Final Reflection

At the beginning of this process, I was unsure of what I wanted to accomplish for my senior project. In my initial thoughts, I asked myself, how can I impact a group of people with my work? A few weeks later, I contacted Marie Szczyglowski at Cardinal Physical Therapy. She said she was happy to take me in for my senior project. Marie was a fantastic mentor in my experience. My initial goal was to learn more about the different types of physical therapy. Although I did not have experience with alternative types of therapy, I did have the opportunity to surround myself with the outpatient world of physical therapy. I learned what the other fields consisted of, and outpatient is the most diverse and seemed to be up my alley. Marie was incredibly helpful during the first days of my project. I shadowed and followed what she did, and started to become familiar with many of the patients and therapists. Once I became comfortable with the patients, I began talking to a few of them while they exercised. The patients' exercises were low-intensity because many of them were recovering from various surgeries. My initial job was retrieving the equipment for the patients as well as sanitizing it after they had finished. After the initial days, I began talking to the therapists about specific treatments and why they are effective. I also had the opportunity to try many of the tools they use on the patients. My favorite was the e-stim, which forcefully activates your muscles and rewires them to function. One of the most used tools was Graston. Graston tools are for manual therapy. These tools help break up injured tissue in the muscles that cause the patient pain. At the end of the first week, I tried the Graston tool it works magic. I began to work with individual patients on their specific exercises. I don’t believe anything was missing from my experience because the therapists allowed me to immerse myself in the work. They gave me the freedom to work with patients one on one and help them with their recovery. One thing I learned working in outpatient is to be adaptable. In the outpatient world, the clinic can be crowded, or it can be slow. Adapting to different situations in the work world will help me handle adversities moving forward. Anyone interested in the physical therapy world would be lucky to work with Cardinal Physical Therapy. I can say with absolute certainty, working with Cardinal is one of the best experiences I have ever had. For upcoming seniors looking to do a Hawken Project, do something you’re interested in. I am so glad I reached out to Marie because this project has opened my eyes to this field. The one thing I never expected was the meaningful conversations I had with the patients. I developed good friendships in a very short time and received a lot of great advice that I will have with me moving forward.

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