Great Stories
Montana Campus Corps:
College Students Meeting Critical Community Needs
Making a True Impact by Traci Brumwell

In my last clinical in Choteau, MT I had the opportunity to work with an elderly lady that had her hip replaced a week before I started. In the two months that I was there, she went through a lot with her hip, such as reinjuring it which set her back and also not trusting her hip while gait training. We progressed her from her Front Wheeled Walker to a Wide Based Quad Cane and finally to a Single Point Cane and finally to no assistive device at all. She was really nervous everytime we gave her something new to walk with because it gave her less support. I was always be herside with a gait belt to reassure her and educate her on how her hip and the surrounding muscles were strong. I would treat her when she reinjured the leg with electrical stimulation and ice to help her recover faster and exercises to strengthen her leg. We got to know each other well and she trusted me as her therapist, which meant a lot to me as a student.

On her last day of therapy after we had discharged her she came up to me and gave me a big hug and thanked me for the excellent job that I had done and that she knew I would make a great therapist and that it was a pleasure to meet me. This meant the world to me, patients and teachers had always said that I did a good job, but never that they personally enjoyed me working with them. I felt like I truly impacted a persons life. I do not think any feeling can beat the one when you know that you have helped a person improve their quality of life and seeing their gratitude on their faces is a priceless moment that I hope everyone can experience once in their life, I will be fortunate enough to see it on a day to day basis. I hope I never take it for granted and always remember the first patient I had an impact on.


« Go Back