Ralie Myers

Throughout my time at IMG PT, I have sharpened all the skills I have spent the past two years learning about in the classroom. The skills I have built upon and practiced the most are my manual therapy skills. We learned all the mobilizations taught by my program in the second year of graduate education. We began with extremity mobilizations in the fall and progressed to spinal mobilizations in the spring. These were skills that we spent minimal time practicing in class and had to spend a lot of time outside of class practicing these and learning why and when to perform them. Most of the time, we would practice these skills only to prepare for upcoming practical exams and then never revisit them after the exam had passed.

Before beginning my clinical internship at IMG PT, I knew this clinic deeply emphasized manual therapy. This was a bit daunting for me as an incoming student, as I forgot a lot of the mobilizations I learned in class. I spent some time over my break between classes and the start of the internship reviewing these as much as I could. However, there were some I could not remember, and I did not have a classmate around to give me guidance or practice with. The weekly educational sessions gave me more confidence in my manual therapy skills and my ability to use clinical reasoning as to when these techniques should be implemented. Each session I would take notes on the technique, methodology, and reasoning behind each mobilization. I was then able to refer to these notes whenever I needed to. I will also have these sheets to refer to during my next full-time clinical internship coming up in a few months. I do not doubt that I will refer to them often and reflect upon my teachings at IMG PT to perform these manual skills appropriately.

Upon beginning this internship, I was unsure about working with other university students. This was a new experience for me, as in my initial internship last year, I was the only student in the clinic. Throughout these past six weeks, I have learned just as much from the other three students as I have with Chris and Eric. It was very interesting to learn the structure of other DPT programs and how certain skills are taught at different programs. I have learned valuable skills and different methods of performing these manual techniques that work better for me and my body type. Other students in the clinic also gave me many opportunities to practice the techniques we learned when we had a few free minutes. This gave me much more confidence when it came time to utilize these skills with patients.

The area that I lack the most confidence in is creating a complete plan of care. Over the six weeks I was able to spend here, I feel that I have gotten better with adding new exercises to a patient’s care plan. However, there are times where I still struggle to choose the proper exercises to add as a progression. I find it the most difficult to create a care plan after an initial evaluation. This is a skill that we touched on somewhat in the classroom, however it wasn’t emphasized. I believe with more clinic experience and exposure to patients with various conditions will help me gain more confidence with this skill. I believe that if this internship was longer, I would show more improvements in this field.

Overall, my only complaint about my clinical internship at IMG PT is that it was not long enough. It was around my fourth week of the internship where I felt that I really began to get into a rhythm; I had a good understanding of the EMR, started to develop great relationships with the patients and staff, and had a much better understanding of all the manual techniques and completing initial evaluations. My experience at this clinic has greatly boosted my confidence in the outpatient physical therapy setting. Though I still want to explore other settings and disciplines within the PT field, I have a greater interest in the outpatient setting than I did six weeks ago when I first started this internship.

I am thankful to have had such a great experience at IMG PT. I have learned so much from not only Chris and Eric, but from the other students, therapy aides, and front office staff. Though I still have a lot to learn and much more experience to gain, I feel that the time I have spent at IMG PT has greatly prepared me for all of my future endeavors.
Thank you to all.

Ralie Myers
Alvernia University
Dates of Internship: 5/13/24- 6/21/24