Everyday I would either shadow Dr. Sloan or one of the physical therapy assistants or file papers. I saw various exercises in action and was able to see progress over time with multiple patients. There was a huge range of activities certain patients would do. In some cases, I watched as Dr. Sloan helped patients learn how to walk and move again after a stroke or other type of serious injury. Other times, I watched as she stretched patients and pushed them to get back to their full mobility. These patients were often younger and only had minor broken bone injuries to start out with.
What Was Learned:
I learned what patients go through to get to the end point. Many of them faced hardships as they started losing determination. My mentor was their driving force as she had to push and encourage them to keep them on track. As much as physical progress is important, mental and emotional progress is very crucial as well. I learned how to increase my people skills as well as how to be strict with my future patients while also being their main source of encouragement. I learned about what physical therapists go through behind the scenes just to allow their patients to have progress. May times, Dr. Sloan would go home and look up activities for hours trying to come up with something her patients would enjoy doing everyday but would also be essential to their recovery.
How It Will Help Me:
|
This mentorship will help me as I go to college. I know I want to do something with sports medicine, and this mentorship has broadened my knowledge of the anatomy as well as how the body recovers. I feel that with this mentorship I will have a leg up against the other college students who have never observed anything or shadowed at all with their career of interest. I feel that I know more about what to expect in the workplace now and know how to handle patient's attitudes. It increased my interest in sports medicine and allowed me to see that I would want to go to school a couple extra years to be able to become a sports medicine doctor.