Student Achievements
Physical Therapy Student Receives Midwest Interprofessional Practice, Education and Research Center Award
May 09, 2017
Doctor of Physical Therapy student, Laura Goedhart, has recently received the Midwest Interprofessional Practice, Education and Research Center Student Award. This award acknowledges the contributions of a student from one of the participating academic institutions in promoting collaboration among members of health care teams in the delivery of patient centered care. Faculty express that the award reflects Laura’s attributes of not only high academic caliber, but also high professionalism and engagement in the profession association and in service to the community.
Laura also just finished her Interprofessional Education (IPE) student certificate and was awarded the IPE Student Award for exemplifying the spirit of the IPE Certificate program. Less than 5% of students at GVSU receive this IPE recognition during their time in graduate school. During this process, she worked with engineering students and a Spectrum Health interdisciplinary team to assess process of healthcare delivery for individuals undergoing knee joint replacements. Laura said, “At this point, the IPE experience has become such an integral part of my journey toward a career in physical therapy that it is difficult for me to separate what I have learned through the physical therapy program and what I learned through the IPE experience. I see this as a positive outcome, because collaborating interprofessionally has become a foundational part of my work as a physical therapist.”
Laura recently completed her masters project titled, “Mechanical Diagnosis and Therapy (MDT) vs. Traditional Physical Therapy in Treatment of Mechanical Headaches: A Randomized Controlled Trial.” She worked with two other students on this project and collaborated with a team of three physical therapists at the Mary Free Bed Hospital Pain Center.
Additionally, Laura was awarded the Michigan Physical Therapy Association’s Outstanding Student Award. During her time in this program at GVSU, Laura also worked with several other healthcare professional students to design a presentation on strategies for stress management for the GVSU Health Fair. Finally, she assisted with instruction of safe patient handling and transfer training for the GVSU sonography students. Congratulations to Laura on her great success in the Doctor of Physical Therapy program at Grand Valley!