Theme 3
Justify decision-making as a primary care provider, considering contemporary evidence-based practice or best practice.
During our health promotion class in the spring semester of our second year, we were asked to create a health promotion concept that addressed a physical therapy-related need in a community of our choosing. The health promotion concept I created offered mental and physical health programs in order to address the whole person in individuals who are living with chronic pain. During this project, we also learned about the importance of addressing a need in your community in order to have a successful impact in a competitive market. We needed to find evidence using census data, and efficacy of certain interventions to justify our health promotion concept.
This experience addressed the following graduate outcomes:
3: This project helped me learn about the importance of inter-professional practice to optimize health outcomes. Addressing the whole person through social, mental and physical health training goes a long way to improving those outcomes. This project also made me consider ways of making my concept more cost efficient which was achieved by implementing the program in a group setting. This project can help me in the future with complex patients who may benefit from more than just standard physical therapy practice. Finding evidence-based approaches to achieve a complex patients goals will be key to optimizing patient health outcomes.
4: A large component of this project was justifying the concept through thorough research of evidence-based practices in order to promote value-based patient-centered care. I created a concept that addresses patient needs through a value-based approach due to it's low cost, group setting, as well as patient-centered care by addressing low back pain through more than just physical interventions, but by addressing mental and social factors as well.
5: This project helped me understand the links between how advocating for effective treatment options with certain conditions can have a positive impact on both the well-being of our society as well as improving the healthcare system in general. Many Americans suffer from some form of chronic pain. Chronic pain can be extremely debilitating and can have a huge impact on healthcare costs. Chronic pain can also be extremely complicated to treat. Advocating for effective treatment options for chronic pain conditions will not only improve the health and well-being of our society, but it will also save on healthcare costs.
In the summer semester of our second year in the program, we participated in journal clubs in our musculoskeletal management II course. These journal clubs were a great example of how we can implement evidence-based practice. These projects involved investigating a research question for both the cervical and lumbar spine, then presenting our findings to our classmates.
This experience addressed the following graduate outcomes:
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6: This experience allowed me to research a couple of topics related to the spine and then offer consultation about my findings to my classmates with a movement-based approach.
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7: This experience provided me with the opportunity to adjust my communication style to meet the level of understanding of the audience. Patient education is a vital tool for physical therapists and it is an often under-utilized skill, but communication with patients is much different than communicating with our peers. This experience in particular allowed me to practice having a discussion with my peers and to practice professional dialogue that will be useful in future experiences that require inter-professional conversation.
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8: One of the most valuable parts of this experience was having the opportunity to educate my peers on my findings. The practice of educating peers is extremely valuable when it comes to learning material and having the opportunity to present these findings as well as have a dialogue with my classmates on very relevant topics helped prepare me to discuss similar topics with peers in the clinic.