What is LINK?
The LINK Internship program is a 3-week full-time internship that all juniors at Animas High School participate in during their Spring semester. In preparation for their internship, students gain interview skills, professional development, resume and cover letter refinement, and resources for contacting potential mentors. Students then spend time researching and contacting businesses in the field they are most passionate about. After they have finalized a mentor and an internship, students spend 3 weeks shadowing their mentor, and discovering what work in that field looks like.
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Rivergate Physical Therapy
I completed my internship with Dan Cullum, the owner of Rivergate Physical Therapy. Dan is the owner and one of the practicing Physicals Therapists at the clinic. Rivergate operates out of Animas Surgical Hospital, but treats patients all around Durango and the surrounding areas. It is a privately own clinic that has 3 head Physical Therapists and a small staff of assistants and technicians. If you would like to learn more click the button below to check out their website!
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Anticipation/Preparation
You can check my blog posts about my preparation here. (They are at the bottom, so you might have to scroll a little)
My Internship
I wrote a weekly blog while on my internship! If you want to read about my daily life, click the button below!!
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Reflection
Coming in to LINK, the extent of what I knew about Physical Therapy was one semester of anatomy sophomore year. I had no idea about running a business, the actual treatment of Physical Therapy, or what a normal day as a PT looked like. Although I didn't have many skills within Physical Therapy, I brought many skills from Animas High School that helped me to be successful in my internship. These included public speaking/being comfortable speaking with adults, technological skills that carried forward to the paperwork portion of the job, and a curiosity to learn more/not being afraid to ask questions. The skill that I used the most was the ability to talk with my mentor and ask questions. Because of this comfortability around my mentor and other PT's at the office, I was able to learn so much more than I would have had I not asked so many questions. After all, our mentors do not expect us to know everything about their profession, and it is their responsibility to teach us some of their expertise.
My LINK experience taught me so much about Physical Therapy, next steps, and also about myself. About Physical Therapy I learned that the body is amazingly capable of healing itself with the help of Physical Therapists. Almost none of their patients leave physical therapy 100% healed, but what they do leave with is the knowledge to work with their body to speed up recover in a healthy way. They also gain the knowledge of injury prevention in the future, which is one of my biggest passions as a future Physical Therapist. I also learned the skills and steps I need to take if I want to be successful in my future of Physical Therapy. One of the skills and knowledge I still need to gain is a very good foundation of anatomy and specifically the muscular and skeletal systems. My mentor was very skilled at patient education and helping his patients understand their injury/issue so much so that he would pull out an anatomy book and review all of the muscles and tendons in that area of the body. This was something that I really admired with him, and is a skill I hope to have when I am a PT. I also learned the skills of being a successful documenter on my internship. Because insurance companies require justification for PT, my mentor and all PT's have to be very good at writing patient charts. There are specific tips and tricks that my mentor taught me that will not only help me as a PT, but as a student that writes everyday and as a professional in the workforce doing paperwork. From the PT's and PT Assistants I observed, I learned the skill of being an effective communicator with patients and people in general. One of the challenges I faced was not knowing exactly what moments to do with patients or how to explain each exercise to the patient to be done correctly. After a few days of closely observing the PT's though, I picked up how they interacted with their patients and heard their common sayings or phrases. After gaining this knowledge, I became confident enough to actually say these things to patients and eventually became very comfortable speaking with patients.
This LINK internship not only taught me new skills, but uncovered skills that I already had that were needed for this job. For example, I realized that I was very good at speaking to patients and also being empathetic to patients and their injuries. As we all know, patients in physical therapy are going through some very hard times in their lives because their injuries are preventing them from doing the everyday and the activities that they love to do. One of the skills I felt that I really used on my internship was connecting with patients and being supportive to these tough times they are going through.
I think that many professionals should take advantage and allow students from Animas to come and intern with them. An Animas student is professional, hard working and extremely passionate about learning. Not only does having an intern help students further their education in that field, but it benefits the company by adding new perspectives and ideas. In a more practical sense, an intern is there to help their mentor and that can be extremely helpful when the business is busy. Another type of mentor that should definitely consider having a LINK intern is someone who loves to teach. My mentor said that one of his favorite parts of the three weeks that I was there, was that he had someone to teach and guide them to their future. He not only learned new things when I would ask him questions, but also got to teach myself and his patients more than he normally would. Overall, the LINK internship is a great program for helping a future PT or whichever profession you are a part of.
One of the major parts of my internship was learning about my mentor's education and path to becoming a PT. Through what he taught me, I know that I can study what I am passionate about in college as long as I 1) work hard to make good grades and 2) get the pre-requisite classes I need to get in to PT school. One of the major changes to the field of Physical Therapy is that the required degree has moved to a doctorate degree. This means that the field of PT has become much more selective and challenging to get in to. He taught me steps to be successful into PT school including lots of experience hours and a good foundation of anatomy. These two things will not only help me get into PT school, but also to be successful when I am there.
My LINK experience taught me so much about Physical Therapy, next steps, and also about myself. About Physical Therapy I learned that the body is amazingly capable of healing itself with the help of Physical Therapists. Almost none of their patients leave physical therapy 100% healed, but what they do leave with is the knowledge to work with their body to speed up recover in a healthy way. They also gain the knowledge of injury prevention in the future, which is one of my biggest passions as a future Physical Therapist. I also learned the skills and steps I need to take if I want to be successful in my future of Physical Therapy. One of the skills and knowledge I still need to gain is a very good foundation of anatomy and specifically the muscular and skeletal systems. My mentor was very skilled at patient education and helping his patients understand their injury/issue so much so that he would pull out an anatomy book and review all of the muscles and tendons in that area of the body. This was something that I really admired with him, and is a skill I hope to have when I am a PT. I also learned the skills of being a successful documenter on my internship. Because insurance companies require justification for PT, my mentor and all PT's have to be very good at writing patient charts. There are specific tips and tricks that my mentor taught me that will not only help me as a PT, but as a student that writes everyday and as a professional in the workforce doing paperwork. From the PT's and PT Assistants I observed, I learned the skill of being an effective communicator with patients and people in general. One of the challenges I faced was not knowing exactly what moments to do with patients or how to explain each exercise to the patient to be done correctly. After a few days of closely observing the PT's though, I picked up how they interacted with their patients and heard their common sayings or phrases. After gaining this knowledge, I became confident enough to actually say these things to patients and eventually became very comfortable speaking with patients.
This LINK internship not only taught me new skills, but uncovered skills that I already had that were needed for this job. For example, I realized that I was very good at speaking to patients and also being empathetic to patients and their injuries. As we all know, patients in physical therapy are going through some very hard times in their lives because their injuries are preventing them from doing the everyday and the activities that they love to do. One of the skills I felt that I really used on my internship was connecting with patients and being supportive to these tough times they are going through.
I think that many professionals should take advantage and allow students from Animas to come and intern with them. An Animas student is professional, hard working and extremely passionate about learning. Not only does having an intern help students further their education in that field, but it benefits the company by adding new perspectives and ideas. In a more practical sense, an intern is there to help their mentor and that can be extremely helpful when the business is busy. Another type of mentor that should definitely consider having a LINK intern is someone who loves to teach. My mentor said that one of his favorite parts of the three weeks that I was there, was that he had someone to teach and guide them to their future. He not only learned new things when I would ask him questions, but also got to teach myself and his patients more than he normally would. Overall, the LINK internship is a great program for helping a future PT or whichever profession you are a part of.
One of the major parts of my internship was learning about my mentor's education and path to becoming a PT. Through what he taught me, I know that I can study what I am passionate about in college as long as I 1) work hard to make good grades and 2) get the pre-requisite classes I need to get in to PT school. One of the major changes to the field of Physical Therapy is that the required degree has moved to a doctorate degree. This means that the field of PT has become much more selective and challenging to get in to. He taught me steps to be successful into PT school including lots of experience hours and a good foundation of anatomy. These two things will not only help me get into PT school, but also to be successful when I am there.
My LINK Project
For my LINK project, I created a home exercise plan for a patient with a shoulder/upper arm injury. I studied the anatomy of the shoulders and included a lot of patient education in the plan. Then I included the exercise, how to do it, and how many repetitions to do. In my plan, I also informed the patient about the protocol of PT and what the first, the second, and the third two weeks looks like so that they would know what to expect. Please enjoy!