What is LINK?
The LINK Internship program is a 3 week internship where Juniors go to a business anywhere in the world as long as they can get there and do an internship. The students have to get 90 hours over the three weeks so 30 hours a week. Then they have to make some kind of final project that benefits the business in some way.
WHAT IS OHANA:
Ohana Physical Therapy is an independent PT office that operates outside of any medical facility. Although they are independent doctors can refer you too them for treatment. They treat a large variety of issues threw a magnitude of techniques such as, Manual therapy, exercise therapy, aquatic therapy, dry needling and more. |
MY LINK
For my LINK I went to Ohana Physical Therapy. I am super interested in PT because I am a swimmer and went to PT for about 2 years for some injuries I had in my shoulder. I want athletes to be able to connect with PT because it can be so helpful for their success. Ohana is an independent Physical Therapy office that is not connect to any medical companies in Colorado. This allows them to make appointments with patients and by pass all of the struggles of the medical field. PHOTO DESCRIPTION
The picture to my left is my day one photo. This photo is me and all of the people who work at the office with me from left to right they are, Andre, Rick, Me, Noel, Shannon. Also Amora the dog wearing a Hawaiian shirt. All of these people were really amazing during my internship and helped me a lot with all of the things that need to be done in a space like this. WEEK 1 - 3 REFLECTION:
Week 1: During the first week, I worked under Noel. He is an ultra runner from Florida who moved to Durango a few years ago. He is currently going back to school to get his PTA (Physical Therapist Assistant) degree. During the week, I learned how to apply electro stimulation which sends small electric pulses into your muscle fibers to help with recovery. I just bought one and use it regularly for recovery from swimming. I also started working with patients on certain exercises based on the injury they were recovering from. We used, bands, yoga balls, free weights, and more to help with recovery from all types of injuries. Week 2: During the second week, I was a little more independent and was working with patients on my own. I would give them heat, Ice, or stim in there own rooms and one of the PT's would give me a board with exercise to run patients through on my own. One of the PT's named Shannon taught me about the anatomy of hips and how they work. She ran me through the anatomy of joints and all of the components. During this week, I figured out what my LINK project is going to be. I am going to connect youth athletes from two separate programs, DEVO, and the DSC with one of the PT's from Ohana to teach athletes about the benefits of Physical therapy. Then, the athletes that attend are eligible for a free one on one consultation with one of the therapists. To do this I sent out multiple emails and text messages to both DEVO and DSC about how athletes can benefit from this experience. Week 3: The last week of LINK was super fun. I worked more with patients on my own and finalized my LINK project. Overall this internship was super great and taught me a lot about what being a Physical Therapist is like. I talked with two of the PT's about what I need todo academically to achieve my goals of being a DPT (Doctorate Physical Therapy). After having 3 weeks of experience in this field I do believe that this is still a career that I want to pursue. |
MY LINK PROJECT:
For my LINK project I wanted to do something that mattered to me not just the business so I made something that had an impact on communities that I either am or have been a part of. I connected Ohana PT with DEVO and the DSC so that athletes can understand the benefits of PT for both types of athletics. One of the PT's Andre is going to present too the athletes about some of the benefits of PT on youth athletes and how they can prevent and treat possible injuries. After the talk each athlete is able to sign up for a FREE, ten minute, one on one consultation with one of the therapists to see if they have any injuries and what they can do prevent and treat themselves.
FINAL REFLECTION:
Overall this internship has taught me a lot. When I came into Ohana on the first day I had knowledge of how athletes work and the Physical Therapy experience I had from my time in PT. I mainly understood how shoulders worked because that is the injury that I dealt with. Other then some basic anatomy and my own experience I was pretty much going in blind. There were a few athletes who came in that I was able to connect with from my experience and that helped me to better understand PT as a whole. During my LINK I developed a lot of skills that will be beneficial for my future. These include good communication skills. I had to work with a wide array of people, old, young, athletes, people in post-surgery and many other types of people. I learned how to handle many different situations and how to accommodate to the needs of patients. In one day there was an average of about thirty to forty patients spread across the three PT's. There were also two or three PTA's including myself who walked patients through exercises and micro treatment like heat, ice or stimulation.
There were many challenges when I first got started working at Ohana. I didn't know where anything was or the way to set patients up after the PT's worked on them. I had to learn pretty quick where all the materials were and how to use them. Eventually I got it down but it took me about a week to have the whole cycle ready to rock. I also had to learn to navigate two new websites I had never heard of before, WebPT and MedBridge. These websites allowed us to track patients, and build them programs to work on while they are not in the clinic. They were really confusing for me to grasp at first because there were a lot of steps and there was so much information that I had to sort through. Eventually I got it and I was able to design work out plans for patients based on what the PT's needs were.
There were many challenges when I first got started working at Ohana. I didn't know where anything was or the way to set patients up after the PT's worked on them. I had to learn pretty quick where all the materials were and how to use them. Eventually I got it down but it took me about a week to have the whole cycle ready to rock. I also had to learn to navigate two new websites I had never heard of before, WebPT and MedBridge. These websites allowed us to track patients, and build them programs to work on while they are not in the clinic. They were really confusing for me to grasp at first because there were a lot of steps and there was so much information that I had to sort through. Eventually I got it and I was able to design work out plans for patients based on what the PT's needs were.
