Over the course of this semester, I have had a lot of positive and some negative experiences while participating in service learning. There were a number of events that I did not necessarily feel comfortable with going in, but after a small period of time the newness and unfamiliarity of the situation fell away and I was better able to embrace the experience. I think that more than anything, I have learned that when you are volunteering in the community, the best thing you can do as a clinician is to open yourself up to the experience and be prepared to adapt. It seems to me that while it can be difficult to set up volunteering events, each participant is able to get the most out of that event when everyone stays open minded. I believe that this mindset will translate well to both my approach to future patients and also just life in general in the coming years.

            Since I began my coursework as a PTA student 9 years ago, I have always known that I wanted to give back to whatever community I worked in, but I lacked the guidance or resources that actually find a way to do this. Over the course of the past year, particularly this semester, I have been introduced to the wide variety of opportunities for volunteering which are available to physical therapists. I will carry this knowledge with me in the future and I am sure that it will help me to discover where in the world of volunteering I will eventually find my place.

The experience that sticks out most of the past semester was working with the camp counselors at the MDA camp. Listening to each counselor explain the reason they had chosen the camp, often including personal experience with Muscular Dystrophy, was eye opening and incredibly inspiring. Some of the counselors were at the camp because they thought that it would look good on their medical school applications, which to be fair, is a very valid reason. These counselors surely learned a lot about working with this population as well as general knowledge about transfers, and hands on experience with working with a part of the disabled community.

However, it was the large number of counselors who had close family members or family friends with the disease which struck me most. For many of these counselors, they were coming to the camp to give back and provide other people with the best possible camp experience that they could. Some of them were primary and secondary caregivers for their siblings, and wanted to learn how to protect themselves with their lifting techniques, while keeping the campers safe. But the one thing that all of these counselors had in common is that they were giving up a week of their lives to make someone else’s week better.

I have to think that part of the reason the counselors all seemed so upbeat and excited about the upcoming week is because they already knew how rewarding it can be to give back to those who may need a little assistance. Their excitement was infectious for me, as I’m sure it also was for the children they were caring for. I felt that this last statement reflects the role that physical therapists can have on the lives of our patients. We can be their cheerleaders, who stay excited and upbeat and give our time so that they can enjoy some aspect of their lives more than they used to.

The major shock of this semester has been finding out just how varied the volunteering opportunities for physical therapists truly are. Training camp counselors to improve their lifting mechanics and how to more efficiently don and doff AFO’s would never have occurred to me as an option. Neither would setting up a structured play and exercise event for small children who are unhoused. Overall, I think that this series of experiences has opened my eyes in terms of allowing me to branch out when thinking about the ways that I can give back as a clinician.

I used to think that I would offer pro bono care to community members who could not afford it or did not have insurance. However, after this semester my idea has branched out into offering assessments of office/factory workers to offer information about proper lifting mechanics and how to avoid overuse injuries, which are common with this type of job.

This experience has been eye opening for me in ways which will impact my future not just as a physical therapist, but also as a human being. Prior to this semester, my personal experience with people who were impoverished was very limited, and the majority of it was actually based on people I had worked with in Argentina during a physical therapy internship. Truly, there are many commonalities between the patients I saw in the hospital and the people I have worked with in DC. However, the key difference I noticed is the shift in my perspective. I no longer feel that I am limited to providing healthcare and information in a clinic setting, and for that I am very grateful to this program.