This Ability

On March 20, 2015 the class watched a movie called the “Freedom Writers” which entails the story of a teacher who made immense life changes to her students who the society considers “unteachables.”

As a future PT, it reinforced in me the value of commitment – to never give up in regaining my patients/students’ function even if the society already turned its backs on them. It also taught me to put my patients/students’ interest above my own and make sacrifices to help them reach their full potential.

In the movie, the professor utilized music, games, exposure trips and talks in teaching her lessons. As a future PT, it is important to utilize different learning strategies to assist in my patients/students’ learning experience. It dawned on me to stop being conventional and think beyond the box for my patients - to redefine the PT profession especially in patient care and education.

As health professionals, we sometimes lack compassion when our mundane activities include interacting with several patients. As an example, we sometimes see professionals who only ask history taking questions that are relevant to their papers. As a future PT, the movie made me realize the importance of identifying with my patients, respecting their individuality and knowing where they are coming from. I can do this by asking my patient’s illness experience during history taking. Through this, I can treat my patients using an effective approach that identifies the complexity of my patient’s disability by incorporating his/her experiences. In addition, the movie also gave a concrete example of a great line of questioning – starting with the general questions first before the personal ones – that can break the habit of usual history taking questions and help in building trust of my patients.

Lastly, the movie enlightened me about the importance of being optimistic with my patients’ condition. As a future PT, I learned to emphasize my patient’s capabilities. It also awakened me to the idea of transforming the perception of people about “disability” to “ThisAbility.”