APTA Nebraska Podcast
The APTA Nebraska Podcast dives into the stories, challenges, and innovations shaping physical therapy in our state. We’re here to advance, promote, and protect the practice of physical therapy, build our community, and optimize the health and quality of life for all Nebraskans.
APTA Nebraska Podcast
E11 - Beyond the Classroom: The Journey of a Mary McMillan Scholar
Mikayla Grocki, Mary McMillan Scholarship Award winner, shares her journey from student athlete to award-winning physical therapist alongside her faculty mentor Dr. Rashelle Hoffman from Creighton University. Their conversation reveals how balancing academics with research and service opportunities can create exceptional physical therapy professionals while preventing burnout.
• The Mary McMillan Scholarship Award honors the APTA's first president by recognizing six students nationally who demonstrate scholastic excellence, leadership, and significant contributions to the profession
• Mikayla's background as a collegiate soccer player informed her understanding of movement, eventually leading to her passion for working with older adults
• Research and service activities became outlets that fueled Mikayla's education rather than creating additional stress
• Mikayla participated in all aspects of research projects from screening participants to manuscript preparation and conference presentations
• Finding the right balance between academics and extracurricular activities is crucial for preventing burnout while still developing professionally
• Leadership opportunities can be found in small settings and don't require organizing large events
• APTA membership provides valuable networking, professional resources, and up-to-date information on regulatory changes
• Presenting research at CSM allowed Mikayla to connect with professionals across specialties and geographic regions
Welcome to the APTA Nebraska podcast, where we dive into the stories, challenges and innovations shaping physical therapy in our state. We're here to advance, promote and protect the practice of physical therapy, optimizing the health and quality of life for all Nebraskans. Join us as we connect with experts, share insights and build communities throughout our profession.
Speaker 2:connect with experts, share insights and build communities throughout our profession. Welcome back to the APTA Nebraska podcast. My name is Brad Dexter, I'm your host and I'm joined by Rachelle Hoffman and Michaela Grocchi today. How are you guys?
Speaker 3:Doing well.
Speaker 2:Doing well, excellent Well for our listeners. Can you guys just give a brief introduction to yourselves? Rachelle, I'll start with you, and thenela, you can go when Rochelle's done.
Speaker 4:Awesome. So I'm Rochelle Hoffman and I'm faculty at Creighton University in the physical therapy department. I'm an assistant professor, and the reason I'm here today alongside Michaela is I'm the faculty that led her nomination for the Mary McMillan Scholarship Award.
Speaker 3:And my name is Michaela Grocchi. I just graduated physical therapy school in May, and I'm practicing in Texas now in inpatient rehab.
Speaker 2:Love it. Thank you, guys. So Rochelle mentioned this already, but the reason we're having this conversation is because, Michaela, you were one of the Mary McMillan Scholarship Award winners this past year. So as you were going through your physical therapy education at Creighton, you were nominated for this award. You were an APTA Nebraska member at that time. You've since moved to Texas, since home is in Texas, but we want to honor that award and what you did and completed as a student as well, and so it's fun to just kind of highlight your story a little bit here too. So for our audience, anyone that's not familiar with the Mary McMillan Scholarship I'm actually going to turn the floor over to Rochelle to talk a little bit about that.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so I thought we would start with.
Speaker 4:Well, who was Mary McMillan that this award is named after?
Speaker 4:And she was actually the first president of what was known as the American Women's Physical Therapeutic Association and that started back in 1921, that eventually transferred their name to what we now know as the APTA, and so to honor her legacy and her leadership as being that first president of what now is the APTA, they now award six students nationally with this award, so both PT or PTA students, so six are selected each year.
Speaker 4:This award is that you show some elastic performance, high productivity and, ultimately, a strong significance of impact to the physical therapy profession. So things that I'm specifically that they're also looking for with that are going to be like you know, if you've had awards in the academic sphere, but then also your extracurricular activities, so things that you've done to already show evidence as a leader at the student level, whether that be at your academic institute or they really like to see you know out in the community how you're making an impact there. And then, lastly, as this kind of evidence of contributing to the profession, what are things that maybe students have done, whether it be in research, that they've actually maybe helped out with projects. They've been part of publications, maybe even presentations at a state or even conferences like CSM.
Speaker 2:Thank you. That was an excellent history lesson as well. I didn't know we were going to get the history lesson today, but that was fantastic. So, Michaela, I guess my question for you and a place I want to start here is what initially inspired you to pursue physical therapy and maybe how has your why behind that evolved as you went through your academic and clinical experiences and now you're in your first job?
Speaker 3:So I always knew I wanted to go into health care from a pretty young age and I also was an athlete growing up. I did everything from the ballet to football one year. So I knew that, you know, movement and being physically active was always important to me and I, you know, physical therapy is a perfect mix of both healthcare and, you know, that movement aspect and being a movement expert. Going into physical therapy school I didn't really know what I wanted to do. Specialty wise, I liked working with athletes, I liked working with older adults, but throughout school I really found this passion for working with older adults and realizing that, you know you can be an athlete at any age. You know movement should never be painful or, you know, limiting it should always be inspiring. And so now that I've graduated school, my passion is really in, you know, working with older adults and getting them back to doing the things that they love to do and getting them moving better.
Speaker 2:What were some of the maybe activities or experiences that you had during school that maybe built this portfolio for you to be recognized for the scholarship?
Speaker 3:I really liked being active in things outside of the classroom. It was kind of an outlet for me to take a break from studying but still, you know, be in the realm of physical therapy. So I did my undergrad also at Creighton and I was an athlete there. So I worked in, you know, the athletics department a little bit and got exposure to working with athletes and doing research with athletes and I in physical therapy school I shifted that to working with older adults in the research realm and that was a good shift for me because I got to see both in the same community and it really inspired me to be active with both. But then transition, you know, to working in the population I loved Creighton also really emphasizes service and our program and Creighton also really emphasizes service. In our program Fridays were reserved for volunteer experiences or research experiences. So I challenged myself every week to either be doing research or be doing some kind of service event in the community. So service and research were definitely two of the things that got me through school.
Speaker 2:Excellent. I'm thinking back to my own PT school experience and I don't know that I could say that same thing. You know, service and research were the things that got me through school. I think that's a really unique perspective. I know a lot of students are just trying to maybe keep up with what's going on, and nothing wrong with that. It's just we're all kind of wired in different ways and it's kind of fun to hear your perspective on like that was. Those were the things that, um, really kind of fueled you and got you excited, and it certainly fueled you, uh, jumping into this profession as well.
Speaker 4:Uh, rochelle yeah, I was just going to add a little bit to that. You were going to cue me anyway. Um, I was just going to add a little bit to that. You were going to cue me anyway.
Speaker 4:I just think it was really unique that Michaela didn't start those things, as she emphasized, when she did undergrad here.
Speaker 4:She established a lot of those connections and got that experience of like, well, what is research, what does it mean to be involved as a student?
Speaker 4:What are some of the things I can do? You know, even with some of the research that she got into at the graduate level when she was in PT school, she was doing almost all the components of the study. She was screening participants, she was helping out with our high-intensity interval training sessions, helping out with the data analysis. She's even working on a manuscript right now as presented at CSM, and it's really rare that we see a student show interest year one, semester one in PT school where they can follow a research project across their entire GPT education, and so she got to see it from start. You know now that that project is even finished and we're working on those follow-up manuscripts, which is really unique and kind of shows her also dedication to that where it wasn't just I want to do this, you know, one year to check this box so that I get to move on. She had a consistent passion in this area, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, can you, rochelle, maybe talk a little bit more too? So I want to highlight you as a member of our Nebraska chapter of APTA as well. You were faculty advisor that may be nominated for this award, right? Or you were part of that group, and, michaela, you've touched on some of that already, but what were the things that you saw? And for other faculty that are looking to nominate students going through their programs, what would they be looking for?
Speaker 4:Yeah, so a few different roles that I have here at Creighton. One is that I am a research advisor for students that are interested in working with you know older adults and have you know various projects that are going on, depending on the time of year and funding that we have. But I'm also the co-chair for our student awards committee, so I'm also constantly seeing what awards can we nominate students for, and so it was this beautiful blend of I knew that Michaela was, you know, working with me and seeing you know what the qualifications were for this award. So having this alignment of seeing how she's an outstanding student and does well in the classroom but then also showing that she does really well at balancing a lot of different areas too, so showing that she has evidence of showing leadership in these other areas. So showing that she has evidence of showing leadership in these other areas.
Speaker 4:She mentioned a little bit with her career in soccer and she helped volunteer at Top Soccer that helps to teach kids that have disabilities soccer too. So she had a strong interest in showing that leadership and carving out time for that, which is hard to do in PT school. Carving out time even beyond just the academic requirements is tough, and then also with the research, really just taking the initiative, we always tried to blend what things she was doing in research to make them relatable to clinical practice and skills that she would need. And so when she was screening participants, some of that was involved with calling doctor's offices to get medical clearance for participants. So she got to get maybe comfortable I don't know if she would agree with that wording, but comfortable calling, you know, physicians that maybe she's never talked to before talking to their nurses about potential participants and establishing those communication skills as well.
Speaker 2:That's great, michaela. Since you were an athlete, you played soccer, correct. Yep, all right, I'm going to come out of left field here a little bit. Have any of you? Have you guys watched Welcome to Wrexham at all?
Speaker 2:Okay, michaela is saying, yes, I just found out. You know Tom Brady and a partner of his have ownership over another soccer team in England and they came out with a show on Amazon Prime. But one of the things that Tom Brady talks about in there is just hey, I was never worried about the game because I was always focused on the process and practice itself, and if I practiced at the highest level I possibly could, the game would work itself out. I'm assuming you have a similar mindset as an athlete and that that even has flowed into how you treated some of these service opportunities and research opportunities within the PT realm. So, all of that being said, that's my lead-in to this question.
Speaker 2:Okay, so I know you probably weren said my, my, that's my lead into this question. Okay, so I know you probably weren't, when you came into PT school, thinking about hey, I want to win the Mary McMillan award. Right, it was more about the process for you and just what the experience was going to be like and doing those things at a high level, um, trying to grow through those opportunities. So, beyond the recognition that you got from this, how do you see the award influencing your career path or even opportunities that might be available for you moving forward?
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So coming into PT school, I really just focused on setting myself up the best I could for when I was a new grad and you know everything was all on me for the first time, um.
Speaker 3:So I think the experiences I had truly set me up for that in addition to my award but going into my first job and my interview, um, I emphasized how important research was to me and giving back to the community and all of those things, and that was something that was really reciprocated from her Um and I was a little surprised by, but it was just an opportunity to open that door in that conversation and realizing that as physical therapists we can really make change in the profession. But we just have to be really active. In Texas, especially right now, like we just expanded our direct access laws, and that's an area where you know the APTA has been really active in all states but something that we need to understand as PTs and really work with to better our patients in the future. So I think those opportunities just set me up for being a voice in our profession and not, you know, being afraid to go out there and, you know, ask for things and be able to, you know, advocate for our patients where they truly need to be advocated for.
Speaker 2:I love it, rochelle, anything you want to add to that?
Speaker 4:I think that having an award like this helps articulate you know that you really did aspire to these levels and how you know competitive these awards are and so having you know we think about something you can put on your resume or CV or things like that. But it just gives more weight to what you're saying during that interview because you know anyone can walk into an interview and say, like I value these things, but if you don't have evidence of that then it's kind of tough to sell it versus really demonstrating that. And having that evidence I think is a great thing. That helps you know Michaela stand apart and for you know other folks that receive this award or other awards showing their service and leadership and research efforts.
Speaker 2:So, michaela, I'm thinking about the things that you've done, kind of the process that you've walked through, and I'm kind of wondering. You know, there's a whole person that we're considering in school, oftentimes right as you're going through your education, and not everyone is wired the same way as you, right. These things really kind of fueled you. Everyone is wired the same way as you, right. These things really kind of fueled you. They contributed to your wellness in this whole person concept. But what would you communicate to students that maybe have a different type of capacity or wellness looks a little different for them? How would you tell them to engage in service or research?
Speaker 3:I always live by the saying don't put your eggs all in one basket because that's the quickest way to burn out. I obviously focused on school as a priority in my learning and it helped me give back to my community, but it was also, you know, a mental break from school. Other things that I did during PT school that were similar. You know leadership opportunities don't have to be organizing, you know, hundreds of people and putting on huge events. It can be down to a small classroom. You know event that makes you a leader. So just finding things in your comfort zone that interest you. But you also don't want to stretch yourself too thin, especially in PT school. You know it's. It is a lot, but there are things you can do to become a leader in your community and to give back to the community.
Speaker 2:I appreciate that answer.
Speaker 4:Go ahead, rishon, I'll just add to that that it's okay to try things too. You know, hopefully we are stretching your comfort zone probably in a lot of ways when you're in PT school, but trying something and realizing it's not for you and kind of stretching yourself out there, maybe that wasn't the right thing that you could take on at that time, or maybe there's different seasons, maybe this semester you have more bandwidth, maybe your coursework is a little bit lighter, so you maybe try to do a few more service opportunities that semester. So ebbs and flows, I think, are important to consider too with you know, our whole person and being able to do things outside of coursework and PT school.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I appreciate both of your comments on that. It has me thinking. I am gonna interview Dr Nikki Sleddins in a future podcast and she has done some research on burnout in our profession and it's just interesting because some of the things that you're talking about, michaela, it can fuel some people but for others it might be a contributing factor to burnout as well, and there's a number of different factors that she has looked at. But I'm looking forward to having that conversation as well and I think some of these same themes might even come up there. So just to wrap up, again, I appreciate both of you coming onto the podcast and kind of sharing Michaela your experience from a student's perspective and Rochelle, your experience from the faculty perspective. Any closing thoughts for the audience at all, anything you guys want to say?
Speaker 4:I would like to actually ask Michaela another question and put her on the spot here, just because hopefully we have some either students that are listening, those that are maybe early career professionals why you would encourage folks that recently graduated PT school to continue their APT membership. What value have you seen in that?
Speaker 3:I had the opportunity to present some research at CSM in Houston, which is put on by the APTA, and I networked with so many individuals during that experience. Honestly, it was crazy. I met people from all over the country with interest in the research I was presenting, but also in patient rehab, because I was going into that, and even sports. The APTA is just a great way to really network within your profession and even outside of your profession. I really like all of the tools on their newly updated website and just the information that is coming out every day about, like I said earlier, the direct access change in Texas. That is something that you know was communicated directly from the APTA to me, and just having that ease of gaining information from the APTA is truly worth the membership. So if you're a new grad, I definitely recommend it, just for the mentorship and the networking and all the information that they give you, because your first year will be pretty overwhelming being out on your own, so you need those resources.
Speaker 2:Absolutely Well. Thank you both for being on the podcast, for sharing your stories here. Well, thank you both for being on the podcast, for sharing your stories here and, yeah, I hope our audience enjoys the conversation as well. I will put in a plug as the membership committee chair for APTA Nebraska, for whether you're an early career professional, you're a student or you've been in the profession for a long time, there are a lot of membership deals through the APTA that range from moving to financial planning, to vacation resources, to new shoes, et cetera. So check those things out. It's not just the professional resources. There are resources that can kind of help us in life a bit as well. So again, thank you, ladies, for being on the podcast and we'll look forward to the next one.
Speaker 1:Thank you. Thanks for tuning in to the APTA Nebraska podcast. Stay connected with us for more conversations that elevate our profession and improve the lives of Nebraskans. Don't forget to subscribe, share and join the discussion, because together we're driving the future of physical therapy forward.
