January 2023 - PTA Focus

By: Sydney Bruno, PTA

My interest in the world of physical therapy began in a similar way to many others; as an injured athlete. I was an avid soccer player for fourteen years, and with this came many various injuries. One particularly nasty ankle sprain caused a talar dome osteochondral lesion, which required surgery during my freshman year of high school and landed me in a physical therapy gym after school for months. This was the longest I had ever been off of the soccer field, and while it was excruciating to be separated from the sport I loved, this was also how I learned what a physical therapist assistant was. After working with and chatting with the PTA often about what his job was like, my interest peaked. I graduated from physical therapy, went back to the soccer field, and continued my high school career with the career in the back of my mind. I wasn’t set on it yet, but I decided to enroll in my school's Health Occupations Career and Technical Education program anyway. I would later be very grateful for the experiences provided in medical terminology, anatomy, transfer training, and patient care from this CTE program.

I changed my mind about a thousand times from that point to graduation. I went back and forth between my interest in physical therapy and my other passion, helping animals. I chose the veterinary route at first and decided to pursue a career as a Veterinary Technician after graduating in 2019. I found a college near Philadelphia with a great program, accepted a soccer scholarship, and left the dreams of physical therapy behind me. I lasted a month before I was injured, homesick, and changed my mind once again. I came back home to Williamsport and, after taking a year off, enrolled at the Pennsylvania College of Technology (which happens to be a lovely seven minutes from my house). After a semester of general education credits, I was in the PTA program and finally felt like I was where I was meant to be.

Throughout my time at Penn College, I became the PTA Club President, found an amazing group of friends, and discovered that physical therapy was far more than rehabbing athletes back to playing condition. Our club participated in some awesome service projects for the community, including multiple tree plantings with the Chesapeake Bay and Keystone 10 Million Trees Partnership, as well as a session of karaoke and dancing with our local YMCA’s Superstars drums alive class for people with diverse abilities. Each project opened my eyes more and more to the good we could bring to our communities in this profession.

However, after my first two clinical sites: an acute care setting at Geisinger Danville and an outpatient setting specializing in aquatic therapy, I still wasn’t sold on a setting. I was interested in everything from concussion rehabilitation to pelvic floor physical therapy, but nothing outweighed the others. My final clinical setting was in a skilled nursing facility, and though I had been warned by many of my colleagues at my previous clinical about the terrors of long-term care, I went into it with an open mind. After two weeks, I knew that this was the setting for me. I loved the patients, I loved watching them progress, and as my own Grandmother had recently entered a skilled nursing facility nearby, I was able to see what a real difference I
could make through the improvements physical therapy had made to her own quality of life.

I graduated this past August and accepted a full-time position at my previous last clinical site, Williamsport South Rehabilitation and Nursing Center. I passed my boards in early October and officially started my position on October 25th, 2022. I absolutely love where I ended up, and although
fifteen-year-old Sydney would be shocked to hear she isn’t working in a large sports outpatient clinic. I know that my Grandmother, who passed shortly after I started the position, would be immensely proud to see me helping others with the same patience and compassion she needed most in
her final years.

In the future, I would love to expand my horizons and combine my two passions of animals and physical therapy by joining the Animal Physical Therapy Special Interest Group and becoming certified in animal physical rehabilitation. I still work weekend shifts as a Veterinary Assistant at a local animal hospital as well as volunteering at the Lycoming County SPCA, and I hope someday to bring animal physical rehabilitation to the Williamsport area!