Samuel Merritt University: SCI Education for PT Students

For the past few years, I have been invited to help teach a class on spinal cord injuries to second year physical therapy students at Samuel Merritt University in Oakland.  This is my fourth (maybe 5th) year helping this class.  Individuals with SCI are invited to share our stories of our spinal cord injury, sit in an open forum for discussion, and then we become the guinea pigs for the students to do the ASIA (American Spinal Injury Association) exam to test our sensory and functional levels.  We were not allowed to reveal our level of injuries until after the students complete their assessments and report their findings.

It's amazing to see the passion and enthusiasm that these students have in learning from us.  We are able to provide our insight and perspective of our SCI.  Each year I tell the students that it is them, the physical therapist, that builds a foundation of knowledge and skills that we, the wheelchair users, use for the rest of our lives.  I reveal to them the relationship I have with Kelly R., my PT during my rehabilitation.  He is one of the main reasons why I have been so active after my SCI.  He taught me the wheelchair skills, increased my self-esteem, and gave me confidence to conquer all the obstacles I would face in the world built for able-body individuals.   I find it very important to educate these students on how important their job is when working with individuals with SCI and other disabilities. Once again, it was another great class of students and I am confident they will become great physical therapists.

I had a discussion after class with both of the instructors about doing a presentation or lecture to educate the class even further about the psycho-social implications of a SCI for newly injured individuals.  In this lecture I would discuss: 1) why it is important for the students to understand the psychological and sociological changes that these patients are experiencing 2) how to build rapport to foster a safe environment and provide necessary motivation for each patient to be successful in acute rehabilitation.  Of course, this presentation/lecture would be effective as an in-service to all disciplines (PT, OT, SLP, RT, MD, and MSW) who are involved in the acute and outpatient rehabilitation setting.  I hope I have an opportunity to do so and will discuss it further with the instructors and my department when I begin working at Summit.  This is going to be amazing!