DPT Portfolios

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 

Doctor of Physical Therapy 

Doctoral Portfolio 

 

Professional Goal Statement

Upon receiving my DPT from UNC Chapel Hill and becoming a licensed physical therapist, my professional goal is to provide unbiased, evidence-based care to all patients that I get the opportunity to work with. While I have a broad range of interests and experiences, I ultimately hope to practice in acute care with the adult neurologic or cardiopulmonary populations. While these are my clinical interests currently, I am thankful to have cultivated a background as a generalist in this program by selecting varying elective credits and participating in clinical experiences in a variety of settings. This generalist skill set that I have sought to develop will allow me the potential to transition to other settings and work with differing populations in the future as I recognize that throughout my career in physical therapy, my clinical interests may continue to evolve. I intend to continue to develop my patient care competencies by participating in continuing education courses and pursuing additional certifications after graduation from this program.

Academic Career

• May 2022: B.S. in Exercise Science with a minor in Psychology, Appalachian State University 
• August 2025: Doctor of Physical Therapy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 

Clinical Experiences

• UNC Wayne Outpatient Orthopedics (Goldsboro, NC)
  • Outpatient Orthopedics – 8 weeks
• UNC Medical Center – Main Campus (Chapel Hill, NC)
  • Acute Care (Trauma and Orthopedics) – 8 weeks
• Wake County Public School System (Raleigh, NC )
  • School System Pediatrics – 8 weeks
• UNC Hospitals Hillsborough Campus Inpatient Rehabilitation (Hillsborough, NC)
  • Inpatient Neuromuscular Rehabilitation – 80 hours
• Duke University Medical Center (Durham, NC)
  • Acute Care (Neurologic, Orthopedics, General Medicine) – 12 weeks

Electives

• Advanced Orthopedic Assessment (2024)
• Child & Family Assessment and Intervention (2024)
• Teaching Scholar for PHYT 701: Motor Development and Human Movement Across the Lifespan with Cathy Howes, PT, DPT, MS, PCS (2025)
• Integrated Clinical Experience in Inpatient Neuromuscular Rehabilitation (2025)

Examples of Work

• Capstone Project: 
  • Pulmonary Rehabilitation & Lung Transplantation: Educational Materials for UNC Health Patients and UNC DPT Students
  • I reviewed research on pulmonary rehabilitation and specific exercise prescription recommendations for individuals preparing for and recovering from lung transplantation, creating four patient education handouts (what to expect after transplant surgery, breathing exercises, activity pacing, and information regarding pulmonary rehabilitation), four evidence-based sample exercise prescription handouts corresponding to patient functional status before and after transplantation, and a PowerPoint presentation for 1st year DPT students highlighting this information.
  • PowerPoint
  • Sample Exercise Prescriptions: Pre-Transplant
    • Lower Functioning Individuals
    • Higher Functioning Individuals
  • Sample Exercise Prescriptions: Post-Transplant 
    • Lower Functioning Individuals
    • Higher Functioning Individuals  
  • Patient Education Handouts 
    • What is Pulmonary Rehabilitation?
    • What to Expect After Lung Transplant
    • Activity Pacing
    • Breathing Exercises

• School System Pediatrics Inservice Presentation: 
• • Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy: School-Based PT Considerations

• Breathe With Ease: Community Health & Wellness Program Plan
  • Breathe With Ease Program Plan
  • This plan (created in PHYT 824: Topics in Health and Wellness Promotion) outlines a potential community health and wellness program for individuals with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Included interventions focused on aerobic exercise, breathing exercises, respiratory muscle training/stretching techniques, and interdisciplinary disease-specific education that utilizes the Health Belief Model.

Future Plans/Objectives

• July – December 2025:
  • Graduate with DPT from UNC Chapel Hill
  • Pass the National Physical Therapy Examination (NPTE) and gain PT licensure in the state of North Carolina
  • Begin working as a full time PT in an acute care setting
• By 2030:
  • Become an APTA credentialed clinical instructor to mentor a DPT student
  • Pursue specialty physical therapy certification in a specialty relevant to my current interests and practice

Specific Strategies

• Create and follow an effective study schedule for the NPTE using reputable study sources
• Maintain APTA membership 
• Maintain connections with previous clinical instructors, mentors, classmates and faculty
• Search for and participate in continuing education courses that relate to my current interests and populations that I frequently treat

Self-Assessment 

• Areas of Strength 
  • Developing patient rapport with patients of all ages, backgrounds, and practice settings
  • Empathy in the practice setting that encourages a trusting patient-provider relationship
  • Practicing with professional and ethical behaviors 
• Areas for Development 
  • Increasing my involvement in the APTA at a local and national level to advocate for the physical therapy profession
  • Competence with the nuances of billing and reimbursement, both private and government health insurance providers
  • Increasing my confidence in my skills attained throughout the Doctor of Physical Therapy program

Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) 

Providing unbiased, quality care to individuals of all backgrounds is my primary objective when I think about entering clinical practice as a physical therapist. Through completion of clinical rotations in both urban, suburban, and rural settings throughout North Carolina, I have gained firsthand experience working with diverse populations facing unique barriers to healthcare. These experiences have reinforced the importance of cultural humility, active listening, and tailoring interventions to meet each patient’s specific needs. While treating patients, getting to know them and asking about their own personal story as it relates to their outlook on the world has been a commitment of mine throughout my clinical rotations. Moving forward, I am committed to advocating for equitable access to physical therapy services and continuously educating myself on challenges that many individuals in my community face to better serve all patients that I have the opportunity to treat.

Interprofessional Education Activities (IPE)

Throughout my time in this program, participation in IPE activities in both the clinical and classroom settings have been some of the most impactful experiences of my education. In every clinical experience that I’ve had while in this program, interdisciplinary communication was an integral aspect of patient success and recovery. From co-treating patients with occupational therapists in acute care settings to participating in grand rounds discussions with MDs/PAs, I have gained real hands-on experience in clinical settings that has prepared me to communicate with other disciplines regarding patient care. I got the chance to sit in on an interdisciplinary panel from UNC Health consisting of clinicians from physical therapy, occupational therapy, nursing, and pharmacy to better understand how these disciplines collaborate to effectively treat and manage individuals living with left ventricular assist devices (LVAD). An awesome takeaway from this panel discussion was the shower training program that I learned about at UNC Medical Center for this population, spearheaded by occupational therapists. Exposure to conversations like these allows me to consider how physical therapists can support ongoing interdisciplinary initiatives such as this at major hospital systems with similar populations. Additionally, I was afforded the opportunity to sit in on a lecture provided by the UNC Center for the Business of Health to learn more about the challenges in healthcare entrepreneurship today and how to go about navigating them. This lecture allowed me consider that when I go into practice as a physical therapist, I have the potential to to create a product or service that can help patients to start taking steps at home to better improve or monitor their overall health. Lastly, I have been able to participate in the UNC Interprofessional Education (IPE) Fall Fest for the past two years, getting the chance to mingle with other health professions students and learn more about their respective future career paths. These experiences have allowed me to better understand my own scope of practice, as well as the respective scopes of other professions. All of these experiences have allowed me to better understand my place in healthcare as a physical therapist and have shown me how I can support other health professions in future clinical practice. 

Reflective Statement

As I look back on the last three years of my life as a student in this program, I can see evidence that I have grown not only as a clinician, but as a person. Coming into this program, I was dead-set on pursuing outpatient orthopedics, as it was simply the setting that I had gained the most exposure to at the time. After completing a broad range of clinical experiences in different settings and working with very different populations as a student physical therapist, I learned that there is so much more to this field than I could have imagined before beginning this program. Through these experiences, I gained a deep admiration and longing to practice physical therapy in the acute care setting while working with individuals to assist in their recovery from polytraumas, extensive surgical interventions, cerebrovascular accidents, and traumatic brain injuries. This is an area of practice where I feel that I can have a positive impact on facilitating a return to safe functional mobility to help these patients meet their goals.  

This chapter of my life has been incredibly challenging, rewarding, and has pushed me further than I thought possible. Throughout this program a word that I often think back on is “resilience”. Resilience has been a trait that I’ve had to continuously develop over the past three years through completion of challenging didactic coursework, clinical experiences, and adapting to the constant changes of life while maintaining focus on my long-term goals. I have learned lessons in both success and failure, each being important to my personal and professional growth. I am incredibly thankful for the strong relationships that I have been able to form with my classmates, faculty members, and clinical mentors, without which I could not have accomplished this milestone. I know these relationships will persist long into my professional future as a clinician. Above all, I am thankful for the patients of all ages in varying settings that I have been afforded the opportunity to work with as a student physical therapist. These individuals continue to challenge me to improve my clinical reasoning, communication skills, and ability to provide compassionate, individualized care. As I leave this program, I’m excited to continue growing and learning in my practice as a physical therapist in the years ahead. I’m deeply grateful for the experiences and lessons from UNC that have shaped me into a well-rounded clinician and instilled in me a commitment to lifelong learning. 

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