Practicum Experience Journal

Ashley Kuntz

HHP 291

Practicum Experience Journal

I shadowed Jim Sevcik, PT at Ortho Sport Therapy and Rehab. It is an outpatient Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy clinic. The patients that I observed in the Physical Therapy area had knee surgeries. One patient had a scope done, another had two knee surgeries, and he is not able to fully straighten his knees. The different exercises were interesting to watch. Jim did not really explain all the exercises to me and I wish he would have told me how they are helping the patients.

I also watched the Occupational Therapist which I liked. She explained what happened to the patient. One patient had a broken pointer finger and was in their last week of therapy. The other patient I observed had gone through carpel tunnel surgery. They had damaged their wrist from a bad fall. They were still in the beginning stages of therapy so some of the exercises were still very painful for the patient. Some equipment that was used was giant clothes pins to work on strengthening the different types of pinches. The therapist also used an ergonomic hand exerciser to work on grip strength and different rubber bands were experimented with. The last thing the patient did was put her had in a container of rice to activate nerve endings in the hand.

The day was pretty slow after lunch. So I was not able to see much else. After reviewing my day I think I would want to work with younger patients if I went into Physical Therapy. I also really enjoyed the Occupational Therapy, which stuck out to me a lot. I think it was because the therapist kept me informed with everything she did with the patients. The relationships that the therapists were fun to see but I still think I want to a younger patient group.