The end of April finished with a bang as the class of 2019 presented their capstone community projects for Health Promotion and Wellness III. The students worked on a variety of projects with topics ranging from outpatient, inpatient/outpatient neuro, acute care/cardiopulmonary, community, and pediatrics.
Over 20 groups and 67 students were at the Clinical Learning Center displaying their posters, giving demonstrations, and getting the opportunity to learn about fellow students’ projects. The following are just a few of the truly great projects the students took the time to put together.
Community resources for patients with home adaptation needs identified by the Gainesville Fire Department Community Resource Program
Students: Kim Fasano, Shelby Wells
Kim Fasano and Shelby Wells worked with mentors, Dr. Kim Dunleavy and Ariella Bak, Community Resource Paramedic (CRP) program coordinator, to eliminate the gap in access to care for community members in Alachua County.
The CRP was developed by the Gainesville Fire Department to provide care to frequent 911 callers who asked for care such as requesting trips to the emergency room or needing assistance getting around their homes.
Fasano and Wells worked with Bak to update and improve the “Home Safety Assessment Checklist” form that is distributed to the fire and rescue team to determine what can be changed in the patients’ homes to increase their safety.
Aspects of participants’ homes that have been updated include building ramps or bed frames and adding guard rails. Recognizing these needs, Fasano and Wells worked with Dr. Dunleavy to see where they could retrieve medical supplies and equipment. The students were able to collect donated equipment and medical supplies from the UF DPT program, as well as additional equipment from local medical supply stores.
In conclusion of their project, Fasano and Wells recognized the opportunity for larger donations, the need to analyze the quality of life surveys provided to CRP participants, and the importance of establishing the role of UF DPT within the CRP program.
Champion Boxing Community Capstone Project: Educational Outreach Project for adults with Parkinson ’s disease
Students: Rebecca Wheeler, Caroline Salam, Emily Tyler, Melissa Warnock
Throughout the program, several DPT students have volunteered with Keith Teller at his Champions Boxing program, which is a boxing class that features drills and training geared toward participants who have Parkinson’s disease.
Teller wanted to enhance his clients’ participation and benefits by tracking their progress, but since the students are not licensed clinicians, they were unable to fulfill this task. However, Rebecca Wheeler, Caroline Salam, Emily Tyler and Melissa Warnock bridged the gap and helped Teller by creating a questionnaire for participants, and they designed and printed handouts, flyers and created a poster for Teller so he could promote his program.
Because of their physical therapy background, the students were able to retrieve the necessary literature for patient education and were able to craft handouts describing the benefits of exercise and boxing, allowing Teller to encourage those with PD to continue adding his specialized physical activity to their routine.
In conclusion, the students recommend Teller to continue to use the questionnaire they created for his members. They suggested he distribute the survey after a few months of participation to receive the a valid response, and if permissible by the participant, Teller could then use the survey answers as anonymous testimonials to update his website.
UF Wheelchair basketball student association and exercise programs for adaptive wheelchair sports
Students: Liz Haumschild, Marco Italia, Jessica Oram, Jake Reidy, Alex Stanojev, Ariana Zanganeh
With more than 50,000 students enrolled at the University of Florida and over 3,000 intercollegiate men and women teams registered with the UF Disability Resource Center, Dr. Carolyn Hanson in the Department of Occupational Therapy saw the lack of wheelchair basketball activity on campus and wanted to introduce a team to UF.
Dr. Hanson had a coach lined up for the team, but needed assistance with student recruitment, so she contacted the Department of Physical Therapy. Liz Haumschild, Marco Italia, Jessica Oram, Jake Reidy, Alex Stanojev and Ariana Zanganeh started working on this project to generate interest and student involvement on campus.
The DPT students created a survey and distributed it to the UF Disability Resource Center and PT and OT students. They received 300 survey responses — 45 participants were interested in playing wheelchair basketball and 75 were willing to volunteer.
These results led to a wheelchair club being founded through UF Student organizations. The team started practicing this past spring semester.
The wheelchair team is still in its infancy, but in the future, the DPT students hope that it will be registered in the intramural leagues within two years and the hopefully become an intercollegiate team.