Amelia Mercado – Physical Therapy Internship

Hello, my name is Amelia Mercado, and I am currently pursuing a Physical therapy internship at NovaCare rehabilitation center in New Holland. I attend my internship three days a week, for about 2 hours each day.

My job at my internship is mainly to keep the equipment and rooms clean so that the patients and the employees have a safe environment to work in. Other than cleaning equipment, I usually spend my time observing the PTs and PTAs. This is my favorite part of the internship because it allows me to ask any questions I have and to learn such fascinating facts about physical therapy.

Another part of my job is to help the patients through some exercises. I especially love this part of the internship because it lets me experience more realistically what I will be doing as a physical therapist in the future. One thing I must keep in mind while working with the patients is to make conversation. Here at NovaCare, making sure a patient does their exercises is just as important as having friendly conversations with them.

In these past few months interning at NovaCare, my knowledge in physical therapy has grown tremendously. The PTs and the PTAs do a great job explaining the reasoning behind specific exercises and stretches. Personally, I have never gone to a physical therapist before, so I was not sure what to expect. Although, this internship has been an amazing experience; I am so glad I chose to do an internship at NovaCare rehabilitation center. Now I feel more prepared to take on PT school in the fall.