Intern Bailey Bugner- TRUE Physical Therapy

Physical Therapy Internship

Hi, my name is Bailey Bugner. I have always wanted to go into a career in the medical field. My desire to become a physical therapist started a year ago when I was a junior in high school. I started thinking about physical therapy when I got hurt right before softball season last year. I tore a few ligaments around my sacrum that made it hurt to walk or exercise, or basically do anything. I play volleyball and softball, participate in weights, and workout regularly so this made things very hard for me mentally and physically. I had to start going to physical therapy every week to try to get things back on track. I never really thought about doing physical therapy until I started going to my physical therapist last year. I used to want to be a nurse but my mind has changed a lot recently so I am very excited for this class. I am hoping this class will give me some clarity for my future, telling me whether this is something that I would really like to do, or if I end up not liking it, I can change my major before going into college. The starting salary for PT’s is about 82,390 dollars per year. If I were a physical therapist, I think what I would enjoy most is helping athletes heal and get back out there. As a high school athlete, I feel as though something is always hurting or I am always hurt, so I would love it if I could be the person to eventually help other athletes.

This career that I have chosen is now a doctoral degree in college. This will take me about four years of college and then three more years of being in the physical therapy program. Going into this having some experience with shadowing and experience being the patient, I feel will be very beneficial. I am hoping to learn a lot about backs, shoulders, and ankles because those are the areas that I have always had problems with on my body, from playing sports. The part about physical therapy that interests me so much is being able to give parts of the body so much relief. The reason my lower back healed so fast was because my physical therapist did many different techniques, exercises and stretches to help my body heal much faster. If I could learn those things about all the different parts of the body and be able to help other people then I will be very happy with my future career.

My biggest fear about being a physical therapist is potentially damaging or making an injury worse than it already is. Making an athlete sit out from their sport even longer than they would of had to because I messed up with something I was doing scares me. Even if I didn’t end up going into physical therapy, I am still very set on going into something in the medical program. Anything in the medical program that you can get into would be a little nerve racking because you are most likely always going to be working with people. You will always have that potential to hurt someone or make something go wrong. Although this could be the case, you are more likely to help someone rather than hurt someone, so that part about it would be the most beneficial.

I have my CNA and I have good social skills so I think that this kind of experience puts me ahead of my competition. Also having so many injuries in my past and having to go to physical therapy so many times, I think helps me because I remember a lot of the things that they did when they worked on me. They also gave me many exercises to do, for each injury I had, so that also helps me understand things a little better than people that have never had that injury. After taking this internship class and hopefully getting some more shadowing hours on my own time, I am hoping to understand the things that they do better and be dead set on fulfilling this career.

My plan for the future is to go to college and play softball at the collegiate level. I am hoping to play for four years while I am getting my bachelors degree. I want to play at either Newman University, Emporia State University, or Pitt State University. After I get my bachelors degree I am planning on going to Wichita State University to get in the physical therapy program and finish out another three years there to get my doctorate degree.

My biggest goal in this career would be to help others reach their goal.