19- FOXcast PT: Student Physical Therapist Jennifer  Baity

Jimmy: Welcome to FOXcast, a podcast for clinicians made by clinicians. It’s brought to you by FOX Rehabilitation. Find out more at foxrehab.org.

Welcome to FOXcast Physical Therapy. I’m your host physical therapist, Jimmy McKay, and joining me today is:.

Jennifer: Jennifer Baity.

Jimmy: Jennifer welcome to the show. Jennifer, currently you are:

Jennifer: A second-year student physical therapist at Wingate University.

Jimmy: Yeah. Excited about working with older adults.

Jennifer: Yes. And I just started my first clinic at Novant Hospital Rehab in Thomasville. It’s an acute setting, but there’s also an outpatient setting in front of a hospital. I’m having some technical difficulties…

Jimmy: It’s alight.

Jennifer: I’m not a professional like Jimmy, here.

Jimmy: Well, right now I guess you’re a semi professional because you’re…

Jennifer: In the process of it.

Jimmy: In the process of it. So first of all, kudos to you because you had an idea of starting a student gathering in the state of North Carolina where you’re a PT student. Talk about that for a second!

Jennifer: The student conclave is going to be the first annual student conclave that we’ve had in North Carolina. And actually, um, Jillian McLean is a third year DPT student at Wingate and she started the idea of the conclave because she went to the National Student conclave and said we should do this in North Carolina for students who are looking to get connected with, you know, networking and resources, future employers, questions about specialties versus generalists.

Jimmy: Yeah, there might be a debate about that – I might be on one side of that dabate.

Jennifer: I don’t know Jimmy! You tell me!

Jimmy: I might be generally on side, on one side of that debate or the other side.

Jennifer: I’m sure it will be special, right?

Jimmy: It’ll be special. So that’s coming up as we record this.

Jennifer: Right.

Jimmy: That debate is happening in two days.

Jennifer: Yes on Saturday.

Jimmy: But you helped to organize that.

Jennifer: Yeah, so it’s been really fun. So Jillian had the idea and then she brought it to Bryn and I, um, Bryn Hager. And we said yes – absolutely! Let’s take this on. Students across the state of North Carolina need something that we can, you know, an avenue where we can network and meet people like FOX Rehab!

Jimmy: Yeah, like FOX Rehab, yeah.

Jennifer: This is just amazing. Yeah.

Jimmy: So what’s your relationship with FOX right now? How are you related?

Jennifer: I first heard of FOX when…

Jimmy: Kristie

Jennifer: Yes, Kristie handed me a brochure at the NC PTA fall conference. It was like a social that we were having. And I had no clue what FOX was, frankly.

Jimmy: It’s ok!

Jennifer: But I was, I was excited and so I went on to.

Jimmy: Hold on, why? What drew you to it? What made you excited?

Jennifer: Well, Kristie asked me how I thought about geriatrics. How I felt…

Jimmy: What was your answer, I love these.

Jennifer: I said: “I Love geriatrics!”

Jimmy: There you go – good answer!

Jennifer: I said don’t give me any kids, but I’ll take the, I’ll take that well seasoned.

Jimmy: Yeah!

Jennifer: I love them.

Jimmy: That’s a well seasoned adult!

Jennifer: Well, my inspiration is my grandfather. He had a stroke about six years ago and he’s had really a hard time with it. Um, and now has dementia. And I go to his house and I do home, home therapy, home physical therapy with him.

Jimmy: Good.

Jennifer: A lot, and he half the time he’ll say: “Yeah, we can do some work.” And then half the time he’s like: “I’m not moving. I don’t care.”

Jimmy: So how do you roll with that. What’s your strategy with your grandfather.

Jennifer: Um, I usually just play into his salience. So I’ll find things I know that he loves to do. He used a fish, um he likes ice cream. So I’ll sometimes just make…

Jimmy: Who, doesn’t? First of all…

Jennifer: Yeah, so I’ll start like: “Alright, Grandpa. We’re going to take a big scoop of this ice cream” and try to get him motivated. Once I get motivated into it, then we started doing some big movements, actually.

Jimmy: Great.

Jennifer: And he’s been doing really well with those. And sometimes I can get him outside. We’ll be moving and, and he’ll look at me sometimes and say: “you know this is fun!” And then sometimes he’ll say: “I’m 80 years old – I can’t do this.” But we go with it and I just get the best I can with them and know that his quality of life is what’s most important to me, so.

Jimmy: Good. That’s fantastic of you!

Jennifer: Yeah, I enjoy it.

Jimmy: Good for you!

Jennifer: And I feel like, at the same time, that yeah – he’s my grandfather, but I just see it not as a patient but as a person that I can help. And I feel like that’s my calling. Like, that’s what tugs at my heart and that’s what makes me feel like I’m worth, like what I’m doing what I’m supposed to do.

Jimmy: Good.

Jennifer: Like what God called me to do.

Jimmy: Good! I love that. You’ve met with Kristie, you’ve interacted with FOX.

Jennifer: Yeah!

Jimmy: And kind of liked what we had to hear.

Jennifer: Yeah!

Jimmy: And then, um.

Jennifer: I’ve been, I’ve been stalking you guys on…

Jimmy: You’ve been talking us?

Jennifer: On the web, yeah!

Jimmy: At FOX rehab? Yeah, we’re on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, whatever! What do you like? What have you seen that you’ve interacted with via social media.

Jennifer: Well I love the new hire program that you guys have, and the mentorship. I really think that would be a great segue into the program. I feel like I would be comfortable coming in as a student and being a new hire there. Like, I – I feel like I could segue very easily, and it wouldn’t be like I was thrown out to the wolves. Whereas in a clinic, in a, just a general outpatient clinic I feel like they give you a computer and they’re like: “Here you go!”

Jimmy: Yeah.

Jennifer: “All right, here’s your patient, you’re ready!”.

Jennifer: Yeah. And that makes…

Jimmy: Unfortunately.

Jennifer: Just as a little nervous, as a student…

Jimmy: Yeah.

Jennifer: But knowing that I would have a mentorship program and I feel like I would be somewhere I could thrive would be something I love.

Jimmy: We say happy, well-trained clinicians make great results with clients! So we don’t want to hand you a laptop, especially because of the FOX model in which you’re out in the community, where your grandfather is, where people are. We don’t want to hand you a laptop and a cell phone and say: “All right, we’ll see you in a couple of weeks. Let us know how it goes!” We know that when, I mean you’re second year right now, even third years – like they get thrown to the wolves and they say well figure it out. And we don’t want that. We don’t want that disconnect. We want to make sure that you’re ushered into this profession respectfully!

Jennifer: And saying that, I love another thing where everyone is so friendly. I – J immy’s not paying me to say this I promise, a full disclaimer – that everyone has been super friendly and not only to me but I’ve actually passed along Kristie’s name to a few of my classmates. And she was immediately was like: “Yes, I can help them!” They have been wonderful to work with and very, very kind and very helpful.

Jimmy: Thank you for saying that.

Jennifer: I appreciate it.

Jimmy: I mean we do say, we say you know we’re not looking to necessarily hire anybody.

Jennifer: Right.

Jimmy: We are looking for Physical Therapists.

Jennifer: Right.

Jimmy: But want to find a fit for FOX. So I don’t want to hire you, I want to see if you’re a fit and I want to see if we’re a fit for you! If it works for both of us, that’s when we both win! And when we win our clients win! So I want to know, I want to know what’s your, what’s your FOXtale. You already talked about your grandfather. We ask this of everybody on the show. What’s your FOXtale. Why’d you want to be a Physical Therapist and work with older adults. What brought you to it?

Jennifer: Aside from my grandfather I actually have another story. As a 16 year old I was looking to play soccer in college. Trying to get recruited and my older sister was at NC State. So I said, I’ll be a, you know, go ACC with her.

Jimmy: Wolfpack, yeah.

Jennifer: Yeah, go Pack! But I tore my ACL. And of course went through reconstruction surgery and, um, had three months of therapy. I had a great Christian physical therapist that really inspired me and I looked up to her a lot. Then I came to Wingate as a DPT student and said sports all the way. Well, I got there and I, uh, we have a neuro clinic at Wingate, which is incredible. The professors, Dr. Diane Wrisley, is wonderful, that you guys will hear on the show I’m sure.

Jimmy: Yeah, we talked about her on Pintcast, the other show that I host.

Jennifer: She’s wonderful. So she’s started a non-profit clinic and she actually recruited a patient with neuropathy who is an older adult, an older male, um, who, he said he was a truck driver, woke up one day and could not feel his feet, at all.

Jimmy: Wow.

Jennifer: With peripheral neuropathy.

Jimmy: That’s livelihood for him. Truck driver? That’s livelihood!

Jennifer: Right.

Jimmy: T hat’s food!

Jennifer: Right. Exactly. And so he was completely, um, had a life change and he came in to see me and was like: “My insurance is not going to pay for any more therapy. I am at a loss. I don’t know what to do.” And so I paired with Dr. Wrisley, and she and I worked together and I got to see him actually run down the hall. Here we are about three years later from whenever it first happened – he’s jogging down the hall.

Jimmy: Wow.

Jennifer: And he was crying and I was crying, Jimmy! And Jillian, the other student – we were all crying and were just, it was incredible. And just to see the smile on his face when he said: “This is incredible. This is changing my life. You were helping me turn my life around.” And the quality of life that he has and that I was able to, I don’t say that, like, we heal by, say that God gives us the power to heal, and we’re able to help people through what we learn and what we know. The fact that I was able to help him and see that smile on his face and know that I was a part of that process is incredible. I’ll drop the mic!

Jimmy: I mean, how am I gonna follow that up? Yeah.

Jennifer: That’s my FOXtale!

Jimmy: Wow! Well done. Well, excited to see what comes next. You’re only a second year student, excited to see what things happen in your third year and then after you graduate. Glad you’re with us, glad you’re able to share that story because, as we know this medium – the story is going to go somewhere. Maybe it’ll help someone else get to change someone else’s livelihood. So appreciate that. Thank you very much!

Jennifer: Definitely. Thank you for having me! I have fully enjoyed my experience with FOX thus far and getting to know you guys.

Jimmy: Thanks for listening to FOXcast, a clinically excellent podcast. It’s brought to you by FOX Rehabilitation. Listen to other episodes or read articles and position papers at foxrehab.org.