Kendall Halsey – Physical Therapy Internship

My name is Kendall Halsey and I am an intern at PIVOT Physical Therapy located in the New Holland YMCA. This is a small clinic with two physical therapists, a receptionist, and myself.  I attend my internship on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday mornings. Cynthia, the therapist who directs the clinic, is my mentor and has been very helpful with tips for applying to school and making future career and education decisions. The PT tech that was working at PIVOT PT is completing her physical therapist assistant clinicals, so I recently took over many of her jobs.

In a typical day, I will arrive at my internship and complete any tasks Cynthia thinks of for me that need done that day. These tasks are not done every day, but include filling the hydrocollator, writing birthday cards for patients, organizing extra equipment, and more. Every day, I help the physical therapists work more efficiently by doing small tasks such as cleaning the patient tables, doing the laundry, setting and cleaning up equipment, and taking patients off of heat/ice and STM treatments. The therapists work with two patients at one time, so I help patients they are not directly working on.  Sometimes I will direct patients to their next exercise and make home exercise programs for them under the direction of the licensed therapists.

Something that I really enjoy doing is talking to patients. This is something that I am working on improving. It is important to make the patients feel comfortable during their appointments. I like asking them how their weekends were, what their plans are for the day, etc. I am getting better at doing this, but it is challenging to know what to talk about with patients when I see mostly different patients every day. Talking to patients who always come in during the time when I am there is easier.

My internship experience has been amazing. I am learning so much about what physical therapists do day-to-day and the challenges they face in their work. I am becoming much better at talking with adults and having conversations with people I am not familiar with. Before having this internship, I did want to pursue physical therapy, but this experience has further assured me that this is what I want to do. The hours can be long, but weekends are free, and the job seems very rewarding. The work that physical therapists do is very intriguing, and I am excited to continue my education in exercise science and physical therapy in the next few years.