MPT Student News

News from the MPT1 Class
By: Pricilla Wong, MPT1Class Representative

With exams right around the corner, every MPT1 student seems to be a bit more frazzled, tired, and consuming way too many cups of coffee. A feeling that we all know too well that has been termed PTSD – Physical Therapy Stress Disorder. Lucky for us, we’ve learned the optimal physical therapy prescription for it. We replace those shortened muscles from long study sessions and bell ringer nightmares with new memories such as sports, philanthropy, and spending some quality time together. We’ve earned a few championships under our belt: ultimate, volleyball, and basketball (mixed team of MPT1s and MPT2s). A group of MPT1s raised a whopping amount of $2,618 for Canadian Cancer Society’s Relay for life. In the midst of midterms, another group of MPT1s participated in the Bagel Chase (benefiting local charities) and ran over 100 km in 7 days. Some notable personal achievements were accomplished;  Aaron Dobie and Jayme Gordon  completed the Olympic Triathlon at UBC Triathlon Duathlon and Callie Camp  completed the Sprint. Even though we spend so many hours in class every week, we are definitely keeping ourselves motivated and refreshed by supporting each other.

 

The most satisfying part of this whole process is being able to reflect on everything that we’ve learned in such a short amount of time. It’s definitely a far cry from the beginning of September when I was missing Dr. Ali’s lecture because I was lost when he said ipsilateral bend. Physical therapy really is a unique faculty. It is not just a profession that helps other people but also has such an immense benefit and influence over our own lives. Our first placements will be coming up at the end of April and hopefully it will be a similarly overwhelming, yet incredible experience.

 

News from the MPT2 Class
By: Cynthia Lau, MPT2 Class Representative

After returning from back-to-back placements spanning from November to February, the MPT2 class is back in action at Friedman for our final full semester of classes. In addition to our regularly scheduled courses, many students are seeking opportunities to expand the scope of our theoretical knowledge and practical skills by attending a variety of courses and workshops, such as acupuncture, soft tissue release techniques, and the Mulligan Concept.

Outside the classroom, students are also contributing to several different initiatives within the community, such as the Canadian Blood Services blood drive and the UBC Run for Rural Medicine, as well as the upcoming Vancouver Sun Run and “Walk Your A.S. Off,” a community organization that raises awareness of Ankylosing Spondylitis.

The next few months will certainly be busy ones, with our final exams just around the corner in May and our final two clinical placements of the program in the summer time. Many ambitious students have also opted to write the national exam in July while the remainder will be writing in September. Needless to say, finding strategies to prepare for the many things that lie ahead may seem like a daunting task, but it is also a very exciting time as we continue to discover new skills and the many different paths down which our MPT degree can lead us.

 

Global Health Placement in India
By: Josina Rhebergen, MPT2

For our January 2015 2B placement Krysta Wark, Madison Morrison, Sara Kloosterboer and myself, Josina Rhebergen headed across the ocean to India for a Global Health placement. Every night after another day full of surprises and adventures on placement at Samuha Samarthya, we recounted our personal highs and lows. We sat on our rooftop long after the sun set and debriefed on the best parts of the day and the ones that posed the biggest challenges. There was only one rule – there couldn’t be more lows than highs. Animated stories of village children’s reactions to our home visits and surprise 40 year old clients in the early intervention centre often had us laughing to the point of tears.

At the end of the placement our preceptor, Phil Sheppard, challenged us to try and come up with our top “high” and worst “low” of the placement. We thought about the variety of conditions we learned about, the amazing Indian food, and the warm hospitality before we finally settled on the top high which was the consistent adaptability and motivation of those living with disability in India that we witnessed. It was incredible to see what their high levels of motivation and resiliency allowed them to achieve. They found ways to adapt to whatever their disability was and thrived when provided with a physical therapy intervention. The low that we all struggled with was how many barriers these clients had working against them. They still had to face challenges such as strong social stigmas surrounding disability, cycles of poverty and elusive government funding. It gave us a lot of respect for the work that Samuha Samarthya does as advocates for their clients. How does this have anything to do with practicing in Canada? We not only learned to advocate for physiotherapy as an intervention, but also how important our role as motivators, educators and advocates is to helping our clients achieve the best possible outcome.

 

Ortho Club
By: Brandon Arbour, Ortho Club Representative

Ortho Club is a student run initiative that provides students from the MPT2 class the option to attend presentations with clinical physiotherapists. Presenters and students have both provided very positive feedback. Students seem to really enjoy how a focus is put on gaining exposure to different post-graduate practical skills as well as giving students multiple perspectives on what to expect after graduation. This year there has been about 65 students register for Ortho Club and we consistently have had 60 students at every presentation.

Some topics covered so far this year have included: assessment and treatment around the pelvis, lumbar assessment and treatment techniques in clinical practice, cervical assessment and treatment techniques in clinical practice, as well as load transfer testing. Other topics that we have coming up include vestibular rehab techniques as well as exercise retraining techniques for the core. We are right in the middle of all of the presentations for this semester and still going strong!