Life in Motion: The Power of Physical Therapy

Welcome to Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences Podcast, The Secret to Living to 200. My name is Jennifer Persons and I'm your host. In each episode of this series, we will explore different aspects of health and the factors that allow us to live longer, healthier lives. With the help of a thought leader from the university this year, MCPHS is celebrating its 200th birthday, and what better way to kick off our bicentennial celebrations than with a podcast about longevity and wellbeing. Joining me today is Dr. Cheryl Babin. She is Associate Director of Clinical Education and associate professor for the School of Physical Therapy. She's also co-leader of Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education activities on the Worcester Manchester campus. Welcome. Thank you so much, Jennifer. It's a pleasure to be here today. Before we dive into our conversation, we're going to start with an icebreaker that we ask all of our guests. If you had a time machine and could travel 200 years into the future or 200 years into the past, which would you pick and why? Well, our profession is not that old, so going back would only be about oh, 125 years. I'd rather jump into the future and the future is something that everybody wishes that they had a crystal ball for, but I think particularly for our health and society, seeing what's going to become available for us is something that's exciting. Absolutely. Very cool. So just to start, introduce yourself to our audience. Please tell us about your career and how you ended up at MCPHS. So my journey to become a physical therapist started when one of my brothers had a pretty significant injury while playing ice hockey and he had physical therapy as part of his rehabilitation process. His rehabilitation was quite involved and his recovery was really great because he had a very knowledgeable and compassionate therapist that he worked with. And as I explored PT programs, I thought I wanted to work with children and therefore I chose to go to a PT school in Massachusetts due to the close relationship the program had at the time with Boston Children's Hospital. However, through my clinical education experiences, I learned that peds was not my thing, but I loved inpatient services and neurorehabilitation and inpatient care, acute care settings. So their after graduation, I worked in inpatient traumatic brain injury rehabilitation, and I worked per diem at an acute care hospital. As I gained experience, I was more and more intrigued by how the business side of healthcare worked and wanted to explore operations and management of therapy service, and I was quickly promoted into leadership positions. I've been a director, I've been a vice president, I've been an educator and consultant on a local and national level in my different positions. I always had a passion for teaching and mentored so many physical therapy students myself, and always encouraged and supported the staff to do the same as the DPT program at Mass College of Pharmacy was developing, I was asked to be part of their clinical education advisory board, which is how I came to the university full-time in January, 2013. And can you remind me how long has MCPHS had a doctor physical therapy program? We graduated our first cohort in 2014, so in 2024 we were celebrating 10 years of successfully graduating physical therapy students into the profession. That's a great milestone to celebrate. Congratulations. So you obviously have had a very experienced and diverse career. How has the practice of physical therapy changed over that time? So much. It's incredible. When we look back at the profession of physical therapy, it got its start in the early 19 hundreds when physical therapists helped patients recover from polio and helped rehabilitate soldiers who were returning from the first world war. But currently, physical therapy has evolved into a very complex portfolio of a variety of services and a wide range of specialties that include neurology, pediatrics, sports, women's health, and so many more opportunities. PTs are often considered movement experts who work to improve the quality of life through exercise and movement, hands-on care and patient education in a variety of different practice settings. The development of specialty practice areas and advanced practice certifications is just a few of the changes that I've seen over the years. You mentioned it, but I think when most of the public hears the word physical therapist, they think exercise. They think injury like you had experienced with your brother. So what is the ideal function of a physical therapist and how can our system utilize physical therapists better? Physical therapy practice has expanded so much over the years and how our healthcare system views us more integrated is that we are able to diagnose and provide care for those with any kind of medical ailments or health related injuries that limit movement or abilities in every day life. While most associate the therapists like you did, Jen, is treatment provided to patients that have limited mobility? The responsibilities of PTs has become much more than that over the recent years. Today's physical therapists must be able to be a fundamental member of the healthcare team and practitioners must be comfortable with and be able to perform as a consultant, as an educator, as an administrator or a clinical scholar. You also mentioned you had initial experience with acute care and traumatic brain injuries. So could you describe a little bit about that kind of work and what kinds of things physical therapists can do for those patients who have suffered acute and severe injuries? So those are two very opposite end of the spectrum careers, and so inpatient rehabilitation for traumatic brain injured individuals, it's a lot of work in that everybody's brain is so unique and the recovery is so specific for that individual. On the acute care side, I worked in intensive care units, and so at the time I was involved with mobilizing and helping individuals clear their lungs and being able to breathe better and come off ventilators and be able to not rely on oxygen and be able to aerate their lungs better so that they can reengage in their daily activities. Wow. So when we talk about physical therapy, it's truly any way our body moves. It absolutely is. I wouldn't have thought about breathing. Yeah, breathing is such a vital component of what we do every day, and physical therapists use breathing and the cycle of breath to help support everyday activities and exercise as well. You mentioned it a minute ago, but you said that physical therapists are really an integral part of any care team. In your work advocating for interprofessional practice and education, how have you seen physical therapists collaborate with other providers to improve the overall patient care? Yeah, that's an amazing experience. In my initial career working in traumatic brain injury, rehabilitation was where I got my foundational experience practice and collaboration, which was amazing. And since physical therapists are essential participants in the healthcare delivery system, and we work routinely as members of the healthcare team and with patients to be able to develop that plan of care that is interprofessional and is collaborative, that allows them to be able to achieve their optimal functional outcomes. I've seen PTs actively engage with all members of the healthcare team by actively listening and valuing their contributions to the plan of care, respecting what the other health professions have to say and provide for that plan of care for their patient. And so you've had experience with this even before interprofessional collaboration was really a focus for providers and for universities. Why is it important for MCPHS to make a conscious effort to create these scenarios for our students while they're still students? Yeah, we have such a unique opportunity at M-C-P-H-S because we're a dedicated health professions institution. And so therefore our students, even before they're out in clinical practice and learning, they have the opportunity within the classroom to be about each other. Absolutely. We've talked a lot about some surprising things that physical therapists do or things that people might not know. So if you could name one thing, what is the one thing you would want everyone out there to know about physical therapists and what they do? The. Thing that is one of the most challenging areas for patients today is to be able to gain direct access to physical therapy services. The ability to practice without that medical model of a physician referral and have reimbursement for our care is important. All 50 states today have direct access for physical therapist. However, it's not the case that necessarily those services will be reimbursed without that referral from a medical provider. That's interesting. Is there anything being done to improve that or what can be done to change that? Yes, I think it continues to need to be education, right? And lobbying, lobbying within our healthcare in reimbursement systems within our government to be able to have that ability to use our doctoring profession today to be able to provide those types of services for our patients. So continued education and lobbying and awareness about what physical therapists can do. And so if that is successful, you see a reality in which somebody has pain, I don't know, getting out of bed in the morning and they could find a physical therapist to help treat them. Yes, absolutely. I think the thing that is most important, there's lots of ways that we can save healthcare dollars, and this is one of 'em, particularly by being able to access physical therapy services directly without that referral because then you're being able to get the care that you need, right? From direct access into the physical therapy service model without having to see your physician. Yeah, that would be amazing. From a patient perspective, I'm wondering what makes a good physical therapy patient. So say I have an injury or I'm experiencing pain and therapist. What makes a good patient? Someone who is willing to put in the work, has a positive mindset and doesn't give up, continues to take the information that the therapists have shared with them during their treatment session. For example, from an education standpoint, quite often we'll give exercise protocols to be done when they're not in physical therapy services to keep things moving and progressing. So someone who is compliant with those kinds of interventions and strategies is a good patient to be able to work with. So today, what kinds of technologies and advancements are physical they might not have been when you were practicing? Well, as a clinician, when I first started practicing, the things that I really focused on or needed were my hands, my voice for being able to direct patients and a treatment table and a cooperative patient. But today, there's so many different technological advances out there. We've used physical agents such as electrotherapy. We also have seen the development of underwater treadmills and walking assisted trainers that use robotics. For example, today there are apps on mobile devices that make it easier for physical therapists to provide some resources for their patients for continuing their exercise protocols. Even beyond discharge, there's gaming and virtual reality technology, which helps to make physical therapy services fun and engaging. And since Covid, we've had telehealth services that have been expanded for physical therapy and telehealth is here to stay, and physical therapists can expect for us to continue those services and see patients for more virtual appointments than they did prior to covid. Thanks again, Cheryl. I've thoroughly enjoyed our conversation. We've come to the part of our show called Red's Rapid Fire, so I'm going to ask you a short series of questions, and the goal is to answer them as quickly as possible. Are you ready? I am ready. What is your favorite color? Purple pancakes or waffles. Oh, pancakes. What was your first job? Waitress for a catering service. What is your dream vacation cruise? If you could have one superpower, what would it be? The. Ability to fly. Which game show do you think you could win?$10,000. Pyramid. What is one food you could eat for every meal? Popcorn. If. You could go back to one decade, which one would you pick? The 1990s. Do you have any hidden talents? It's cooking. People tell me I'm a great cook. And my last question is, what's one piece of advice you would give to your younger self? Stay. The course. It's worth the journey. Thanks again, Cheryl. And thank you for listening to this episode of The Secret to Living to 200. We hope you'll join us next time. And as always, stay curious, Cardinals.