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DPT Students Help Patients Walk with SafeGait Machine
Walking is easy to take for granted until it’s gone. In the Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) program at the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences (USAHS) campus in Austin, Texas, students train with the SafeGait machine, which harnesses patients so they can’t fall and gives them the security to relearn how to walk without holding back.
Faculty member Michelle Sawtelle offers an elective in which students first learn handling techniques, then practice them with a community member who has a neurological injury, right before clinical internships. Ryan, who worked in several Houston hospitals, saw the machine used often for stroke and concussion.
Transcript
DPT Students Help Patients Walk with SafeGait Machine
[00:00:00] Ryan (PT Student): We don’t really fully understand how important walking is until you lose it. The purpose behind this machine is to reteach the patient how to properly walk so they can continue their lives, their families, their jobs. What we have to do is make them feel safe and comfortable. So with this machine, since we have them rigged up where they can’t fall, they can have that sense of security without them holding back. It’s a good reinforcer/safety net for that patient. [00:00:34] Cole (PT Student): Dr. Sawtelle is actually really awesome. I really love her, and she’s very enthusiastic about her job and about the population that she treats, which makes learning so much more fun when your professor really has that kind of love and passion for it. [00:00:48] Michelle Sawtelle (PT Faculty): I actually allow students an elective option to be able to work with the machine itself and go through those motions from an ambulation perspective. Once they’ve learned the handling techniques with it, I will bring in an individual from out in the community who does have a neurological injury, and then they’ll be able to practice those techniques on that individual, and this actually occurs right before they go on their clinical internship. [00:01:13] Ryan (PT Student): I worked in about three or four hospitals in Houston, Texas, and we use this a lot for strokes, people with concussions. [00:01:23] Michelle Sawtelle (PT Faculty): I think this is rare to have in a university, to be honest. I was never trained on this until I got into the clinic. So I think it’s advantageous for the students to have the capability to, to practice on this kind of thing before they go into the clinical setting, and they might actually be more skilled than some of their peers. They can be, you know, just a step ahead when they get into their internships and actually when they get their first jobs as well.
