DPT Portfolios

Professional Goal Statement

While my professional goals are bound to change leading up to and throughout my career, my goal to provide individualized, evidence-based care to my patients will never change. I want to provide them with the necessary tools to live out their best quality of life. I don’t want them to use me as their crutch, but I instead want to be the catalyst that empowers them to make positive changes in their own lives. I promise to continually grow through actions and not words only, and I will never be one to accept complacency. Right now I feel like the place I can best live out what I have described above is in an outpatient orthopedics clinic since that is where my passion lies. My desire to lead and educate will hopefully one day take me into the role of clinic director, clinic owner, and/or clinical instructor. I want to build myself into a mentor for those that will come into the profession after me; but to do that I must be active in my pursuit of mentorship for myself now in this phase of life, and that is something that I am committed to doing wholeheartedly. There are so many opportunities afforded to me in physical therapy, and I look forward everyday to making real-life, positive impacts in my patients’ lives.

Career Plan

Past Accomplishments:

• Graduated from Liberty University summa cum laude in December 2020 with a BS in Exercise Science
• Certified through the NSCA as a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist
• Certified through the ACSM as a Certified Exercise Physiologist

Clinical Experiences:

• UNC Ambulatory Care Center (Chapel Hill, NC)
  • Outpatient Orthopedics – 8 weeks
• Bryant T. Aldridge Rehab Center (Rocky Mount, NC)
  • Inpatient Rehab – 8 weeks
• WakeMed North Hospital (Raleigh, NC)
  • Acute Care – 8 weeks
• Access Physical Therapy (Raleigh, NC)
  • Outpatient Orthopedics – 12 weeks

Future Plans:

• Graduate from UNC DPT in July 2024
• Pass the NPTE in July 2024
• Obtain employment at an outpatient orthopedics clinic in the Triangle
• Obtain OCS in first 2-5 years of clinical practice
• Start my own outpatient orthopedic private practice or partner with a startup clinic within 5-10 years of clinical practice
• Create a supplemental division of PT services off that private clinic that provides traditional PT, workplace modifications, wellness and lifestyle coaching, and injury prevention training to employees within large corporations free of charge to the employees and of benefit to the company due to lowered overall healthcare costs
• Grow that division to the point where it operates as its own entity 

Self-Assessment

Strengths:

• Active in review of research for manual therapy and exercise interventions
• Years of personal training experience
• Strong ability to build rapport with clients and patients
• Good teammate to my classmates and clinicians on my rotations
• Strong desire to continually grow
• Willing to modify treatment approaches, not tied down to one theory or tenet of practice
• Structured plan for the future with a willingness to adapt as needed

Areas for Professional Development:

• Continue honing my clinical reasoning
• Improve understanding of reimbursement, billing, and insurance in the outpatient orthopedic setting as well as private practice business structures
• Continue to gain cultural humility
• Gain more knowledge and skill in advanced manual orthopedic techniques

Objectives

• Pass the NPTE Board Exam and become a licensed physical therapist
• Gain employment at an outpatient orthopedics clinic
• Connect with a mentor(s)
• Obtain OCS
• Maintain past certifications
• Start my own practice
• Create and grow supplemental division of that practice

Specific Strategies

• Prep thoroughly for the board exam
• Apply to outpatient orthopedics jobs in the Triangle
• Continue to network and connect with individuals in our field and my specialties of interest

Electives

• Integrated Clinical Experience – outpatient orthopedics
• Advanced Orthopedic Assessment
• Teacher Scholar – MSK Assessment and Intervention
• Topics in Sports Physical Therapy

Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion

In a day in age where seemingly all major companies and universities push DEI in word, many fail to do so in action. I am grateful to have grown in this area throughout my time at UNC due to the actions of those around me so that I can be equipped to be an action-oriented catalyst in my future workplace and community. For example, hearing my classmate Kyrsten Le talk at the lunch table during our first year about how great it would be if there was an opportunity for underrepresented individuals to gain exposure to PT to seeing it come to fruition as UNC Exploratory Day during the last two years has been truly incredible. I am grateful to be her friend and for her giving me the opportunity to help out in a small way over these last two years. Being able to talk to first generation college students or individuals in their forties looking to start a second career, it gives me hope that our profession will start to be more reflective of the patients that we serve. I am also appreciative of the opportunity I had through UNC to become safe zone trained through The Safe Zone Project and the UNC LGBTQ Center. As a healthcare provider that spends more time with patients than most any other, it is vital to be able to connect with them regardless of race, religion, socioeconomic status, or sexual identity. I feel better equipped to do that because of the safe zone training. There is no better way to build strong rapport with our patients and set them up for the best possible outcomes than making sure that they feel heard and respected. 

Interprofessional Education

I am also grateful for the emphasis that UNC DPT places on interprofessional education. All the various classroom activities, role play experiences, and case discussions with students in occupational and speech therapy, medical school, dietetics, dental hygiene, and social work prepared me for similar discussions I would have to have with patients and team members during my rotations, particularly in the acute care and inpatient rehab settings. It is vital that we all understand what the other disciplines can provide patients so that we can point them in the right direction when physical therapy alone may not be the best thing for them. Understanding that a care team needs to work together for our patients instead of undermining one another in the name of our own promotion will go a long way in ensuring the highest quality care is being delivered. 

Product Examples

Capstone: Glenohumeral Osteoarthritis – Background, Treatment Options, and Outcomes

Glenohumeral Osteoarthritis

Inservice Presentation: Chronic Pain and Pain Neuroscience Education

Chronic Pain and Pain Neuroscience Education

Reflective Statement

I remember completing my first ever shadowing experience in physical therapy in the summer of 2016 before my senior year of high school. After that, I knew that physical therapy would be a career I could really love. I began doing research on physical therapy schools and what it took to get in, and I told my parents I hoped to go to UNC after undergrad to pursue a DPT. Fast forward 8 years with many highs, lows, and life experiences in between, and I am reaching the culmination of that goal I set as a rising high school senior. I have built amazing relationships with classmates, professors, and clinical instructors throughout this experience that I know will last well beyond my time in Chapel Hill. While this portfolio includes many past accomplishments and future dreams, one main lesson I have learned at UNC DPT is the importance of the present. Yes, setting goals is important or else I never would have come here. Realizing the hard work it took to accomplish all the things along the way is also important; but time in the present learning, interacting with peers, and listening to a patient–I hope to never take that for granted with thoughts of tomorrow. This PT school experience seems daunting at the beginning, but it truly flies by. This has been the best three years of my life since I diligently tried to put the principle of staying in the moment into practice every day.

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