ETSU’s Veterans Administration campus houses the James H. Quillen College of Medicine, the Bill Gatton College of Pharmacy and ETSU’s Department of Physical Therapy. Students and faculty from each program have had to adapt to a new online curriculum with ETSU’s switch to all online classes for the remainder of the 2020 spring and summer semesters. This is the third of a three-part series on the VA campus programs. Part one may be found here, and part two may be found here.
Second-year physical therapy student Faith Russell has almost all hands-on classes this semester, and with physical therapy being a hands-on profession, those courses have been challenging to continue virtually.
“If you don’t have the hands-on experience with a professor, then we definitely won’t know how to do it accurately,” Russell said. “Like I can read the notes and try to figure out how she’s doing it, but without her there to demonstrate it to us, then I could be doing it completely wrong and just reading her notes the way I interpret it rather than the way it’s actually supposed to be done.”
Patricia King, physical therapy department chair and professor, said many courses were already taught in a flip-classroom style, in which students independently learn material on D2L before class. With all online classes, that element remains the same, but class lectures and discussions now take place over Zoom. King said courses with laboratory practice and hands-on skills testing, however, have been more difficult to make compatible with online learning.
This was the first semester on-campus for first-year students, and a hands-on course they are taking is anatomy. Although they have been able to continue the course virtually, their hands-on experience with the cadavers ended early.
“I would hate to be a first year right now,” Russell said. “They’re in anatomy class, and you’re supposed to work with the cadaver. And they weren’t able to complete that process, so they’re having to do anatomy tests by taking pictures of the cadavers and trying to identify that way. And really, in anatomy, I would say that I learned a majority of my stuff in the cadaver lab rather than in actual lecture. So, that is really going to hurt them a lot I think, and they’re really stressed out about that.”
King said first-year students will finish the spring semester without incompletes, but their summer semester has hands-on components incompatible with online learning that will require makeup work in the fall. Second-year students who have more hands-on components will have to make up incompletes for spring courses in the fall.
Though she is able to continue her pediatrics class this semester, Russell will have to finish components of her soft-tissue class this fall.
“We’re still doing some of the class now,” Russell said. “And we had a project we were supposed to do in there but a lot of people were doing the project on other people in our class. And we’re all at home right now so you can’t do it on that person, so that’s gotten pushed back to the fall. So, it’s like the class that was supposed to be just this semester is spread out over three semesters now.”
Third-year students set to graduate in December 2020 got a little more than halfway through their clinicals. Although they did not complete the number of weeks intended, King said students are being evaluated through their clinical instructors’ assessments to see who already met the required outcomes.
“PTs practice in hospitals; we practice in home care; we practice in outpatient; we practice in long term care facilities and rehab centers; we practice in cities and rural environments,” King said. “The requirements of our accrediting body and the requirements of our curriculum are that students get exposed to all those types of settings.”
She said the few students who were not exposed to certain settings will go back to the clinic for brief periods in the fall. Most of them, however, will be able to finish their requirements through projects that build on their clinical decision-making skills.
King said she is grateful because as of now, the fall make-up schedule should allow all three years of students to stay on track and graduate on time. Along with maintaining the educational integrity of the curriculum and keeping everyone safe and healthy, she said facilitating on-time graduation is one of the department’s over-arching educational goals during this crisis.
“We have significant concerns about the financial impact that our students would feel if their education was extended beyond what their current plans are,” King said
To maintain communication and relationships with students, faculty and staff, King has been meeting with every class and groups of class officers by Zoom every other week and with every class president at least once a week. Though the students have kept in touch through group messages and social media, Russel said it feels different.
“Right now, we’re just using the GroupMe, but I agree it’s very different than actually being in class with people,” Russell said. “And then, our teachers sometimes, they’ll still give us breaks throughout the class. And they’ll mute themselves and turn the screen off, and then we’ll talk to each other that way, but as far as real communication – and our class usually hangs out a lot outside of class even, and we’re not getting to do that right now either – so that’s also hard for us.”
Physical therapists help restore function after an injury or disease, King said, and that process requires adaptability. She hopes this experience helps students learn how to adapt and stay calm in the face of change and adversity.
“This is just enhancing our adaptability, our flexibility and just our awareness that things can change on a dime,” King said. “And this is sometimes challenging in the clinic because you’ve got your day planned out with all of your appointments scheduled, and then people come late. Things happen and that can be a challenge for PT, so you know, just being ready to accept changes, figure out a way to adapt, to be flexible.”
