Orthotic Patient Model

I was immediately attracted to the podiatry clinic in the department. The patient care and case variety made me excited to learn more about it. The Podiatrist I work with everyday have been great colleagues and mentors, as the knowledge and clinical experience they’ve provided me with has increased my passion for the profession. At the Orthopedic dept., we primarily serve the Airborne Army Aviation Regiment, so we are always busy treating orthopedic injuries. In fact, Womack has the largest and busiest military orthopedic department in the world. I assist on everything from planter fasciitis to severe foot deformity. I routinely assist in simple procedure as shockwaves therapy to major foot reconstruction surgeries. I have seen thousands of podiatric patients during my tour, averaging 15-20 patients per day. As busy as we are, I feel confident in my enthusiasm to become a Podiatrist with every patient that I

I want to be able to do a lot in my life in the medical field, I want to become an Orthopedic Surgeon because I want to be able to help people. Especially I want to help athletes from injuries, I have had a lot of injuries while playing sports and I know what an athlete must go through. When I was in high school still playing, sports I had three different knee injuries in the same knee and they always got worse. I know that I will be a tremendous asset to your institution because of the first-hand experiences I have had.

With such differences within the amputee community, there could be a possibility of certain factors uniquely effecting the quality of life before, during, and after prosthetic rehabilitation. Amputees and prosthetics are often viewed from a general perspective by the public. We often do not look further then what we see with our eyes, allowing sympathy to take the place of genuine research regarding amputees and prosthetics. The rehabilitation process for those who require limb prosthesis can be long, grueling, and emotional taxing (O’Keeffe, 2011). The prosthetic rehabilitation

Most parents as they near the due date of their child are filled with excitement and happiness; however this could not have been further from the truth with my parents. My parents were informed by the doctors and that my lungs were collapsed because my intestines had pushed up into my thoracic cavity though a hole in my diaphragm. Then only option was to deliver me two weeks prematurely and perform immediate surgery. The outlook was bleak; through the lifesaving intervention a surgeon, I survived. This has impacted the choices I make in my everyday life throughout the years. I don't take opportunities or people for granted, and I realize everything I am able to experience is thanks to the skill of the surgeons in the operation room that night. This has

The objective of this reflection is to explore and reflect upon a situation from a clinical placement on an orthopedic unit. The incident showed that I did not provide safe, timely and competent care for my patient when the oxygen saturation was low. Furthermore, this reflection will include a description of the incident, and I will conclude with explaining what I have learned from the experience and how it will change my future actions.

OrthoOklahoma is an orthopedic medical clinic with a physical therapy branch that provides outpatient physical therapy care. The facility has a staff of three licensed physical therapists and a physical therapy assistant along with four physical therapy techs. I was able to observe all three physical therapists, Megan Ripley, Joe Ogle and Ken Roberts. At OrthoOklahoma, the most common patients are post-surgery from repairs of muscles, bones or joints. While shadowing these therapists, I observed cases of total knee replacement, total hip replacement, ACL/meniscus repair, rotator cuff repair, frozen shoulder, labrum repair, and other ailments from wear-and-tear and aging. This experience allowed me to talk to physical therapists about the ins and outs of their job, learn about different exercises and routines for treatment of injuries, and really get an idea of the work it takes to become a well-respected physical therapist.

These topics and my interactions with clinicians in our lab have driven my interest for pursuing the specific area of orthopedics. From back injuries, Tommy John surgeries, broken feet, and a prosthetic leg, my family has also had a lot of experience on the patient side of this specialty. The chance to rehabilitate athletes, such as my loved ones, is appealing, but I know that these injuries are not exclusive to this population, and my true passion lies in the opportunity to rehabilitate individuals in underserved populations. My time in Guatemala and Nicaragua has really grown my heart for people living in the impoverished countries of Central America. My first mission trip there largely contributed to my passions for becoming a doctor and since high school, my career goals have been aimed at building the skills necessary to serve those communities. Eventually, I would love to be able to marry my interests in global health and orthopedics, and incorporate my biomedical engineering background, to contribute to research aimed at optimizing care and medical technologies in low-resource settings. As the leader in global orthopedic initiatives, UCSF and the prospect of working with the Institute for Global Orthopedics and Traumatology stand out

Once devoted to the care of children with spine and limb deformities, orthopaedists now care for patients of all ages, from newborns with clubfeet to young athletes requiring arthroscopic surgery to older people with arthritis. And to anybody that can break a bone. (AAOS)

One of the reasons why practitioners, students and academics hold clinical placements in such high regard is that it provides students with a base to link their theoretical knowledge with the practical aspects of practicing physiotherapy. Students get to apply what they had previously learned in the classroom setting and hone their skills in perfecting physiotherapy techniques. Not only does the clinical setting allow them to grasp the knowledge of the physiotherapy discipline, it also throws them into the pressures of real-life situations where students would need to combine their cognitive, motor and problem-solving skills in order to solve complex situations. Additionally, the clinical placement programs often help students to spend quality time with established professionals in the field of physiotherapy, obtain

Discuss a clinical experience in which you had to incorporate one or more learning styles such as visual, kinesthetic, and auditory. Explain the outcomes and how you created an effective learning experience.

As nurse and teacher, we need to understand that each person learning is individual. Every person learns differently and we need to accommodate this so that we can be effective in health care. This means including all methods to teach. For example this would mean being able to communicate the topic well for the auditory learners, show a graph for the visual learners and do a project for the kinesthetic learners (UVU | Kinesthetic Learning Style | Learning Styles | Home, n.d.). It is hard to touch all of the ways of learning but as a teacher it is necessary to help all of you students learn as much as you can. In the health care field understanding is key to having better patient outcomes and comprehension of new knowledge. Combining all of these methods of learning encourages education and determines our ability to completely understand (Kinesthetic Learning: Moving Toward a New Model for Education,

Conversely at SHU, I have visited our DPT students every year across the country as they interned in various clinical environments. Nevertheless, being rooted within the MSI, OMT, and bio-psychosocial framework would define my more than 25 years of (20 years in musculoskeletal) PT practice experience. Graduating with a DPT degree from USC, I am a fellowship-trained, board certified (OCS since 1999) Full Fellow of the American Academy of Orthopedic Manual Physical Therapists (AAOMPT) since 2003, having graduated from the Southern California Kaiser Permanente Manual Therapy Fellowship program. Notwithstanding having an “in press” commentary and “under review” revised manuscript, I have 2 JOSPT (heralding 2 new techniques or treatment approach paradigms) and 1 Journal of Hand Therapy published journal articles and authored/co-authored almost 40 peer-reviewed orthopaedic and manual PT presentations nationally [Combined Sections Meeting (CSM) and AAOMPT] and internationally (World Confederation for Physical Therapy and the International Federation of Orthopaedic Manipulative Therapist). Anchored in clinical reasoning, OMT, MSI, bio-psychosocial

When outsiders say their thoughts about Ortho, they think that the school is only a medical school. Not only that, they go on to say that the school is gloomy, haunted, and somewhat creepy. However, I believe that Ortho is more than what meets the eye.

Mobility grants opportunity and lifelong experiences through the gift of exploration and independence. Without autonomy of movement in one’s life, there are struggles accompanied by frustration do to the lack of freedom and ability. It is an orthopedic surgeon’s job to bring function to one’s life even if they have never been granted movement without restraint before. Orthopedic surgeons receive patients whose freedom of movement have been compromised and then return it back to them. Orthopedic surgeons give immeasurable opportunities and life experiences back to their patients because of their perseverance and commitment to their patients and careers.

My teaching philosophy is to create an environment that stimulates learning so that students gain the necessary knowledge, skills and abilities to become proficient professionals. While teaching foundational knowledge is important, there are other essential skills and abilities that students must acquire in order to successfully transition from being a student to becoming a physical therapy professional. These skills and abilities include thinking critically as well as interacting and communicating effectively with patients and other health care practitioners. I emphasize to students that it is imperative to realize the impact of developing a therapeutic rapport with patients while providing quality, patient-centered care to optimize the healing process. Therefore, when deciding what to teach, I not only consider the content presented, but also how I can foster discussions with students so that they can apply information based on varying contextual factors. I also attempt to provide students a framework for how to achieve professional excellence, which I aim to model as I fulfill my roles and responsibilities as a teacher and provider of clinical instruction. This framework is rooted in five central tenets: