An Overview of Aquatic Physical Therapy

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Overview of Aquatic Physical Therapy!

My interest in aquatic physical therapy originates from the fact that I grew up in the water. As a competitive swimmer from age 5 to 22, I truly thought that I knew everything there was to know about the water!  That was until I went to the NCPTA Conference in fall of 2010.  At this conference, I was able to attend an introduction to aquatic physical therapy course taught by Jason Harloff PT, MSPT, LAT, ATC and Amanda Niles PT, MSPT, LAT, ATC of Sports and More Physical Therapy. During this course, my eyes were opened to the multitude of possible intervention techniques that can be used in the water.  I left this course excited about discovering the brilliance of aquatic physical therapy, but also concerned about the fact that my classmates had been unable to share the experience with me.  I wanted my classmates to see, as I did, how completely awesome aquatic physical therapy can be!  That being said, the main goal of this online module is to inspire students, as I was inspired in the fall of 2010, to consider the pool not only as an option for physical therapy, but in certain circumstances, as a superior option to physical therapy on land.

As my capstone, I created an online module that will be completed by first year UNC DPT students during Mike Lewek PT, PhD and Jon Hacke PT MS’s Exercise Prescription course. Click on the links below to download the module, part 1 and part 2:

An Overview of Aquatic Physical Therapy Part 1

An Overview of Aquatic Physical Therapy Part 2

The students will be required to complete the module during the week leading up to an aquatics lab led by Debbie Thorpe PT, PhD, PTS.   Currently, the students receive a lecture from Debbie during Kinesiology in the fall of their first year, then attend a lab in the spring of that same academic year.  Currently, this lab is not proceeded directly by a lecture.  Dr. Thorpe and I both feel that providing the students with a review of aquatic concepts prior to the lab will not only improve the student’s knowledge base, but will also spark interest and enthusiasm going into the lab.  The online module was created as an adjunct to Debbie Thorpe’s lecture presented in Kinesiology.

After completing the online module, the students will be asked to take a Quiz in order to help them review the information learned in the module.  This quiz will not be graded, but may serve as a component of course participation depending on the preferences of the course instructors.

The students will also be asked to fill out an Eval about the module in order to assess the successfulness of the module in addressing the stated objectives.  Because this module was not completed by the lab date in spring 2012, a few of my third year classmates have completed the module and filled out the evaluation form in order to provide me with feedback.

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Within this module I make a few references to content that I have created during other courses.  Descriptions and links to these references are as follows:

For an evidence based practice course that I took last semester I created an Evidence Table and a Research Paper to answer the following PICO question: For female runners between the ages of eighteen and thirty with patellofemoral pain who are attempting to make a return to sports, does a combined program of running in water and running on dry land decrease the prevalence of re-injury more so than a program of solely running on land?

While creating this module, I took a particular interest in the effects of hydrostatic pressure on various patient populations.  Researching this topic was difficult because of the challenge associated with isolating hydrostatic pressure as the independent variable that provokes change.  I created a short Evidence Table to highlight a few patient populations that can benefit from the hydrostatic pressure of water including pregnant women, patients with respiratory impairments, and patients with lower extremity lymphedema.

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A special thanks to my advisor, Debbie Thorpe, for all of her guidance and to my committee members, Kimberly Peters and Jason Harloff for their wonderful critiques!  Thanks to Kmac as well for all of her hard work!