American Physical Therapy Conference: Denver,Colorado; February 2020.

Hannah Webster, Mariana Wright and Jackie Butch SPT

This year over 18,000 physical therapists and physical therapy assistants traveled to the "Mile High City" Denver, Colorado, at the foothills of the breathtaking Rocky Mountains, to network and learn the latest technology and trends. First up, I would like to thank Rebecca Renfro for taking me under her wing.  I met Rebecca through the Wired Collective and she encouraged me to invest in my professional development as well as join the Academy of Pediatric Physical Therapy.

My highlight of the conference was meeting these up and coming physical therapy students. They are passionate about pediatrics and their enthusiasm is infectious. I can't wait to see how they change the world!  I want to introduce Marina Wright,Jackie Butch and Hannah Webster and welcome them as future blog contributors.

Marina Wright SPT

My name is Marina Wright, and I am a third-year Doctor of Physical Therapy student at the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I became interested in physical therapy as a sophomore in high school, when my best friend had to go to PT after dislocating her kneecap at dance rehearsal. While I loved working with kids even in middle and high school, I didn't know that my new interest in physical therapy could go with my passion for pediatrics until I was a freshman in college. I had the opportunity to shadow a physical therapist at a DART (Discovery, Assessment, Referral, and Tracking) Preschool in Delaware. Since then, I've had the opportunity to work in Pittsburgh's public school system, at adaptive camps for kids who use ventilators and kids who have muscular dystrophies. I'm spending my last year of graduate school interning at the UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.

After graduation, I hope to work in pediatrics full-time, in an outpatient or inpatient rehabilitation setting. I love helping families improve their lives through movement, creativity, and play.

Jackie Butch SPT

My name is Jackie Butch. As a second year DPT student at East Tennessee State University, I am just beginning to narrow my focus within the world of Physical Therapy. When I started my program, I had no idea how many areas of specialty existed for physical therapists and now I often find myself trying to merge several together. I have always been drawn to pediatrics, having worked as a nanny for several years and babysitting through most of my life. I also have a passion for technology, adaptive equipment, and advocacy for PT. I hope to blend these interests to specialize in caring for those with prostheses, orthotics, and adaptive equipment with a focus in pediatric patients. I am excited to see the progress that this profession has made over the last 100 years (!) and to be a part of its present and future.

I am currently living in East Tennessee with my husband and our dog, Zoe. We love hiking, eating, and exploring our new town. After graduation, we are willing to relocate for the right jobs!

Hannah Webster SPT

My name is Hannah Webster and I am a third year student at the University of Central Florida Doctor of Physical Therapy Program. My specific interests in physical therapy include inpatient rehabilitation for neurology and pediatrics. My goal following graduation is to work for a few years gaining experience here in the United States before pursuing a long term career in International Medical Mission work. My dream would be to work and live in an undeveloped country and to provide physical therapy to those without access to PT or medical services, particularly for children with disabilities. Along with my interest in providing medical services to those without access to health care, I have a passion for empowering and encouraging families with children with disabilities.

Here is my travel mission blog from my most recent Medical Mission Trip to Ethiopia in December 2019.

Transcript

Marsh Naidoo (00:11):

Welcome to this episode of Raising Kellan, the podcast to motivate, inspire, and educate parents raising kids with special needs. I'm your host, Marsh Naidoo, and today we are on location in Denver, Colorado at the Combined Sessions meeting for the American Physical Therapy Association. Today with me, I have three physical therapy students. They're going to introduce themselves one by one.

Jackie Butch (00:43):

Hi, my name is Jackie Butch. I am a second- year DPT student at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, Tennessee. I am not really from anywhere or everywhere and I have clinical interests in pediatrics and adaptive equipment and athletes and all over.

Marina Wright (01:03):

Hi, my name is Marina Wright. I'm a third-year doctor of physical therapy student at the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I'm from outside Philadelphia in the Kent Square area. I did my undergraduate work at James Madison University in Virginia and my clinical passion is pediatrics.

Hannah Webster (01:20):

Hello, my name is Hannah Webster. I'm from the University of Central Florida. I'm a third-year DPT student. Originally from Tallahassee, Florida. I went to Florida State University for my undergrad now in Orlando, Florida for PT school. And my clinical interests include pediatrics, neurology as well as international medical mission work.

Marsh Naidoo (01:38):

A question that I would like to ask you guys is what's central to the trajectory that got y'all thinking of pediatric therapy as a concentration? Let's just go ahead and start. Marina.

Marina Wright (01:50):

I've always had a passion for working with kids, but I didn't know that pediatric physical therapy existed for a long time. So my first exposure to physical therapy was in outpatient adult services. And then when I was starting to get interested in physical therapy as a career, there was a lady at my church who was a speech language pathologist and she worked in schools and she offered to set me up to shadow one of her coworkers who was a PT. And that was the first time I got to try it out.

Jackie Butch (02:19):

I've always had an interest in peds working with peds in general. Originally I wanted to be a pediatrician and then I decided that PT was more my scope. Let's see, I nannied for a couple of years, so I was already working with kids and had a lot of experience with children and it just kind of stemmed right from there. And I've shadowed with PTs and pediatrics and just fallen in love with it

Hannah Webster (02:43):

For me. I also have always had an interest in working with and hanging out with kids. I just love their energy and it's contagious. <laugh> for me personally, my interest in physical therapy started when I was 14-years-old. I had a pretty bad sports injury and so I actually was treated as a pediatric patient by a physical therapist and my physical therapist made a huge impact on my personal journey professionally as well as just being a really great mentor and role model for me as a person. And so because of that, I realized the impact that someone else had on me when I was pretty young and that made me more interested in working with young athletes. But then once I realized that there were other areas of pediatric physical therapy such as neurodevelopmental and those that are born with congenital disabilities, my heart just really was touched by the journey that these families experience and I just thought, wow, there's a huge need for this and there's huge potential for big impact here. So throughout PT school, I have always been drawn towards the pediatric volunteering opportunities and have actually had the opportunity to work as graduate research assistant for my pediatrics professor. And so through that, those experiences have confirmed for me that this is an area that I'm interested in

Marsh Naidoo (04:05):

Guys as a pediatric therapist a block that you possibly could hit is one of how to motivate the pediatric patient. So when you're faced with a situation like this would be in your toolbox, what are y'all gonna pull from?

Marina Wright (04:21):

All the pediatric therapists that I've worked with so far are willing to pull out all the stops. So if one thing doesn't work, they're off and trying something new. One of my mentors now, he has a backpack full of wigs ready to go at any moment. And so often these kids have been in the hospital for a long time or they've, they just, they're over healthcare, but then suddenly here comes this very tall guy wearing a rainbow mohawk and then suddenly they're willing to, they'll do anything for him. So for me personally, I sing a lot. I tell jokes I'm always ready to play dinosaurs.

Jackie Butch (04:54):

I found that keeping everything really fun and very game-like is really helpful for motivating pediatric patients. And if you can convince them that it's not therapy and it's not medical related, then sometimes that is really helpful as well. So keeping them in different environments and involving parents or siblings or other people around you just to help get the excitement up is really helpful.

Hannah Webster (05:19):

Definitely agree with those comments. For me, currently I'm on a pediatrics clinical and I'm finding that that is probably one of the hardest things about pediatric physical therapy is being able to motivate kids to do therapy and to do therapeutic exercise. And so sometimes you have to assess the situation and say, Okay, what is their behavior telling me that they need or want right now? And sometimes what they need is that they need a break or they need to be with mom for a second. And then if you jump back into it and say, Hey, let's play a game and you're able to make that therapeutic, then I think it's just really important to be able to try and interpret the behaviors of the kids that you're working with and then make it fun just like these ladies described to you.

Marsh Naidoo (06:06):

So what specifically excites me about you guys being future pediatric therapists is your guys' level of motivation and your determination to learn. And I think that is awesome. That is what our kids need. They need to be provided with evidence-based practice. However, treatment also needs to be delivered in a way that they're willing to receive it. So let's brainstorm guys. In your opinion, what are some of the ways that we can have carried through from the clinic setting to the home setting or to a setting where that child can participate without necessary thinking that therapy is therapy?

Jackie Butch (06:50):

I think there are a lot of things, again, with sort the game like stuff and involving families in therapy sessions and teaching families some exercises that they can do with the children at home in a fun way or just little tidbits throughout the day that child doesn't think, Oh mom, another exercise. Just keeping it fun. And something that I've become really interested in is aquatic therapy, especially with pediatrics. A lot of times kids love to be in the pool, they love to splash around and especially if the family has a pool at home, just being in the pool is very therapeutic in itself. It adds an element of resistance. So every time you're moving in, the pool is already an exercise and it's really wonderful for kids, especially with sensory def or sensory issues.

Marina Wright (07:34):

I think for me the biggest thing is really getting to know our patients. And one of the great joys of physical therapy is you get to have those longer relationships with your patient. Especially in pediatrics, kids are so intrinsically motivated, they want to move, they wanna participate in things, they wanna jump around and knock things over and they really wanna be with their friends and they wanna explore their environment. So if you can find what it is that they're interested in and tap into that and then work on that in your sessions, they're gonna go home. The carryover will be there. I'm working with a two-year-old right now who, she had a traumatic brain injury and she was not interested in walking for the first maybe month and a half after her injury. And then we came in one day and this girl was gonna walk and she was gonna walk all day. She was refusing naps. She would not go down just every time. Every time you would ask her what she wanted to do, walk. She wanted to walk, I wanna walk more. And so there's nothing I can do to make her do that for sure. So for me it's really about finding where my patients are and what I can do to support them in that.

Hannah Webster (08:34):

I think definitely including the families in your therapy sessions and educating them on the different ways that you were able to make play at therapeutic super important because these families, they're likely going to be playing with their kids at home anyways. And so if you can instruct and guide them on how to make their play more therapeutic and why you're doing it, I think that is, that's really important for the parents to be able to continue the therapy for the 23 hours that they're not in the clinic <laugh> and really capitalizing on the games and interests and activities that the kids already enjoy. Being able to educate the parents on just ways that they can promote independence with those activities is really important.

Marsh Naidoo (09:19):

All right guys, we've come to the end of our podcast and I like to close out with asking you guys what are your future plans as far as therapy is concerned, and what are your looking or moving towards

Jackie Butch (09:32):

Well, I've still got almost two full years of school left, so I've got all of my long internships to look forward to and really narrowing down exactly what I wanna do in the world of physical therapy, I just need to find where my passion is and pediatrics is right in there.

Marina Wright (09:50):

I'm coming to the end of my clinical education. So I will graduate in April and then who knows, it's pediatrics and hopefully employed

Hannah Webster (10:00):

For me. I'm finishing up my final pediatrics internship right now, so I have a couple weeks left of that and then I graduate this spring, take my board exam, become licensed fingers cross, and my long-term dream would be to be able to do international medical mission work for children and families with disabilities. And so I'm not sure if that will be within the next couple years or in the next 10 years, but I think it would be wise for me to get some experience working with good mentorship under someone in pediatrics. I really enjoy the hospital setting and so that's kind of my first stepping stone. Get licensed and then from there try and get some experience so that I can go out and maybe chase that dream.

Marsh Naidoo (10:42):

So guys, we have come to the end of another podcast and as always remember, get to the top of that mountain. This is Marsh Naidoo signing off.