A Week In The Life Of A Flex DPT Student…
Student Sue is a divorced
mother with a 7-year-old son. She
earned her BS in exercise physiology and worked in a large outpatient
rehabilitation center until her divorce.
With the need to increase her yearly income, she moved into the loan and
mortgage business, even though she always had the dream of becoming a physical
therapist. She works 9 to 5, helps her
son with homework, takes him to karate practice, and is active in a community
organization.
On Monday morning before
her son woke up, Sue downloads her assignments and plans out her
coursework. She carries her textbooks
and articles to work everyday so she can use her lunch times for reading time. In the evenings, after her son is in bed,
she reads her online text for this week's unit assignments in two of her three
courses, taking notes as needed.
Tuesday, she completes her
readings, finishes the online reading for her third course and writes a draft
of a bulletin board assignment for one of the courses.
Wednesday at lunch, she
puts the finishing touches on her bulletin board assignment and posts it on the
course platform. She takes time to read
a few submissions from her classmates and responds to them in the threaded
discussion. That evening she "chats"
online with two classmates to finalize some details of a group oral
presentation they're giving at the weekend lab. She also takes an online quiz in one of her courses.
Thursday at lunch she
re-visits her courses to check on the bulletin board discussions. After work, she reviews her course notes for
all three courses and her presentation while waiting for her son to finish
karate. After his bedtime, she takes
her final quiz for the week in one of the courses and phones a couple of
friends about plans for a little get-away next weekend.
Friday at lunch brings more
time to check up with her peer learners in her discussion. Friday night she always takes off for some
R&R. She and her son enjoy pizza
and a movie. Early to bed!
Saturday and Sunday are all
day laboratory sessions/classes. After
dropping her son off at her mother's house, Sue works on new techniques for
therapeutic exercise. She practices on
her classmates and receives feedback from her instructor, Tom. There is time to ask questions and review
the prior weekend's lab work. During
lunch, she meets with her group about the oral presentation for Sunday. In the afternoons, Sue has a modalities
class. Here she practices application
of ultrasound. She's seen this done
many times before but is anxious to learn when and when not to use this on
patients. The lab instructor leads an
interesting discussion about clinical reasoning and answers many questions the
students have about items in the online course. After lab, Sue completes some errands, picks up her son and goes
to a family birthday gathering. At
home, she reviews her presentation one more time.
Sunday, she again attends
lab from 8-5, learning new techniques, gives her presentation, and passes, a
"mock" practical examination in preparation for a test in modalities
for the next scheduled lab weekend. Sue
spends the evening with her son, straightening up the house and paying
bills. She has a few papers for work to
review and relaxes while getting "recharged" for the next week.