During this summer ''break'' from school, I have come to realize how appreciative our patients are. I have the best days only because I am lucky enough to hear the praise of our patients about the staff at our facility. Even on the most difficult of days, where a patient calls to ask (again) why haven't I tried ultrasound and pelvic traction to ...

Another eventful week in outpatient rehabilitation. Seems as though we are seeing many ''repeat offenders,'' as some call them; however, for different diagnoses than before. Working in the same facility for 20 years, we have patients who started with us when the hospital opened. They are proud of the fact that they knew us ''back in the day,'' ...

Way back in one of the first few quarters of the PTA program, I and many of my fellow classmates would project about what field of physical therapy we could most see ourselves working in. Most of us were on the fence. The general sentiment was work for the experience and then be choosy. Outpatient orthopedic was tempting - performing myofascial ...

During my student clinical rotation, I was fortunate enough to experience an inpatient, outpatient and everything in between. The patient population was vast as well. Depending on the clinical, I saw patient age ranges between 13 and 95. It struck me as interesting that the more ''difficult'' patients I met did not fall in any one age group. The ...

As the last week of one of my last clinical affiliations comes to a close, I'm stunned at the amount of valuable information I've learned. I have to admit, I was nervous when I found out I would have to master large pieces of Pilates equipment for basic upper-extremity exercises at this outpatient sports clinic I was assigned. Like anything new, I ...

Dubbed the 2010 PT Fundraising Drive, donations are being collected throughout Rhode Island to benefit the local chapter of Make-A-Wish Foundation. With a long history of individual charitable pursuits, Kevin Silvia, PTA, CSCS, of Performance Physical Therapy in Rhode Island, set out to do something bigger and better this year. With an outpouring ...

I spent a portion of my day fighting to swallow the big emotional lump in my throat and choke back tears as I attended the last of a 2010 lecture series at Bryn Mawr Hospital in suburban Philadelphia. Surrounded by health care workers from every corner of the hospital, I squeezed into the last available seat in a row in front of my father, a ...

The services offered by outpatient rehab facilities need to be considered and revamped regularly. But when was the last time that the physical space's impact on access to care was taken into consideration? The outpatient rehabilitation center at UCLA in Santa Monica, CA, has recently taken measures to improve access to care. The facility has ...