Orem, UT; Center for Women and Children in Crisis: Rape Team Volunteer - Logan

I have been involved with the Center for Women and Children in Crisis (CWCIC) for the past year. My purpose as a volunteer for the CWCIC is to provide emotion relief and community resources to rape vicitms in Utah county. Volunteering included a 48 hour shift every month where you man the rape crisis hotline and respond to any rape victims seeking medical attention. On the rape crisis hotline I talk with victims of rape and help them gain the necessary skills to cope with the traumatic experience of rape. This has taught me how to be more empathetic and has opened my perspective of the outside world. While responding to victims seeking medical attention, I educate the victim about community resources available to them through the CWCIC (free counseling, group meetings, and government assistance). I also help them through the medical process such as the code R exam and any necessary medical treatment. This has helped me see the medical side of treating rape victims from the victims perspective. This is a wonderful way to volunteer and I encourage you all to participate. Training happens every few months. You can get more information by visiting: http://cwcic.org or email: clojik@cwcic.org for more information about volunteering.

Provo, UT; Utah State Hospital Physical Therapy Clinic - Phillip

My internship at the Utah State Hospital has been a great and unique experience. I have had patient responsibility and been able to work directly with several patients. After the Physical Therapist evaluates a new patient, he will create a treatment program for them. It is then my responsibility to help the patient through their treatment program each day. This includes exercises and modalities that focus on recovery as well as improving strength, endurance, and flexibility. Having already taken classes at BYU in Anatomy, Physiology, Kinesiology, Biomechanics, and Psychology, among others, helped prepare me for this experience working with patients.

Patients of all ages come to the physical therapy clinic (there are units with pediatric, youth, adult, high-risk forensic, and geriatric patients). Each patient is very different and deals with physical difficulties as well as mental illnesses of varying degrees. Because of this, I have learned to be adaptable in many different situations. I have developed greater patience and care for others. It is challenging to work with those who are struggling, but also very rewarding to know that I am making a positive difference in their lives.

Overall, my internship at the Utah State Hospital Physical Therapy clinic has been a wonderful experience. I’m sure I will remember these experiences for the rest of my life.  I have become more aware of mental disorders and I have become more kind and understanding. I also feel more prepared for my future in the health care industry where I will be working with patients on a daily basis.

Provo, UT; BYU Dance Training Room - Sean

For my internship, I spent a semester shadowing Dr. Ron Nuttall who is a certified physical therapist as well as the athletic trainer for all of the dance majors and members of the dance teams here at BYU. Ron intrigued me from the moment that I heard the way other people talked about him. They say he is the master and has a miraculous healing touch. I came to understand what everyone was talking about when I met him and saw him work. He definitely has his own way of doing things that most physical therapists don't apply. The effectiveness of his techniques was seen in the progress of his patients.

What I liked most about Ron is that he is very much an on hands sort of physical therapist. Most of today's physical therapists will throw you into a machine and let it do all the work. Even though it saves the physical therapists arms some exhaustion, it is not nearly as effective. 

Despite most of my internship being observation, I still learned a lot of things. I learned things like how to check alignment, correct an up and down slip, massage and perform positional releases for knots and how to properly heat and relax muscles through ultra sound and other techniques. It was definitely a rare and worthwhile experience.

Provo, UT; NOW I CAN! Intensive Pediatric Physical Therapy - Randy

ternship experience was amazing.  I would highly recommend it and advise to make sure you get more than 2 or 3 weeks in a given location.  
Now I Can! is a non-profit charitable organization dedicated to helping disabled children reach their greatest potential (Nowican.org).  The therapists strive to achieve this mission through intensive physical therapy with patients that come in 5 days a week for 4-hour sessions.  Generally this will last 3-4 weeks.  I have had the privilege of volunteering for Now I Can for the 7 months, and this past semester I decided to apply for internship credit.
Because of my personal experience with physical therapy I was myopic enough to believe that the only field I would be interested in was sports injury recovery.  I searched for a place where I could volunteer, but no outpatients clinics designated for sports injuries were close to where I lived.  With a bicycle as my only form of transportation anywhere, this made things difficult.  I later found out about a pediatric physical therapy clinic just around the corner from my apartment, so I decided to investigate.  They let me know there was an opening for one more volunteer, and I started going every Thursday as a therapist assistant.
As I helped the children with different exercises and stretches that expanded their abilities I began to see how driven many of them were.  I fell in love with the whole experience.  The disabilities that the children with whom I was able to work included Cerebral Palsy (differing levels of severity), brain anomaly, Spina Bifida, brain tumor resection, and hemiplegia.  Never before had I worked with or even been around children with neurological disabilities, so any ideas or notions I previously had were created by myself.  However, working alongside these children and getting to know them by talking with them and observing them has led me to the conclusion that they are children of divine heritage just as is everyone around them.