"If you aren't falling down, you're not trying hard enough."
In late February our second-year DPT students had the chance to meet Bryan Anderson as part of the Eastern Iowa/Western Illinois Veterans' Conference held at St. Ambrose University. Bryan is an Iraq War Veteran who suffered injuries from an IED, lost both of this legs and his left hand. He provided an inspirational message of hard work, perseverance, and the need to think creatively during the rehabilitation process. Over and over again he said, "If you aren't falling down, you're not trying hard enough."
While this statement applied to his rehabilitation process, it also made me think about what our Physical Therapy Department faculty, staff, and students do on a daily basis. I am so proud to work with and teach individuals who demand so much of themselves and are not afraid of failure. We see a lot of successes in the Physical Therapy Department, but there were many "falls" and setbacks to reach those accomplishments. Our current students and graduates have all felt the struggle of preparing for a practical exam, doubting their ability to provide the best care possible to a patient, and experiencing a high level of stress. But these experiences are necessary in order to become top-notch physical therapists that provide compassionate care to their patients.
Our faculty members are award-winning educators who contribute to the profession and community in so many ways, but we could easily all list off missed opportunities to reach our students, declined research grants and manuscripts, and times we felt we failed in a project or an event. What makes the individuals in our department so special is that not only are they pushing themselves until they stumble and fall, but they also are learning from those failures and getting back up.
This issue of our newsletter captures some of our successes and the result of numerous individuals' hard work. You will read about graduation for the Class of 2014 and our faculty and student involvement at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Manual Physical Therapy National Conference in San Antonio, TX and Combined Sections Meeting in Indianapolis, IN. We will highlight some of the service work our students and faculty are performing throughout the community, changes in the classroom and upcoming events.
In future newsletters we want to start highlighting the successes of our alumni. Send us a message at pt@sau.edu or puthoffmichaell@sau.edu and share some of your successes. We hope you find the newsletter enjoyable and informative.
Michael Puthoff, PT, PhD, GCS
Associate Professor and Director
Share This Story
