Keenan is a Physical Therapist with Human Motion Rehab, a therapy center within the Allegheny Health Network. Based out of Pittsburgh, PA, Keenan works with all sorts of patients, from injured athletes to people suffering from degenerative diseases, to improve their functionality and strength. Keenan advises interested students to not just study the anatomy basics but to expose themselves to both public speaking and professional writing.
Transcript
My name is Keenan Brown. I'm a physical therapist. My job is to examine, evaluate, and treat patients for either musculoskeletal, neurologic, or vestibular disorders. I work in an outpatient setting so that would be outside of a hospital where patients come to me. I can see anybody from an acute injury where maybe they fell, they hurt a part of their body, in terms of, they strained a muscle, they hurt a joint, hurt a bone. They could be post-operative, where they had a surgery to fix some sort of injury, be it a back, a shoulder, a neck, you name it. I can see patients who have neurologic disorders where maybe they had a stroke, they have some sort of lifelong disorder such as Parkinson's disease, or multiple sclerosis, MS, or ALS. And then I can see patients who have vestibular disorders, which is a disorder of the inner ear. I can also see patients who have post-concussive symptoms, be it from a sports injury, or from an event such as a fall, and hitting the head, or a car accident and whatnot, because they have a variety of symptoms to which I can help alleviate and get them back to what they need to do. So then whenever I am face to face with a patient, just kind of like how we are, just kind of sit down and talk with them, and interview them about what brings them in, what type of ailments they have, what limitations they have due to their condition. What they're looking to try to get back to doing or improve upon, their goals. I would say after that, I get into the physical exam. Where, depending on the type of disorder or condition that I'm treating them for, involves either one or all of seeing how well they can move that body part, seeing how strong muscularly they are. Seeing you well their joints are moving. Seeing if there are positions that I can put them in to make things better or worse, in order to try to tease out what might be going on, and then we would start with some basic exercises, a few things that I can have them do safely at home, and that would be the end of the first visit, really. Get them set up to come in for subsequent appointments, and then we'd go from there.
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