DPT Portfolios

Professional Goals Statement:

I want to pursue excellence in the field of pediatric physical therapy, gaining a wide array of experience both in the inpatient and outpatient populations so that I can better understand how to provide wholistic treatment that benefits the child in all domains of their life.

Career Plan:

I will be trying to find a job in the pediatric acute care setting once I graduate in August of 2024. If this is not possible, I will find a pediatric outpatient job to gain professional experience working in the pediatric population. I will continue trying to find an inpatient pediatrics job after I have gained more experience in the pediatric population if I was not able to get one out of school. Within 5 years I want to take the pediatric physical therapy specialty exam. I eventually want to open up my own cash-based practice where I can utilize my diverse experiences to treat patients in a way that works best for them and their families without the constraints of insurance.

Objectives

·       Pass the NPTE in July of 2024

·       Gain my North Carolina and Colorado PT license

·       Seek out employment where there is opportunity for me to grow as a clinician

·       Find opportunities in the community to use my unique skills to help kids participate in outdoor activities and sports such as hiking and skiing

Electives Taken: 

·       PHYT 754-Research Experience: with Dana McCarty regarding parent education in the NICU

·       PHYT 875- Advanced Orthopedic Assessment

·       PHYT 880-Child and Family Assessment and Intervention

·       PHYT 885- Advanced Neuromuscular Intervention

 

Capstone: 

For my capstone I chose to write a paper with a goal of providing PT’s with actionable items that they could easily integrate into practice in order to practice in a trauma informed way

Paper Title: Use of Trauma Informed Care in the Pediatric Acute Care Environment to Minimize Pediatric Medical Traumatic Stress Incidence

 

Additional Educational Experience:

Completed a course by FSU called: Level 1 FSU Professional Certification in Trauma & Resilience.

This course allowed me to better understand how I can adjust my own practice as a PT to make it more trauma informed and also how systems can be changed to be more trauma informed and encourage resilience among those who exist in the systems.

Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) 

I completed three different JEDI experiences through my years at UNC starting with a Medical Trauma Training. This training opened up my eyes to the world of trauma informed care which I have since delved deeper into through my capstone and an in-service. This presentation and group discussion discussed the various ways that medical professionals may unknowingly be perpetuating trauma or causing trauma through the medical exams we complete and the often very personal questions we ask our patients. It has made me think about how I word questions when I initially meet someone and made me value informed decision making of patients even more. I now take extra care when explaining exactly what I am doing and why and I think that this has helped with patient buy in both when working with the pediatric and adult populations.

I also participated in LGBTQIA+ Bingo which was a night for members of this community to come together and discuss how our identity affects us in our work settings and as professionals. I appreciated hearing how others have found ways of supporting the community through their work and it made me reflect on how I can do the same. I definitely want to find a work setting where I can comfortably welcome anyone which includes things like having no or all pronouns included on an intake form and having gender neutral bathrooms. Lastly I participated in a workshop called Respecting All. This workshop discussed how each persons unique past experiences will affect how they understand a problem and in turn, how they will go about solving it. As someone who wants to work in an interdisciplinary setting, knowing that we all want the same outcome but have unique skills and experiences that we can utilize will be incredibly importance in order to achieve the best results possible. I think it can be tough sometimes realizing how helpful my own unique experiences can be but this talk helped me reliable the importance of speaking up and voicing my opinions in big group settings at work.

Interprofessional Education Activities (IPE) 

The first IPE experience that I participated in was with OT student’s in Intro to PT Intervention, a first year course. This class had us working through a case together and along the way we discussed the similarities and differences between what was important to the PT students versus the OT students and how this was going to affect how to approached our treatment. It was very interesting doing a subjective history with the OT students because it became apparent to me that there are many areas of life that we as PT’s sometimes neglect because we do not think they will affect our treatment. Some examples include if patients have a pet, what their hobbies are, and what their social life looks like. I have started asking more of these questions when I meet new patients because it helps me individualize my treatments more and keeps me focused on what is important to the patient.

Next, I participated in an interdisciplinary experience in a course called: Physical Therapy for Older Adults. This time there were students from the school of medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, and social work which further expanded not only my understanding of what they do but also of how they could be helpful to my own patients. This experience made me more confident referring my patients to other healthcare providers when appropriate and made me appreciate the knowledge that I myself can bring to the table in a group of medical providers. Lastly, I participated in an interdisciplinary Neuro Case Day. This included medical doctors, social workers, therapists, OT’s, SLP’s and PT’s. I was once again reminded of the importance of getting different perspectives when making a patient care plan and reminded that I have unique knowledge to bring to the table. I really appreciated hearing about how social workers and therapists viewed our patient case because I realized that PT had a big role to play in their decision making. It reminded me of the importance of great documentation in the hospital because it ensures patient safety at discharge and helps our social workers teammates make informed decisions.

Link to Capstone: 

https://docs.google.com/file/d/1PfTGz6q3f2E-BgeKy9vED-ARFS7XJ8aa/edit?usp=docslist_api&filetype=msword

Link to In-Service Presentation: 

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/13HhWngxPe8owg8nSRc31rE0dYixMOSXdzJrEiqCqqLE/edit

Reflective Statement:

Throughout this program I have had one big goal in mind: work with a pediatric population. This goal is still very much top of mind for me, but I have also come to realize that doing so also means understanding and appreciating the full life cycle. Knowing that what a pregnant mother experiences can affect the infant that I later treat, that kids will one day grow up to be young adults and that parents are the ones I need to focus my HEP education on, has changed how I view pediatric PT. I understand that my knowledge is unique but unless I am able to teach it to caregivers well, I am probably not making a huge difference. Understanding what a kid needs to do to heal is all well and good but it does not matter if I cannot convince the child of the importance. The past three years of class work have equipped me with mountains of intricate knowledge but the clinical experiences I have been on and the jobs I have been doing simultaneously have taught me that PT’s are teachers and it is my job to make everything I just learned as simple as I possibly can for my students.

As I head into the workforce I will be looking for mentors that not only are master clinicians, but also master teachers! I want to find people to surround myself with diverse experiences that can compliment and challenge my own thoughts and beliefs about what pediatric PT looks like. I am hoping that by doing so, I end up with a career that both challenges and fulfills me.

 

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