Students in PT 8322: Management of the Aging Adult taught by Dr. Jason Dring partner with organizations like the Foggy Bottom West End Village to conduct community mobility screenings for older adults. These screenings provided valuable health information to community members while offering students hands-on experience in assessing and communicating with older patients.
The mobility screenings included a comprehensive set of tests to evaluate various aspects of health and function in older adults. Students assess:
- Overall health and vitals
- Fall risk
- Strength and mobility
- Cognitive function
- Balance and proprioception
- Cardiovascular endurance
After conducting the screenings, students analyzed the results and provided explanations to the participants in patient-friendly language. They offered advice on lifestyle changes and the benefits of physical activity, helping community members understand how to maintain their independence and improve their quality of life as they age.
For information about Community Engaged Scholarship at GW: https://go.gwu.edu/cesc
Semester Reports
Spring 2024
Instructor: Jason Dring
Students Reporting: 18
Time Reported: 70.75 hours
Through this community-engaged learning experience, students not only applied their academic knowledge and skills but also developed crucial soft skills in patient communication, adaptability, and empathy. The project provided a meaningful opportunity for students to contribute to the well-being of older adults in the Foggy Bottom community while gaining practical experience that will inform their future careers as physical therapists.
Student Comments:
"This was one of my favorite volunteer experiences with the DPT program. Not only was it a great chance to work with community members and give back to the community, but having it once in first year and once in second year gave us a great chance to reflect on our professional and psychomotor growth over the past year."
"I learned how important older adults view their health, and how they focus on staying active and physically healthy through the aging process."
"I will apply and carry forward this learning to my role as a GWPT student, engaged citizen, and future PT in that we as PT's are physical activity experts and are the ones that can best examine and help patients engage in exercise to improve their function and physical well-being no matter their diagnosis or condition."
"It gave me experience with working with the community and allowed me to learn how to handle questions throughout and general pacing of a screening. I also got experience in understanding how to address real world concerns about how news, be it good or unpleasant, can impact how someone sees themselves. How words have power and that knowing when to be blunt is important, but that saying it in a motivational way or trying to understand how they best receive/respond to news is also important in how you deliver that news to them."
"This was an invaluable experience for us to practice administering standardized testing and interacting with older adults. I appreciated how we could practice how to effectively convey results of a screening even when those results may be 'negative' in nature."
