Pediatric Physical Therapy Personal Statement

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I have been a pediatric physical therapist for over 20 years and have worked in a variety of settings including early intervention and school based practice. In 2008, while working for Los Angeles Unified School District, I began a Transitional Doctor of Physical Therapy (t-DPT) Program. It was during this program, that I first began to consider moving from clinical practice into academia. Through my participation in that program, I became an active member of the American Physical Therapy Association’s Section on Pediatrics (APTA SOP), was appointed to the Practice Committee and began working on several projects for the School Based Special Interest Group. After finishing the t-DPT, I found that I missed the challenge that the program provided and began to prepare for the Pediatric Clinical Specialist exam. After successfully completing the PCS, I researched opportunities in academia …show more content…
One of the major challenges I have experienced in the field of pediatric physical therapy is translating current research into practice. While pediatric physical therapy research is an emerging and growing field, there continues to be a scarcity of research in the area of school-based practice. As practioners in a fairly litigious area of practice, school-based physical therapists are constantly challenged to become more evidence based in our practice by parents, attorneys, advocates and other healthcare professionals. This is especially noticeable with regard to the concept of dosage. In order to contribute to the body of knowledge regarding dosage in school-based therapy, I joined a task force through the School-Based SIG which researched the issues surrounding dosage in schools and recently published a manual which defines dosage parameters and serves to guide school based therapists in their clinical reasoning