How do urban-based physical therapy students impact Georgia’s agricultural industry? By offering treatment and relief to the farm workers who pick the produce – at their worksite.
Each summer, a group of Georgia State University Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) students set up a makeshift PT clinic made from portable treatment tables and tent canopies at the edge of a South Georgia farm. This PT clinic is part of the Farm Worker Family Health Care Project, an annual program that brings together students and faculty from many disciplines, colleges and universities to provide health care to migrant farm workers and their families. Georgia State’s physical therapy students and faculty have provided PT care since 2002.
The DPT students tailor therapy to fit the worker’s needs and daily life. Treatment from the Health Care Project is the only health care most of the farm workers receive, as long hours working in the fields leaves little time to visit a doctor or even a local clinic.
Supervised by PT faculty Dr. Jodan Garcia and Dr. Kimberly Morelli, the students see different sources of patient injury; most migrant workers develop problems from poor habits in very physical work.
“The migrant farm workers have a challenging and strenuous job. [Many] experience the majority of their injuries from overuse and faulty body mechanics while working in the field and loading trucks,” said Peyton Seabolt, DPT student. “Many of our interventions focused on teaching these patients safe and more effective lifting mechanics, increasing strength, improving [range of motion], and pain relief.”
The students, all in their second year of the DPT degree program, receive extensive physical therapy education before they treat the farm workers.
“I teach the orthopedic sequence coursework. We go over musculoskeletal conditions, examination, diagnosis and treatment of the spine and the upper and lower extremities. I have [the] cohort of second-year DPT students for four semesters before the immersion and service learning experience in Moultrie,” said Dr. Garcia, clinical associate professor of physical therapy and PT faculty leader for the farm worker program.
Dr. Garcia received the 2019 Carl V. Patton President’s Award, Outstanding Faculty for his work with the farm workers program and donated the $500 prize to purchase rubber boots for the workers.
DPT student Kelsey Pelletier says assessing and treating farm workers taught her to look for lifestyle variations that affect her rural patients differently from urban workers who sit most of the day.
“It’s about different ways of approaching therapy based on what functional tasks that specific patient is involved with on a daily basis,” she said.
The Farm Worker project gives students the chance to care for an underserved population while earning clinical experience credits. Also, the students gain valuable work collaboration skills, interacting with nursing and pharmacy students from other universities as well as Georgia State, Perimeter College dental hygiene students.
“It was a great opportunity to see how the other disciplines contributed to caring for the migrant workers in different ways than PT,” said Pelletier. “Getting to collaborate and work as a team to provide care to these migrant workers was an incredible experience.”
Overall, DPT students think highly of the Farm Worker clinical experience.
“Personally, this service trip was an eye-opening experience on the extensive process that goes on to get food from the field to my kitchen table. I truly appreciate all of the hard work the migrant farm workers perform to serve others,” adds Seabolt.
Related story on the Georgia State University website.