Qualitative Study Critique

OrthoOklahoma is an orthopedic medical clinic with a physical therapy branch that provides outpatient physical therapy care. The facility has a staff of three licensed physical therapists and a physical therapy assistant along with four physical therapy techs. I was able to observe all three physical therapists, Megan Ripley, Joe Ogle and Ken Roberts. At OrthoOklahoma, the most common patients are post-surgery from repairs of muscles, bones or joints. While shadowing these therapists, I observed cases of total knee replacement, total hip replacement, ACL/meniscus repair, rotator cuff repair, frozen shoulder, labrum repair, and other ailments from wear-and-tear and aging. This experience allowed me to talk to physical therapists about the ins and outs of their job, learn about different exercises and routines for treatment of injuries, and really get an idea of the work it takes to become a well-respected physical therapist.

In my head I was scared I was paralyzed and that I would never walk again. Scoliosis scarred me for life because the pain subsides in my forever now. It hasn’t gone away since the surgery it is only tolerable now. My memories from the hospital stay consist of lying on the striker frame in pain, staring at the floor or the ceiling depending upon the way I was positioned. Every fiber in my body wanted to move, but the process of moving was unbearable. Only two days after my surgery they started having me try to walk to the bathroom on my own, I needed assistance the first couple of tries but after a while I could walk on my own. Sitting up or in a chair was another thing, I was only relearning the muscle movements for my back, but I couldn’t stand the pain and my stomach couldn’t keep the food down. I cried every day because I couldn’t do things for myself, I was mad at the world for putting me through pain. After about a week in recovery I was sent home, but there were problems there too. After 3 months I was able to finally sit in a chair for a long period of time, lay in my bed, run, and do every day things on my own again. I learning an important lesson through this; you don’t become successful without working for and the occasional obstacle. Spine surgery changes a person. It can fix

Once devoted to the care of children with spine and limb deformities, orthopaedists now care for patients of all ages, from newborns with clubfeet to young athletes requiring arthroscopic surgery to older people with arthritis. And to anybody that can break a bone. (AAOS)

Children have multiple or prolonged exposure to trauma, experience various symptoms and reactions, and long for progressive techniques to heal their pain.

I walk into the cold, white hospital, my hands are sweating and my knees are shaking. Even though I have done this every six months since I was twelve years old, it never gets easier. I find a seat in the corner of the waiting room, embarrassed by the large, plastic, butterfly printed scoliosis brace I hold tightly against my side. The door opens, a nurse dressed in plain navy blue scrubs calls out “Emma for Dr. Meyers”. She leads my mom and me down a long hallway, and into a small, brightly lit room. The curse that is scoliosis is hereditary, which means my mom has it, and each of my sisters has been touched by this cruel disease that bends the spine as well. Scoliosis is a curvature of the spine that occurs during the growth period just before and through puberty.

K. H., St Marie, B.,J., Nordstrom, T. M., Christensen, N., Mongoven, J. M., Koebner, I. J., . . . Sluka, K. A. (2014). An interprofessional consensus of core competencies for prelicensure education in pain management: Curriculum application for physical therapy. Physical Therapy, 94(4), 451-65. Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy1.apus.edu/docview/1522798459?accountid=8289 This article puts the blame back on the uneducated or miss education of physical therapists.

The body parts discussed in the article is acquired spinal cord injuries in children. This talks about how the children lives I changed since the accident. The main idea of this article is to compare activity performance and participation Meaning, how their lives have changed negatively in social participation, mental stability, and self-confidence. A lot of the cases they talk about how they miss out on the activities that were able to participate in because of the SCI. For example, many stated not going to friends houses because they can’t get to the home. Another student said the reason she does not attend sleepovers is because of bowel and bladder complications she suffered after the incident. Also

It has been documented that children undergoing surgery and their families experience high levels of distress and perioperative anxiety. Stress and perioperative anxiety have the potential to cause more harm on post-surgical healing, in consideration of both physical and mental health, if not addressed promptly and properly. Child Life Specialists are pediatric healthcare professionals who are able to provide interventions to help reduce anxiety and increase developmental growth within pediatric patients, provide family centered care, and facilitating therapeutic play interventions for pediatric patients, all the while in the hospital environment (Child Life Council, 2014). Child life specialists are able to meet these values and missions to create a standard of practice that the American Pediatric Association recommends in all pediatric healthcare settings (Child Life Council, 2014). Typically, when child life specialists are working with pediatric patients undergoing anesthesia for surgical procedures they are able to participate as a part of the multidisciplinary health team to provide family centered care and increase a patient and their families understanding on the medical procedure at hand. A common intervention for pediatric patients undergoing anesthesia for surgical procedures include medical play and medical preparation sessions.

My sixteen year old niece Kyla was in a serious car accident several years ago and has overcome many struggles on her road to recovery. Several days after the accident, Kyla awoke in the hospital to discover that she had severe facial fractures, a punctured lung and a broken back; she was paralyzed from the waist down. Her first struggle was the physical healing of her injuries. The pain from both her initial injuries as well as the multiple surgeries required to repair what doctors could, was at times unbearable, but she fought through it. Then came the emotional struggles; Why did this happen to her? What about her dream of playing basketball? Who would want to marry her? Although her questions were many, she was able to find a way to accept

I worked for a few months in Adult Reconstruction clinic where I learned thatthe focus on alleviating pain and restoring function quickly was precisely the type of care I hope to offer my future patients. I will forever remember a patient who was completely debilitated with severe arthritis in her hips walk pain free at the next clinic visit. The satisfaction that I derive from guiding patients through the process of recovery and improvement will allow me to excel in orthopaedic surgery and provide me with a lifetime of rewarding relationships with my future

You suddenly said: “I am afraid there isn't anything we can do for you. You have scoliosis you spine is crooked of curse your neck gets crooked, your hip gets crooked.” “I can't straight your bones.” I was looking at you surprised and sad asked you what do you mean, should I not come to therapy anymore? You replied that “ There's two kinds of pain. Being in pain or suffering in pain”. I knew this fact that pain alerts us that there is something wrong with body. I absolutely can not believe you saying “That dose not mean we have to do anything about it. I have patient that they are in the worst condition than you are but they don't complain about pain.” May I ask you what is the point of awareness? I was hurt because those words did not match your heart that I knew and you weren't listing to me. That was why when you were talking to me about the next exercise I was looking at the window not your face. I just did my exercise. I could feel my face red and tears over flooded behind my

Self-report can be used in the paediatric setting to assess pain. Using self-report to assess the intensity and characteristics of the pain experienced by a three year old may be more challenging than using self-report in older patients, who have developed a greater ability to communicate their experiences (Herr et al., 2011; Twycross, 2013).

Younger children do not necessarily enjoy physical therapy; mostly because they do not understand what is going on or why they are attending physical therapy. The older children, however, do not seem to mind physical therapy near as much. No one loves it because it does hurt. There is a thin line between stretching the child’s limits far enough but not too far. Over time, the children have been stretching their limits further and further. There is not a sure reason of why this is, but there has been a large change in the children’s pain tolerance. Some suggest that because of new medicine and different technology being used by therapists, it results in more tolerable pain.

I was born with congenital scoliosis, I guess you can say it has always been significant, not exactly something you could overcome. I was always the one to raise her hand and not afraid to speak , as I got older people began asking me questions about my “problem” on why I couldn’t participate in the physical education activities. It began affecting me because I was asked on a daily basis and at one point I was told “no one with scoliosis will ever be a doctor”, “you will never go on to college, what makes you think you can and your “normal” cousins couldn’t?” During high school I lost the little self-esteem I had, I tried to stay home as many days as possible, even at one point I had hoped to get hit by a car, rather than go to school and be

Commitment--- something I needed in order to come out of this journey successful, something my doctor praised me for having every visit I made to her, something I am now very proud of carrying with me throughout such a battle. Without commitment, my Scoliosis would surely have progressed and my life would not be as it is today. Every day for four years I pushed myself to wear the brace no matter how painful and embarrassing it was. Although I was told by others that my efforts were likely to be a waste, I continued to encourage myself to prove them wrong and in the end I did. My dedication paid off and the curvature in my spine decreased and no longer progressed. I still remember the day when I visited my doctor and she told me the words I