1. A Look into the Workday of a Physical Therapy Technician
Bailey Breeden
Science, Discovery, and the Universe
Public Health Science
About Physiotherapy Associates
My Impact
While working at this clinic, I have been able to effectively and efficiently assist the physical therapists in their daily work, allowing them to provide a higher level of service and care to their patients instead of worrying about other more tedious tasks. In addition to this, I feel as though I have helped better the lives of many of the patients I have come into contact with. For some, this may have just been greeting them with a smile, asking them about their day, and making sure they feel comfortable and safe in the clinic. For others, I have led them through their workouts, given them lifestyle tips and helped them down the road to recovery. They are rewarded with getting their lifestyle back, and I am rewarded with the feeling of gratitude that comes with helping someone in need.
For my internship I worked at a physical therapy clinic located at 6100 Daylong Lane in Clarksville, Maryland under the company Physiotherapy Associates. The company is “dedicated to enhancing the quality of life and exceeding the expectations of those [they] touch through clinical leaders providing evidence-based rehabilitation and innovative solutions within the healthcare continuum.” They provide physical and occupational therapy to patients upon referral from a doctor.
Daily Activites
At the therapy clinic I work at, we accept patients of all ages, each having a any number of different injuries or medical issues that must be addressed. My job is to set up each patient’s equipment before their appointment, make them feel welcome and comfortable upon arrival, walk them through their warm up exercises and sometimes their entire routines, and then finally set them up on their electrical stimulation machines with ice packs as needed at the conclusion of their workout. There are a variety of other tasks I complete depending on the needs of the physical therapists working at the time, but ultimately my role is to assist them whenever possible.
Future Work
What I Learned
When going into this internship I was undecided as to if I wanted to pursue a career In the physical therapy field or in the physician assistant field. Over the course of this internship I have come to the conclusion that physical therapy is not the career path for me. It is just too much of a slow paced environment for me to see myself doing it for the rest of my life. The job has helped me in many ways though. This job has introduced me to many of programs used in the health fields, it has taught me many of the laws and regulations one must abide by, and has allowed me hands on experience with patients that is crucial for success in almost any health career.
From this internship, I learned that a patient’s recovery from an injury or illness is not something that occurs overnight. Physical therapy is very much so a slow paced environment in which most individuals come and complete exercises that many complete on a daily basis without even thinking about it. From this internship I came to realize the real purpose of physical therapy, and that is to better the quality of an individual's life and make sure they can live without restrictions on their daily activities
I would like to thank all of those at Physiotherapy Associates in Clarksville for all of the guidance I have received and the opportunity to work for such a great company, especially my boss Ronald Spicer and my mentor Alyssa Vorce.