Favorite things

One of my favorite things about teaching is seeing someone have his/her "ah ha" moment. It is very gratifying to think that I had a small part to do with it. I realize that our students are very bright and they will have many "ah ha" moments regardless of who is teaching, so I feel lucky to be part of that.
In the courses I teach I have the extra bonus of having both diadactic (lecture) and psychomotor (lab) elements. One particular moment that I see year after year, that I never seem to tire from is the skill of manipulation. In a manipulation the student positions the patient in three planes and then provides a high velocity, low amplitude thrust to a joint. This often occurs with a audible pop or, as we say in the business, a cavitation. In lab when this first occurs there is much rejoicing with some high fives, some whooping and hollering, and a lot of smiles.
As we get older sometimes the high fives go away and perhaps there are not as many bursts of joy but that feeling of happiness and accomplishment that we feel inside continues, which is yet another reason that I love the field of physical therapy. We, as physical therapists, pretty much always have something else to learn, some new skill to acquire, another "ah ha" moment to accomplish and what is even better is our patients benefit with each new lesson learned, with all the newly acquired skills, and with every "ah ha." Pretty cool...pretty cool!

CSM was Great (Great and Busy)

It has been over a week and a half since returning from the American Physical Therapy Associations national conference. It was really great. As I mentioned last time, Rockhurst was very well represented as we had 16 posters presented. If you would like to look at the posters you can see them here. When I returned I told the students that I felt like I was in PT school again because I was up every day at the crack of dawn and was in classes/presentations taking notes all day and then meeting up with colleagues and friends until late at night while still trying to find time to prepare for my presentation...needless to say I came home ready for a vacation. Even with how full my days were and all my running around, I really enjoy going to those conferences where so many smart and like-minded people meet and share their knowledge and camaraderie. It was a great event and I am sure next year in New Orleans it will be just as great.