Brandy Johnson learns valuable pediatrics skills with Joy and Melissa Brown.

You walk into the room to treat a person who has had a stroke, but you have never met a person with a brain injury. You are trying to explain a diagnosis to the parents of an infant, but you have never even held a baby.

The Department of Physical Therapy at the UND School of Medicine and Health Sciences is helping students overcome this initial nervousness of dealing with real patients by offering labs and clinics as part of their class work that lets them practice on the real thing.

Each fall third-year doctor of physical therapy (DPT) students conduct two pro bono physical therapy clinics for area residents.

“This group of students will go back out in the clinic next spring and one of their clinical experiences will be either with adults or with pediatrics that have neurological types of conditions,” said Cindy Flom-Meland, PhD ’04, MPT ’93, assistant professor in the department and organizer of the clinic.  “This gives them an opportunity to see that people are people.”

The 12 to 15 clinic patients each semester are previous patients of PT faculty members or referrals from clinics in town. All the clients have experienced some sort of neurological episode, such as a stroke, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury, or brain tumor surgeries. These clients no longer qualify for benefited PT services or may not have insurance, so the department’s clinic fills that need.

“Our goal is to provide a service to the community and to these clients, and also a learning opportunity to our students,” said Flom-Meland.