Self Assessment - Second Year 2019-2020

Self-Reflection – Second Year 2019-2020

This year has been another big year of growth for me as I have developed more

knowledge and skills, which by default has grown my confidence. I feel more confident

in my abilities as a clinician, but understand I have a lot of growth yet still to develop on
my upcoming clinical experiences. My second year of the program was very successful,
both personally and academically. I was able to grow as an individual through
participating in a lot of programs.
During my second year, I became extremely involved in the program. I became a
regular volunteer for MOVE! For Health, participated in PTSO, engaged in performing
weekly HEP’s, and was the co-chair marketing rep for Hands for Health. I think
becoming so involved has helped me develop comfort in my skills and knowledge,
which helped increase my confidence in treating patients. In MOVE! For Health, I was
able to have full independence with our exercise routine with Jennifer. She is a
wheelchair dependent patient with secondary-progressive multiple sclerosis. With her
low level of function, it has been challenging to get creative each week with MOVE! For
Health. I also facilitate her HEP every single week, so trying to be creative in different
environments has posed its challenges but has been a great learning experience.
One of my goals was to treat in the Hands for Health clinic, which I was unable to
attain. However, I was ok without doing it because of the amount of skills I was
developing through the experiences I listed above. During Fall of 2019, we were able to
participate in PT CONECT, so I was able to treat a patient for 6 weeks who had
Parkinson’s Disease. This was a great learning opportunity for me as this patient was so
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high functioning, it challenged me to think outside the box once again. I truly gained a
lot from this somewhat clinical experience treating my patient and diving deeper into
Parkinson’s disease.
Being the co-chair marketing representative for Hands for Health was supposed
to be a light job throughout the year. However, it became very demanding as the
university shut down our Facebook group page and google page to switch over to the
university website. This was disappointing as our classmates really love getting their
student spotlights and being able to share their experience with their friends and family.
It was also disappointing as Alli Wierda and I worked extremely hard on developing new
cards and flyers to distribute across the campus. This also challenged us to get more
creative with what we could do in the future, but time flew by and we have been
transitioning handing over the position to the next class. This allowed us to give them
input on our ideas and what we wanted to accomplish but did not have the time too.
This year was less academically challenging for me, but more mentally
challenging. I still experienced a lot of death throughout this year as I lost my great
grandma and a close family friend. Although, it was less death than I have experienced
before, it was still difficult for my family. Our close family friend who passed away was
very sudden and unexpected. She left behind a husband and two college daughters
who sought my mom’s help as a continued mother figure in their life. This also means I
pretty much gained two more sisters in my life. Our families got even closer than before
and have been trying to help them through this awful experience.
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But throughout these challenging times, my parents surprised me with a puppy in
November 2019. His name is Louie and he is a mini aussiedoodle. This was extremely
helpful for my anxiety and he was able to help me get more in shape as he requires
daily walks and exercise. Surprisingly, this caused my roommate and I to have issues
which resulted in basically losing our friendship. This was very sad for me. Although
roommate problems arouse from this, COVID-19 helped me be able to return home to
my puppy who was with my parents while I was at school.
I was very successful during my second year academically. I was able to achieve
higher GPA’s than the previous years, which helped increase my overall GPA.
Currently, my spring semester grades are not entirely finalized as Patient Care 4 still is
an “I” until my practical is graded. I was also able to complete the rest of my electives
during this year. In total, my electives included Imaging, Gender Health, and
Kinesiotaping. The kinesiotaping course was my favorite and I continue to do my own
research about it and apply it as necessary by practicing on family and friends.
In my portfolio, I placed several artifacts that represent my learning and
development throughout this year to show my growth. My grades were more improved
than before, which shows I was able to take past criticism and turn it into future
improvements. I do not recall having to remediate any exams during my second year,
which is a huge difference for me as I struggle in exam taking. I was always able to
keep my GPA above a 3.4 cumulatively. I think this continues to demonstrate my ability
to manage stressful situations better. Although, this spring 2019 semester did become
stressful with the conversion to solely online learning due to the pandemic, I was
challenged in a new way to figure out how to study differently. The best way to facilitate
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my learning is to be hands on, whether it is being able to practice techniques in lab or
writing/drawing notes on white boards. I think my learning was constrained when our
classes were moved to online and I did not have equipment to practice at home. I
understand the need for us to be online, but the lack of practice may be reflected in
upcoming clinical experiences.
When reflecting on the goals I made for this year, I am happy to say that I was
able to attain almost all of them. I was able to keep my GPA above 3.0 each semester
and cumulatively, completed my electives, got involved in MOVE! For Health, and was
able to become the marketing rep for Hands for Health. The professional goal I was
unable to attain was treating patients in Hands for Health, but like I said above, I had
many other opportunities to gain experience. Regarding my personal goals, I was able
to achieve all of them. I became a very scheduled person, which helped me engage in
more low impact exercise, routine sleeping patterns, manage my stress more, and be
able to visit family when I was able too. I am very proud of my growth over this year and
believe it is reflected by achieving these goals.
Moving forward onto my third year of clinicals, I am extremely excited, but also
nervous as well. I am very pleased to say I got my top choice for my fall clinical at the
Eisenhower Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan, which primarily treats patients with
neurological (mostly TBI’s) and some light orthopedic diagnoses. I am looking forward
to this clinical experience as I hope to dive deeper into my passion for neurological
physical therapy. I hope this next year will continue to help me develop confidence and
clinical reasoning skills. I hope to refresh my knowledge on diagnoses and treatment
regimens, and I strive to be the best therapist I can be.

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Self-Reflection – Second Year 2019-2020

both personally and academically. I was able to grow as an individual through

participating in a lot of programs.

During my second year, I became extremely involved in the program. I became a

becoming so involved has helped me develop comfort in my skills and knowledge,

wheelchair dependent patient with secondary-progressive multiple sclerosis. With her

my puppy who was with my parents while I was at school.

Kinesiotaping. The kinesiotaping course was my favorite and I continue to do my own

research about it and apply it as necessary by practicing on family and friends.

In my portfolio, I placed several artifacts that represent my learning and

upcoming clinical experiences.

believe it is reflected by achieving these goals.

clinical reasoning skills. I hope to refresh my knowledge on diagnoses and treatment

regimens, and I strive to be the best therapist I can be.

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