Mar 18 2015

Troost, Lorna

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Professional Goal Statement

  • My aim is to become a compassionate, knowledgeable, humble, and well-rounded clinician with a variety of interests which all support my primary interest of pelvic rehabilitation. Pelvic rehab has become my specialization interest, but I believe that maintaining a wide range of interests and varied knowledge base is of significant value to any clinician. None of our patients are “simple,” and having a wider range of experiences to pull from will always be beneficial. I intend to pursue specialization certification in the WCS as well as the CLT specifically. These will allow me a more in-depth understanding of the complexities, diagnoses, prognoses, and treatments affecting my patients so I can best serve them. My long term goal is to promote this small specialty in the areas in which I practice, to help other clinicians know what resources are available to their patients. This includes connecting new and expecting mothers to possible treatment options to help promote short and long term health and wellness during and following childbirth, and educating local primary care providers on which patients might do well with pelvic rehab physical therapy services.

Career Plan

  • Doctorate of Physical Therapy—UNC Chapel Hill, August 2015
    • With DPT licensure following licensure exam, July 2015
  • Pelvic rehabilitation position post-graduation
    • Secondary option: lymphedema position with prior lymphedema training, as offered by several hospital systems in eastern North Carolina
    • For a first position, I am also interested in and open to mixed positions, such as a 50/50 mix of general orthopedics with pelvic rehab.
  • Women’s Health Physical Therapy residency 2017-2018
  • Board certified as a Women’s Health Specialist—by 2018
  • Pursue program development positions in areas/hospital systems without access to pelvic rehabilitation PT, 10-15 years after WCS certification
  • Lifelong APTA membership and involvement in NCPTA
  • Lifelong involvement in the Triangle Pelvic Rehab study group

Self-assessment

  • Strengths
    • Organized, detail oriented, time management, reliable
    • Caring, compassionate, empathetic; creates a safe, comfortable environment for patients in a sensitive environment
    • Dedicated to the promotion of the field and patients
    • Committed to expanding my knowledge and skill base
  • Areas for Professional Development
    • Confidence and efficiency with patient interview/examination
    • Clear and concise wording in communication with patients
    • More knowledge of billing/coding with complex cases
    • More knowledge about prognosis
    • Lack of clinical knowledge as a result of lack of experience

Objectives

  • Gain additional clinical experience during third year during pelvic floor clinical rotation
  • Complete doctoral level training and sit for licensure exam in July 2015
  • Apply and be accepted to a Women’s Health Physical Therapy residency that is accredited by the APTA
    • Alternative plan to pursue the CAPP certification route
  • Become credentialed by the APTA as a Women’s Health Certified Specialist
  • Become credentialed by the APTA as a Certified Lymphedema Therapist

Specific Strategies

  • Develop reasonable and effective study plan and schedule for passing licensure exam, July 2015
  • Attend networking events and engage in other networking opportunities throughout the Triangle and surrounding areas to find an appropriate and suitable first job with adequate mentorship
  • Develop a LinkedIn account and profile for networking and job search
  • Research Women’s Health residency programs and determine application requirements and benefits of individual programs; research FELS requirements for residency programs
  • Find information regarding alternative requirements to become WCS certified and obtain necessary materials to prepare for the specialty exam
  • Continue attending regional and national conferences to expose myself to new ideas, clinicians, research, and resources

Electives

  • Aging and Health
    • I decided to take this cross-discipline course as a result of the simple fact that almost no matter what specialty I choose, I will work with older adults. This course is cross-listed with many other departments, and as a result I was consistently exposed to the thought processes, ideas, and knowledge of other health care students. Though of course we did not discuss specific treatment modalities, having a better understanding of the aging process, health care system as relates to older adults, and ethical issues that can arise put me in a better place to treat older adult patients.
  • Spanish for Health Care Workers
    • I selected this elective due to the high volume of Spanish speaking patients I have seen on previous rotations. Even in the relatively resource-rich hospital systems in North Carolina, many times I have needed Spanish-language translation services, they have not been available. Though I am aware that one elective course will in no way prepare me to be able to take the history of patients without translator services, this course helped me to be better prepared to bridge the gap when services were unavailable, to establish some level of comfort for the patient, and to understand even a small portion of their speech in their own words. I have found even just using greetings and simple phrases such as “relax” can put patients at ease.
  • Integrated Clinical Experiences, Outpatient Orthopedics and Outpatient Neuro
    • These two semesters of the ICE elective gave me something no amount of studying could—patient experience. Knowledge alone is insufficient to being efficient, accurate, and effective in the clinic. We must be able to access that knowledge and apply it in an efficient method, and the only way to learn to do that is via clinical experience. These two semesters in the clinic gave me both additional time with patients and the practice that comes with it, as well as a different clinical perspectives as a result of working with different patient populations and different clinicians. Both settinsg had a higher volume of geriatric patients, which I have previously had relatively little of, and thus served to supplement this deficiency in my clinical experiences.

Capstone description

  • My Capstone project reflected a lack of dissemination of information I have found when talking to friends, family, and neighbors who either were pregnant or had recently had children. Many of these women were suffering in silence, as their medical professionals either did not ask about various common complaints, or did not know to whom to refer their patients. My Capstone project, Let’s Work Together: When and Why to Refer to Women’s Health Physical Therapy, was thus developed to educate other health professionals, specifically nurse-midwifery students, on other resources which exist for their patients. My project consisted of a literature search and subsequent online presentation of research regarding physical therapy interventions for several common conditions that occur with or following childbearing. The goal of this presentation was to provide nurse-midwives—an increasingly large provider of maternal care—information about when to refer and the evidence supporting those referrals.
    • A link to my Capstone website, and all products, can be found here

Other example of work completed at UNC related to professional goals

Reflective Statement

The past three years in UNC’s DPT program have shown me both how broad the field of physical therapy truly is, as well as how interesting and rewarding it can be for practitioners and patients alike. Though my time in the program has been tremendously challenging, both academically and occasionally emotionally, each course and clinical rotation confirmed my commitment to physical therapy as a field and a career. Like many others, I entered this field partially due to my desire to be an educator, and have found both my professors and clinical instructors to be excellent role models and resources in this regard. Though UNC of course does not have a pelvic rehab/women’s health specialist on faculty, the wide range of resources, the UNC hospital system and program alumni have provided me with innumerable contacts and resources. Becoming more involved in North Carolina’s political process is something I had always been interested in but had few resources for, and during my years at UNC have found activism to be both very rewarding and often much more effective than I had ever hoped.

Finding my niche took me several years, and this final rotation has fully cemented pelvic rehab as my main passion. The resources, skills, and experiences I have gained since entering the program will allow me to continue growing as a clinician throughout my career, no matter what path my career takes.

One response so far




One Response to “Troost, Lorna”

  1.   Lisa Johnstonon 07 Jun 2015 at 9:18 pm

    Lorna:
    I am so glad that you have had the opportunity to explore your interest in women’s health while also getting a board perspective of PT. Good luck as you continue to explore your interests.
    Lisa

    Reply

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