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Racquel Mounce
PTA 1010
Devery Agular
Reflection Paper

I volunteered at three clinics: Peak Physical Therapy, Beyond Limits Physical

Therapy and Hand and Orthopedic Rehabilitation Specialist. All of the clinics where
practicing under the same guidelines, yet all extremely different. Theyre where little
differences between the personalities of the physical therapists, aids and PTA that changed
the entire culture of the offices.
My all time favorite clinic that I visited was Peak Physical Therapy. The Pts name
was Steve Robbins who had been practicing for about 15 years. Steves contextual level
was quite high compared to most of the other Pts communication styles. He wanted to
know how things worked, and what made people tick, according to him. In fact on my first
day (a Wednesday) we sat around and talked for about an hour; he wanted to know about
me, about the program, what I like to do for fun and so on. In that hour I also learned a lot
about him. He is a people person who has a vast knowledge of the anatomy of people.
When visiting the other offices no other PT recited the 6 movements that the shoulder
makes while demonstrating them. We talked about the movements of the hips (4) and how
the ankle works with weight and without weight on it.
Before doing the first evaluation of the day he said, we try to treat the whole
person. To start every evaluation he would ask the person the same question, What do
you like to do? What do you do for work? What do you do for fun? Family? Tell me

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anything about yourself that you like. This is what made him such a high context
communicator. Steve also drew attention about developing trust though touching his
patients and letting them know that he was not going to drop them. For example when
doing joint mobility on a shoulder he would sandwich the persons arm between the side of
his body and arm while having is hand on their shoulder to move the joint around. Again
he was special compared to the other pts because he seemed to have the smallest personal
bubble.
Treatments: Lots of joint mobilization, leg and back stretching, post surgery
evaluation, scotty dog treatment and pain management. The only draw back with Peak
PT was the fact that they did not have any PTAs on staff. There where four aids that took
care of the ice and hot packs well as supervising exercises, electric stimulation, and ultra
sounding the affected area. One of the aids was applying for pt school, himself, the other
had his bachelor's degree in sports training.
Secondly , while at Beyond Limits Physical Therapy I worked with Isaac and Shaun.
Shaun was the owner and had been in business for about ten years and took care of
insurance billing for the business. It seemed like the clinic was doing really well. It was
extremely busy every time I came in. These guys where super professional; to the point of
being the only clinic to have me sigh a HIPAA waiver. They where always careful to not
show other people any information on what was going on with that specific patient. When
the pts went in and out of the rooms they always made sure the papers where face down,
where as Peak PT and hand and orthopedic rehab always had them in folders.
During all of their treatments both doctors started off by either letting the patient do
their exercises or giving the patient a soft tissue massage. The cool thing about this office is

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that they seemed to go the extra mile for the patient. For example they had a machine that
heated up the lotion so it was not cold on the patients skin. This is where the pts made
most of their conversation. Isaac was kind of hard to talk to. I think we where a lot alike
because I really dont like to talk to any one before I have time to warm up to them, and I
only spent one day with him. He was and extremely low context communicator where as
Shaun was a little better at explaining things. The one thing I did like about Isaac was when
he would stretch peoples legs, hips arms, and everything else he would tell them to push
agents his hand for a little extra stretch that affects the nerve endings.
However when I was shadowing Shaun I observed a lot of expresses to strengthen
and protect the knee while improving balances. There where a lot of patients with varying
injures: back, knee, toe, joint mobilization, and hip replacements. Here to the evaluation
was my favorite part of the whole experience. For example Shaun would measure both
legs, range of motion for each leg and discuss the treatment and goals from there. Isaac did
not do an evaluation.
Here too there where no PTAs employed. There where 2 aid each day. The patients
where also did their exercises with no instructions and company. Shaun said that it was
because the people I saw have been coming there for a while and dont need it. It was still
concerning how un attentive some of the aids where.
Lastly, at the Hand and Orthopedic Rehabilitation Specialist I worked with Josh and
Sharleis (PTA). This was a truly exiting office. Up until now I had only witnessed
stretching and joint mobilizations. Here we had a patient that we treated her vertigo. It
was amazing . Josh was extremely knowledgeable when testing that the patient had
crystals in her ear canals. It turned out that she had crystals in her posterior canal and

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horizontal canals. When diagnosing and treating the patient he was extremely watchful to
make sure I knew what was going on. Positive conformation of the crystal being in the
posterior canals was when the patients head was tilted at a certain angle her eyes would
move in a circular direction, for the horizontal diagnosis her eyes moved horizontally- back
and forth in her sockets.
My overall impression of the Profession of physical therapy it that is stable and
changing at the same time, even growing, although the position of a PTA kind of worries me
due to the fact that I only saw one out other three clinic that I went to. All the same I like
the idea of being able to do the majority of the things that I observed the pts and even the
one pta doing. She was amazing, just as knowledgeable as the pt in most cases. If I could
do this job shoadow thing again I would spend more time at Hand and Orthopedic
Rehabilitation Specialist because they had three pts in different areas that I would like to
spend time with: womens health, hand rehab, pediatrics, and Orthopedic.