PTA Students Attend the American Physical Therapy Association of MA’s Annual Meeting in Framingham, MA
On November 14th, 2015, 5 PTA students along with their professor Dr. Carolyn Cwalinski, attended the American Physical Therapy Association of MA’s annual meeting in Framingham, MA. The event began with a keynote address by 2012 McMillan Lecturer Alan Jette, PT, PhD. In his address, Dr. Jette challenged PTs and PTAs to re-evaluate the current health care system, look toward a more “systems thinking” approach, and change our thinking from a Cowboy to Pit Crew approach (an idea from forward thinker Atul Gawande. Finally, he challenged the attendees to find and learn from the positive deviants within our profession (a positive deviant being someone who thinks about physical therapy in a new and positive way).
Participants then attended educational sessions related to different clinical tracks. Students Alex Casey and Peter Zhao attended a session on “Prevention of ICU Acquired Weakness” while Stephanie Preve attended a session on “Managing Hip, Pelvis and Lower Kinematic Chain Injury in the Endurance Athlete”. Another student, Hollie Neild attended a session on “Active Living with Arthritis: Innovation of ENACT”. In addition, Hollie was lucky enough to secure one of the volunteer positions for the conference and received free registration in return for her services. Overall, the students really enjoyed the experience and were surprised how much they understood after attending only one semester within the PTA program.
Pictured L to R: Carolyn Cwalinski, Stephanie Preve, Hollie Neild, Alex Casey and Peter Zhao