ElizabethStupicaHawkenProjects2022

I have always been interested in the idea of physical therapy, especially pursuing it as a career. To become a physical therapist you have to complete an undergraduate degree, as well as go to graduate school for 3 more years to receive a doctorate in physical therapy. With the large commitment to schooling that the job of a physical therapist entails, I wanted to learn more about it to see if it was something that I wanted to pursue. Because of this, I thought that observing a physical therapist would be the perfect opportunity to see what the daily job of one is like.  For my project, I wanted to learn about the specific things that physical therapists do with patients, as well as the certain exercises and recovery methods used. I came into my project with the expectation of following my mentor around and watching as she worked with patients, and my experience was just that. Each day of my project I thoughtfully observed the exercises that the patients completed, after being told...

Based on my experience with my senior project, I would advise next year's Hawken project students to put effort into thinking about a potential project to pursue. Start thinking about ideas early so that you can find the most practical one to complete. Also make sure that it is something that you are interested in, or else you will be stuck doing something you hate for the last 3 weeks of your senior year. When choosing a project, it is very helpful to consider the type of career path you are interested in. This could be a beneficial project as you are able to look into the field and type of career and see if it is something that you could really see yourself doing. Looking at my own potential careers, I knew that physical therapy was something that I was really interested in. But with the 3 extra years of grad school required to become a physical therapist, I wanted to see if it was something that I could see myself doing. Having done a structured internship project observing in a...

During one of the days during my senior project, I had the opportunity to observe an occupational therapist who worked at the clinic. He mainly focused on patients who had hand and arm and hand conditions or injuries. This was very different from the hip and knee injuries that I had typically been seeing throughout my time observing so I was very intrigued to learn more. One of the patients that came in had a condition known as a trigger finger. This condition is where the finger is unable to straighten as it is locked in a bent position. The patient had just had surgery to fix this condition, resulting in multiple stitches over the diagonal incisions that were cut for the surgery. During their session, the patient got the stitches removed, which surprised me as I only thought that was something that doctors could do. They were also given a tissue massage around the area on their hand to help circulate blood flow after. At the end of the appointment, it was very clear to see how much m...

During my project so far, I have been surprised by the amount of documentation the job of a physical therapist required. They are always taking notes, typing up how the patient is feeling and their progression through their exercises. When inquiring about what they are actually writing down, I was told that the SOAP acronym is followed for taking notes. The S in this acronym stands for subjective information, which is what the patient tells the physical therapist about how they are feeling due to their injury or condition. The O stands for objective, which is the data that is measured in a session, which could include range of motion measurements. A is for assessment which is an explanation of how the patient is progressing from session to session. And finally, P is for documenting the next steps and plan for future sessions going forward regarding the patient's exercises and physical goals. I also had the chance to sit in on a few evaluations of new patients in the past few days. ...

Today, a patient came in and was working on exercises to help improve their balance. One of the exercises completed involved standing on an AIREX pad with both feet and catching and throwing a ball. The cushion of the pad made balancing a lot more challenging since it was unstable and not a hard surface, which is why it was used to help strengthen the patient's stability. I was able to assist in this process by catching and throwing the ball to the patient while they were being supported by other physical therapists so that they would not fall. To make the exercise a little more challenging, I was instructed to move farther away from the patient which caused them to have to use more force to throw the ball. This became harder for the patient since they had to focus on both throwing the ball with force and trying to maintain their balance while completing this. Another way that this exercise was made harder for the patient was to make their feet more narrow, which provided them with...