Lacee Fitzgerald shares about her summer 2020 externship experience:
“This summer, I was placed at Reaper’s Physical Therapy in Searcy, AR. This is an outpatient facility that sees clients across the full spectrum of ages and disorders. Over the course of the summer, I mostly saw children with articulation and language difficulties with a few adults interspersed throughout. It was very interesting to work in a setting that saw children and adults, and I loved the chance to build my interprofessional collaboration with the physical therapists and occupational therapists onsite. I saw a wide range of clients, and a typical week consisted of me working with one of my supervisors on Monday and Wednesday and my other supervisor on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. I generally saw between 6-8 clients per day, each session lasting between 30 minutes to an hour. There were times when we would have clients back-to-back and other times have breaks in between. On Tuesday and Thursday, my supervisor and I would regularly travel between the clinic and daycares to see clients. Sometimes, evaluations were scheduled between clients. On average, I would start at 8:00 and end at 5:00. I felt blessed in my experiences at Reaper’s Physical Therapy and I know that my last year at Harding helped prepare me for the clients that I would see at my offsite. My previous classes have prepared me with the knowledge that I need to become a competent SLP, and this summer, I was able to apply much of that knowledge, such as from my AAC, dysphagia, school-age, and special populations class, when working with clients. I had many clients I absolutely adored, and I am sad that I am leaving them. It has truly been an eye-opening experience for my first offsite and I cannot wait for the other experiences I may have in the future!”
Thank you for sharing, Lacee!