Where I've been & What I've seen

Based off weeks of observation and research of the community of Physical Therapists I have concluded…the role of a Physical Therapist goes beyond the role of healing the patient. By saying this, I mean that a Physical Therapist goes above and beyond in caring for the patient and their family. After finding the examples of  close bonds in Pediatric Physical Therapy through the articles I have researched, I decided to pay more attention to that same bond in my observations. While observing, I watched the Physical Therapist aide the patient and their families past the hour of therapy they attend each week. The therapists take time to get to know their patients and the family members of the patients in order to meet their needs the best way they know how. By the end of therapy, the patients are prepared to go out into the world and function as normally as possible. During my observations at Flower Mound Assisted Living Center, I observed a Physical Therapist treat an 80-year-old man. The patient went on and on about how excited he was to see the Physical Therapist and myself because he did not get many visitors and loved to talk. We walked around the nursing home on the outside sidewalk to test out his new walker. The patient said he loved to dance and could not find anyone in the home to dance with him and immediately grabbed me and sang to me as we danced. Seeing the joy that the therapist and I brought to him by simply being there and having conversations during his therapy was heartwarming. I found the therapists work to be worth it through just that one patient. It was so much fun to be able to interact with him and watch the therapist and him work. While the therapist had to make sure that the work/therapy was completed, it did not appear as work to me. It was very social and fun to be a part of and made me wish that school was that much fun! The second patient I observed at the Flower Mound Assisted Living Center was a 70-year-old woman. We found the patient in the game room playing cards with other patients and walked her back to her room to begin therapy. The patient had clothes laying on her bad that had just come out of the laundry and the therapist took the clothes, folded them, and put them away in their correct spot in the patients closet so that the patient could freely sit on her bed. While these may be small details to others, these small acts meant a great deal to the patients and went beyond the role of a Physical Therapist. Having even the slightest impact on someone else’s life makes all the work of becoming a Physical Therapist totally worth it!