Iasi, Romania; Physical Therapy Internship - Jenna

        From the beginning of September until the end of November 2012, I participated in an international internship in Iasi, Romania. Half of my day was spent with a specific group of children in an orphanage while the other half of my day was spent with children in a hospital. Many of the children I worked with had disabilities or developmental delays. I had the opportunity to work with a physical therapist’s assistant at the orphanage. I observed and participated in therapy sessions in which she taught me exercises and activities I could do with the children.

          In the orphanage I was assigned to work with fourteen children ranging in age as well as in physical ability. With the children who could walk on their own, I facilitated group dancing and games to help them to be active. Three of the boys I worked with had muscular

development issues so I would try to spend time with them each day
massaging and stretching their muscles.  The two boys I worked with most both had cerebral palsy. Through attending their physical therapy sessions, I learned exercises I could do with them each day. The older of the two boys had difficultly using his arms and had very little control over his legs. He and I worked on bending and stretching his legs and arms a few times a week. To help with his muscle control in his arms, we would also play a game where he would

grab a toy from one side of his body and place it in a container on the other side. With the younger boy I focused mostly on standing.  Ana showed me activities we could be doing to strengthen his leg muscles and increase his balance. Each day I would get him out of his wheel chair and he would crawl around the room first to stretch his muscles. Next I would stand him up at a table upon which he rested his arms for balance. This allowed him to straighten and strengthen his legs. On my last day at the orphanage, he pulled himself into standing position at the table. It was amazing to see what even a minimal amount of physical therapy could do.

            Through this experience, my appreciation for and understanding of physical therapy has increased. As I practiced what I had been taught, I felt more confident in my ability to facilitate therapeutic exercises.  The practice also taught me that doing therapy is not a one-person deal. I had to get the children I was working with to participate for the therapy to be most effective. This internship has made me want to pursue a degree in physical therapy even more because of the good that I saw accomplished by even small amounts of therapy.

  

Murray, UT; Intermountain Healthcare Cardiac & Pulmonary Rehabilitation Center - Keith

Being pre-med, I was a little hesitant at first to apply for a pre-PT internship, but even so I found that the center is certainly unique and provided an experience that gave me skills that will definitely benefit me and translate to useful life skills no matter what your professional goal. The staff there are simply incredible individuals and they really put a lot of effort into making the center a friendly environment for the benefit of all those who pass through.
Jay Grove is the internship mentor and is very use to training and having interns in the center. He showed me how to do things once and then left me to be pro-active and motivate myself to work. This internship involves a LOT of interaction with people, mainly patients. One of the most valuable skills I gained from this experience is learning how to project confidence in such a way that the patients (many of them two or three times my senior) could be comfortable with me taking their vitals and trust me to know what I was doing. I would definitely recommend this internship to anyone considering going into a health-related field. Internships give you hands-on experience you can't get anywhere else. I had my doubts as to whether or not I would get accepted for the internship because it wasn't geared towards my career goal, but I got it and you can too! Give it a try.