out-patient clinic that provided Occupational Therapy and Speech Therapy.

The clinic was responsible in seeing numerous children each day to help aid in improving the daily habits of the children through evaluations and treatment. As for myself, I spent a great deal of time observing multiple different therapists. This allowed me to learn different techniques and skills that are used by different therapists. As well, in some sessions standardized measurement tests were used with the children, which was eye-opening to see. I learned as well how important documentation of sessions were and how the different therapists chose to write their documents. The therapists as well were great at explaining some of the important things to pay attention to during sessions that are key in measuring the progress of clients. I feel that even from my short time spent there, I have learned so much that will be beneficial heading into a hopeful future career as an Occupational Therapist.

The therapists were all extremely considerate and made me feel comfortable at all times while I was there. They were always encouraging questions and providing adequate answers to questions that I asked. As well, they always did a great job at explaining the goals of different children before I viewed a session, which allowed me to make sense of why certain activities were being pursued. Sometimes though, they would sort of reverse roles and allow myself to come up with conclusions as to why they did something and have me then explain to them. This was always confidence boosting and reassuring that I was really gaining value and learning from my experience there.

This has been one of the greatest learning experiences that I could have imagined, and my time spent there was extremely rewarding. Although I know it was just a short amount of time spent there, but I feel as if I have an entire new wealth of knowledge. I have been inspired and am eager to continue learning about Occupational Therapy and what the career all has to offer beyond pediatrics.

-Bailey Winner

Volunteering for YoungLives Columbus

Logo for Columbus City YoungLivesThis past summer, I received the opportunity to serve as a student intern for YoungLives Columbus. My role was very fluid, allowing me to experience every position in this organization. From handling the newsletter, to running childcare, to finding reliable resources to relay to moms, this internship definitely exceeded my expectations. I truly saw the behind the scenes work of supporting mothers in their day-to-day lives and helping them grow in self-advocacy.

I really enjoyed working on the resource toolkit with the committee members. The goal of this toolkit was to create a living document with reliable resources for moms. It contains many resources for shelter, food, pregnancy, diapers, transportation, furniture, and medical options. I didn’t understand how much this was needed at first, but I have come to learn that some places that advertise that they are here to support moms really fail to accomplish that. Whether it be a completely false advertisement or many times another agenda is involved, it is really hard to get help when needed. Creating this toolkit involved YoungLives mentors calling these places and explaining what we do and asking the question of how can you help us. We then tried to use the resource for ourselves first before referring to moms.

The biggest thing that I have learned was how to put the feelings of these mothers over my own. Being involved in an organization like this truly requires a selfless character and this character does not come naturally. This was not something that I could be taught solely, but something I also needed to learn through experience. When I first experienced a blowup with a mom, I had no idea what to do. The specific mom that I was connecting with has deep trauma and suffers from severe depression and addiction. One day, I was at her apartment and she became extremely angry with me because I refused to take her to get cigarettes. She became hysterical in such a short time and I was honestly shocked because it was my first time seeing her in that state. I knew that I had to stand my ground, but I also did not want to abandon her at her worst because that is what she was used to. So, I stayed with her and listened because that was really all I could do. She was not in the state to even have a logical conversation surrounding it, so I stayed at her apartment for about 30 minutes until she calmed down. My purpose for doing that was to show her that she does not deserve to be walked out on just because she had a bad moment. How she feels and why she feels it still mattered to me. I understood that her anger was about way more than the cigarettes. One part of me was really confused about why this was happening with me and to me, but another part was really concerned for her well-being and that was the feeling that ended up taking over. I was not worried about me because I was not the one who was hurting.

It is my dream to become an OBGYN and this internship has really helped me understand what mothers go through on the daily, specifically teen moms. Teen mothers are not a monolith and their lives look so different from one another. Even though they are young mothers, they still deserve to be supported and cared for. This internship has grown my passion for working with mothers in the future.

-Valerie Simon

Experiences at an Outpatient Physical Therapy Clinic

This summer, I had the pleasure of completing an internship at Active Physical Therapy – Hilliard from early May through the end of July as a Physical Therapist Aide.  As a PT Aide at the clinic, I was expected to fulfill many tasks on a daily basis.  These tasks included duties like basic maintenance, cleaning, and helping to check patients in.  However, my most significant duties by far included observing and assisting patients in the administration of their physical therapy regimens.

In a typical day, we would see approximately 5-10 patients per therapist.   We worked with patients from initial entry all the way to “graduation”.  For example, Lisa (not her real name) was a patient that had been coming to the clinic for two weeks before I started my internship.  Lisa was an elderly woman that struggled with activities of daily living and suffered from deficits in strength and balance.  In a typical session, we would work in exercises like marching in place, step-and-pause, and side-to-side shuffles as well as standard exercises like rows, overhead presses, and sit-to-stands.

However, we were far from limited to elderly patients.  We had a young soccer player that, upon examination, was diagnosed with femoroacetabular syndrome (hip impingement).  After that diagnosis, we would work on both range of motion and strengthen the various structures of the hip and leg.  These two actions combined would enable the patient to tolerate load easier and increase range of motion over time while also building strength around the problem area.  We especially focused on strengthen the abductors and the glute Medius.  He was eventually able to return to soccer full time.

Sometimes, we had patients that had gone through severe trauma as well.  Anne (not her real name) was in a traumatic accident that resulted in a shattered femur and various nerve issues.  In a typical session, we would work on various strengthening exercises for her quadriceps muscles as well as building tolerance to loading the ankle area.  Additionally, we would work on nerve glides in order to relieve and work on injured nerves.  Over time, she was able to continually regain more and more function of her leg and ankle.  Recovery, however, is an uneven path.  It may be a long time before she regains full function.

Andrew Evans at Active Physical Therapy ClinicEarly in the internship, my preceptor and I sat down and decided on learning objectives that I would use to guide my experience at the clinic.  My first learning objective was to improve my knowledge of human anatomy and physiology and to increase my knowledge of practical treatments for various ailments.  My time at Active Physical Therapy more than accomplished this for me.  I learned how you might treat many different injuries, from cervical spine issues, to hip issues, all the way to foot and ankle problems.  My second learning objective was to improve my comfort in a clinical setting interacting with patients.  I would argue I was even more successful in this objective than my first.  I developed close relationships with patients that lasted for the duration of the internship.  I became invested in their success and loved seeing progress from week-to-week.  Overall, my time at Active Physical Therapy was incredibly beneficial.  It strengthened my conviction that physical therapy was the right field for me.

-Andrew Evans