Donald Holmes, CPO and fellow Northern Orthopedic Laboratory staff members recently provided an in depth educational seminar on prosthetic management for Clarkson University Doctorate of Physical Therapy students. The seminar provided students with the opportunity to experience first hand the process involved in managing prosthetic patients, which included evaluation of patient's, prosthetic designs and components, and the clinical documentation required for medical justification by insurance carriers.
After the interactive class lecture, students had the opportunity to speak with and interact with some of Northern Orthopedic Lab's prosthetic wearers.
During the patient interaction portion of the day students were able to speak with the patients to discuss the designs, components, and suspensions used for the prostheses (both transtibial and transfemoral designs), as well as observe the prosthetic alignments and gait deviations as the patients ambulated.
Many students also took advantage of this time to discuss the role that the physical therapists play during the rehabilitation process, in order to gain insight on the patient's perspective regarding the impact that physical therapy has following a traumatic experience such as losing a limb.
Brittany Sharlow, Clarkson PT Student, was very pleased with the opportunity to be able to attend the seminar and to interact with the various prosthetic patient's. In regards to the most beneficial aspect of the seminar, Miss Sharlow says, “The most important thing I learned today is that through collaboration between physical therapists and prosthetists, we can really help those with amputations to be as functional as they had previously been.”
Since NOL opened over 34 years ago, the mission has always been the same, “To restore the function and quality of life to persons whose lives are affected by injury, amputation, and/or bio-mechanical deficiency, and to encourage patients to live independent, active lives so that physical challenges do not limit life's opportunities.” Collaboration between prosthetists and physical therapists is an essential component in accomplishing this mission. Contributing to the educational experience of physical therapy students is always a welcomed endeavor by the NOL staff!
Northern Orthopedic Laboratory would like to extend a special “Thank You” to all of our patient's who volunteered their time to participate in this event.
