Blog 24: Exit Interview Questions

(1) What is your essential question? What is the best answer to your question and why?

What is the most effective way for a physical therapist to help a patient recover from a volleyball injury? My answers are evaluation, stretching, and strength and endurance training. My best answer is stretching. According to Mayoclinic.com, in order to help recover from an injury; stretching must be done to restore full ROM to the injury site. Also, it’s the most essential process for a physical therapist to help a volleyball player recover from an injury. Your injury will be stiff from no movement and would need to regain the ROM in order to increase its function back to restore its original movement or even better.

(2) What process did you take to arrive at this answer?

I can say that there was three steps into finding this answer. The first step was during my mentorship. My mentor Emily Savila (PT) explained all the details that goes into stretching. If  it was from hips to a shoulder or knee injury, she would explain why every movement can be so critical. I had worked by her side every morning that I could come in till the afternoon when she had to go home. The second step was my experience. I had to remember when I got injured, what seemed to be the main focus throughout the whole physical therapy duration until I was healed. That’s when I had concluded that stretching was also into my routine every session. We had spent more time on stretching then anything else. The third step was my research. I had to make sure that to be more accurate on what could be an assumption was based on facts as well in articles. From reading Torrey, Lee. Stretching the Limits: Breakthroughs in Sports Science That Create Super athletes talking about stretching and why its important. For super athletes you have to take a slightly different approach since they are more in shape and need to recover faster. Then to articles about whether stretching is good or bad for you in the Mayoclinic articles.

(3) What problems did you face? How did you resolve them?

I had faced a couple of obstacles, but they were a major part for my project. For community service places I had received many problems. Either they don’t accept volunteers, don’t have anymore spots available because they are full or the kids in college took my spot since they are more likely to get those positions. Sometimes I had to be 18 and back then I wasn’t at the time, and sometimes there would be a waiting list.

(4) What are the two most significant sources you used to answer your essential question and why?

APTA ( American Physical Therapy Association), this website had many resourceful articles. It knowledge me in what the physical therapy guidelines were to procedures on how to evaluate or treat a patient. It basically covered all topics. The second source would be one of the most recent articles that I have read. Its called Physical Therapy and Exercise at hog.org. This handbook and everything to what a physical therapist needs to know. Its like guidelines. How physical therapy (PT) keeps joints and muscles healthy, How physical therapy (PT) restores or rebuilds joints and muscles (rehabilitation),Rehabilitation after surgery,  The role of the physical therapist, The physical therapist needs to know about you, and The physical therapy plan.

(5) What is your product and why?

Being able to uniquely adjust to every individuals injury and their mind set because everyone will have different emotions towards their injury, which means you need good communication skills, with people and know how to treat each patient.