Internship Spotlight: Jessica Brighton helps children rehab with physical therapy

By Ryan, October 1, 2015

By Anne Davey, Opinion Editor//

Name: Jessica Brighton
Hometown: Greenlawn of Long Island New York
Year: Class of 2017
Major: Exercise Science
Internship: Hospital For Special Surgery in the Upper East Side of NYC- #1 in the US for Orthopedics and #3 for Rheumatology
Desired Career Path: Physical Therapy

What did I do: I interned in the outpatient pediatric rehabilitation department of the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City- specifically with the physical therapists. I worked in the pediatric gym where I observed while also helped physical therapists perform treatment with the children. I set up obstacles and play areas for the children to work on muscular development and getting them back on their feet to their every day lives! Treatments ranged from simple stretching, to playing catch while standing on one foot and to running on a treadmill. We saw patients ranging from 6 weeks old to 20 years of age, we saw a variety of diagnoses, whether it was children being referred out of surgery in the hospital or your average sports athlete injury that could be solved with some simple physical therapy.

How I got this internship: Recently the pediatric physical therapy gym of the hospital for special surgery was renovated through a donation by CA Technologies which is where my mom is employed. My mom attended the grand opening of the gym and met numerous physical therapists, and we were able to get back into contact with them to see if I would be able to complete an internship with them because I was interested in the field and they were happy to have me. CA continues to help fund their everyday needs.

Coolest part of the job: I’ve always wanted to work with infants/children in medicine my entire life. I’ve played with the idea of being a pediatrician, an OBGYN, a maternity nurse, even a pediatric surgeon, but none of those have really seemed to click with me. Then I found physical therapy and fell in love with the field, and I knew it was for me. When most people think of physical therapy, you think of an athlete being referred to a local clinic for an injury or an adult being treated for some back pain, but this internship was able to give me insight on how to fulfill my dream of working with children. I knew there were pediatric physical therapy clinics and sometimes even PTs in schools, but being in the hospital and seeing how six week old babies were treated for neck injuries and three year olds being treated for lack of muscular development all through play was incredible to me and helped me find exactly what I want to do in the future.

Advice for people interested in the field: Once you’ve decided that physical therapy is for you and you know that you are applying for a DPT program post graduation, make sure you really use the number of observation hours that are required to find where you belong. There are so many areas of physical therapy and so many places they are used that most don’t even know exist! Each undergraduate applying to PT school is required to have a certain amount of observation hours in the field to get experience of the career, I advise everyone to get variety in those hours– don’t get them all from the same place, reach out to different areas, whether it be inpatient or outpatient, whether it’s with children or adults, whether it’s in a nursing home or a sports rehab center, get a wide range so you know where you want to go and will fit best and get the most experience.

Lessons I learned: This internship has taught me so many things that I didn’t think I would have seen or learned. Networking is super important in the medical field – more than I imagined. I can count many different occasions of PTs speaking with parents about all the different doctors they are in contact with and who they can refer them to and who/where is best to go. Being able to have connections throughout your own place of employment and even into others is so important to make the most of your job, that way you can help whomever, whenever. Interpersonal skills are incredibly important which I also learned. I was able to learn so much just watching the physical therapists interact with the parents of the children coming in to be treated.
When treating a child, it can sometimes be hard on the parent because, of course, they are worried so one must be able to be compassionate and respectful while performing their job to the best of their ability.
I also learned that it is extremely important to be open minded and always willing to learn. A lot of people believe that since they have certain degrees and that they have gone through years of schooling they are completely educated. But you need to be willing to learn from others to always make yourself and your job better.
I watched the physical therapists talk amongst themselves about different treatments that would best help one patient recover. I’ve watch one PT come over to another while treating a patient and say, “I’ve seen this diagnosis before and I’ve used this sort of treatment and found it to be best; you should try it out.” One has to be willing to be open and learn to better themselves at their own job.