Italy -Jarom Bridges 2010

"I finished the internship last week. The first few weeks I spent most of my time just becoming familiar with the clinic and patients and all the different exercises they do for different types of rehabilitation (upper body vs. lower body injuries) as well as comparing different modes of therapy like ultrasound, laser therapy, one called Tecar (similar to ultrasound, but different wavelengths), electrostimulation therapy, and massage. 

In my last week and a half I did a study with as many patients as I could get, which turned out to be about 20 (it's not a very big clinic, and a lot of the patients come 3-5 times per week, so there's a lot of overlap). Anyway, I asked them questions to find out what type of injury they had: chronic or acute, bone v. muscle v. tendon/ligament injury, what sort of situation they were injured in, etc. Then I asked them questions regarding what exercises they were assigned, which ones they found most and least effective, and whether they did exercises at home in addition to their treatments at the clinic. I also asked them about the intensity of pain they felt at the time of injury (or if a chronic injury or post-op, how much pain they felt prior to beginning therapy), compared that with their current level of pain on a typical day at their respective stage of rehab, and then asked if a session of treatment increased or decreased their immediate level of pain. 

In summary - and this is probably all you really need to know - I asked them detailed questions about their manner of treatment, levels of pain at different stages of treatment, and perception of the effectiveness of each of their prescribed exercises/modes of treatment. I haven't compiled all of the results for a specific analysis yet, but that will all go into my paper for Dr. A-Y when I get back. It might be interesting for people to know that I found the style of treatment here was almost exactly the same as what I've seen in the US, and in some cases it even seemed that they were advanced in their variety and technology of treatments. So while the language and the culture were of course different, the science of physical therapy remains the same in practice. Anyway, I had a great experience, met a lot of people and made some new friends, and now I have a great international experience to put on my grad school applications and help me stand out from the rest of the crowd. Plus, they told me when I left that if I'm ever back in Italy and I'm looking for work, I should be sure to contact them because they'd love to have me back. So not only was it a great educational experience, it's also opened a possible door for a career pathway as well, which I would guess is often the case with student internships."

ITALY:  Medical Fisio Gym (through Societa Dante Alighieri)
For more information visit: http://www.dantealighieri.com/