DPT Portfolios

Professional Goal Statement:

My goals and intentions in life and career are to give back to the community that gave so much to me. To do that, I intend to have a career in physical therapy and continue in the pursuit of improving others’ lives through movement. As a physical therapist, I will continuously provide compassionate care through evidence-based practice. I have a special interest in rural home health care, as this is a group of individuals who often have the least access to professional health care.

My long-term goal is to join upper-level management in a home healthcare company and to advocate for improved health and quality of life-related outcomes for my patients. To do this, I will advocate for physical therapy and physical therapists based on what will help introduce individuals to and retain physical therapists in the career. I believe that keeping a strong career field, we can improve health care access, specifically to those in rural NC.

 

Career Plan

Short Term Goals: 

• 2025 – Complete DPT from UNC-Chapel Hill
• 2025 – Pass NPTE
• 2025 – Gain employment with a home-health agency in rural NC

Long Term Goals: 

• Complete continuing education in healthcare management
• Progress to a management role in home health

 

Clinical Experience:

• 2025 Clinical Affiliation IV:
  • CenterWell Home Health – 12 Weeks
• 2024 Clinical Affiliation III:
  • ECU Health – Inpatient Traumatic Brain Injury – 8 Weeks
• 2024 Clinical Affiliation II:
  • ECU Health – Acute Neurological – 8 Weeks
• 2023 Clinical Affiliation I:
  • Carolina East Orthopedics – 8 Weeks

Education:

• August 2025 – Doctorate of Physical Therapy, UNC-Chapel Hill
• May 2022 – B.S. in Exercise Physiology with a Concentration in exercise as medicine, East Carolina University

Self-Assessment

Strengths:

• Communication
• Building patient rapport
• Collaboration

Areas to Grow:

• Over-thinking
• Procrastination

 

Interprofessional Education Activities (IPE):

Home health requires exquisite interprofessional collaboration. Patients are often very involved and receive several streams of information from healthcare professionals, family, and friends alike. With that in mind, it is extremely important to collaborate with all parties involved. Interprofessional collaboration is a vital way we ensure that all areas where we can positively change are met. During my time at UNC I have participated in several IPE events including patient cases with occupational therapy students, geriatric cases with medical, nursing, social work, and dental hygiene students, and acquired brain injury cases with occupational therapy, dental, and nursing students. Throughout these three educational experiences, and my experiences during clinical education, I have truly learned the value in collaboration. The combined knowledge of several healthcare fields will always be beneficial to patients. Beyond direct communication with other healthcare professionals, this has further driven home the positive effect of referring out when the patient is not responding as we thought, or it is outside of my scope/knowledge. I will take the knowledge gained from these experiences and ensure that when I am working, I am collaborating as much as possible for my patients.

 

Products:

(1) Capstone Project: “Concussion Diagnosis, Evaluation, Intervention, and Prognosis” created for 2nd year physical therapy students as a self-study module to complete prior to their second and third rotations.

• Capstone: Concussion Diagnosis, Evaluation, Intervention & Prognosis

(2) Inservice: “Prediction of Upper Extremity Function and Independent Walking After Stroke” was created during my 2nd and 3rd clinical rotations. This presentation reviewed tools to help predict functional mobility following a stroke, which is most often what my patients wanted to know.

Prediction of Upper Extremity Function and Independent Walking After Stroke

 

Reflective Statement:

In reflecting on my time at UNC, I can confidently say I have grown in so many areas, including academically, clinically, professionally, and personally. I have grown lifelong bonds with friends, professors, and countless other like-minded professionals. I can distinctly remember the first individual I encountered as I was shadowing a physical therapist and wondered why they were doing what they were, and now understand exactly what the goal was. That is one of the biggest things I can reflect on, not always understanding why we are doing certain things (palpating feet, learning to massage) to understanding and seeing the link to the bigger picture. Physical therapy has been extremely rewarding to me over the last three years, and the bigger picture is what keeps me going. Being able to help individuals through the toughest days of their life can look like palpating their feet, or providing effleurage and petrissage if that is what it takes. I am greatly looking forward to progressing my career and goals while remaining connected with the amazing network I have met at Chapel Hill. I can confidently say that coming to Chapel Hill was a fantastic choice, and the instructors and administration here have given me all the tools I need to make the change I want to see in the world.

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