2010
Pauline Cerasoli
Adademic &
Clinical Excellence Award Presented
to Kyle
Ridgeway, PT
(nomination letter
written by
Robyn
Gisbert PT, DPT)
It
is a privilege to nominate Kyle Ridgeway for the Pauline Cerasoli,
ACE award. I have known Kyle and served as his faculty advisor since
his matriculation into our program in May, 2007 and am writing this
letter on behalf of the University of Colorado Denver Physical
Therapy Program faculty.
Academically, Kyle has demonstrated success in our program, earning
a cumulative GPA of 3.485 through the fall of 2010. In addition to
his solid GPA, Kyle’s passion for learning and his commitment to the
profession of physical therapy stands out. While meeting the
rigorous demands of the DPT curriculum, Kyle additionally elected to
complete an Independent Study course in Neuroscience. Assisting two
faculty members in their writing of a textbook, he served as an
editor and gave valuable insight to how the book could best be
designed for current students of physical therapy. After meeting all
of the requirements to earn credits in the Independent Study, he was
recruited to continue working with the authors and will be given
acknowledgment in the publication.
Kyle’s academic achievement has been complimented by his excellence
in clinical practice. Each of his clinical instructors to date
characterized Kyle as being an excellent student, performing
consistently beyond expectations. Every clinical instructor was
impressed with his ability to use evidence in clinical decision
making and to share his passion for our profession.
For
Clinical Education III, Kyle was selected to perform a
clinical/research affiliation working with patients with critical
illness. This experience involved direct patient treatment (50%) and
research based (50%) activities of data collection and analysis,
treatment intervention, and follow-up outcome testing for
participants. During this experience, Kyle received numerous
compliments regarding professionalism, initiative, problem solving,
and use of evidence from members of the medical and research teams.
Also, patients and family members commented on his ability to make
them feel comfortable and valued during the turbulence of the ICU
stay. Kyle was integral in the background research and development
of an ICU Survey for patients and families regarding the benefit of
physical therapy in the ICU. Although his research affiliation has
officially ended, Kyle continues to work with the research team on
two manuscripts describing the physical therapist’s role in working
with patients with critical illness. During the clinical portion of
Clinical Education III, Kyle was treating a patient with a rare
neurological disorder. After careful review of the literature, he
consulted both his clinical and research mentors about the
appropriateness of expanding this case description for potential
publication. These examples speak to Kyle’s desire to integrate
clinical practice and research for various patient populations.
In
addition to being an exemplary student, Kyle has embraced the
service role of our profession. At the Stout Street Clinic, a
healthcare facility for the homeless, he provided physical therapy
services to individuals in collaboration with clinicians and
faculty. He has participated in the 9 News Health Fair Body in
Balance Screens. Additionally, he has volunteered providing pool
therapy sessions for an individual living with Cerebral Palsy, and
continues to train and orient incoming student volunteers for this
aquatic therapy program.
Kyle
has been an active leader at the program, campus, state and national
level and has demonstrated meritorious abilities in these roles. In
his first year, he was elected by his peers to serve on the
inter-disciplinary University of Colorado Denver Student Senate and
volunteered to serve on the fundraising committee for his class. In
addition to these class and campus roles, he served as
co-coordinator of the University of Colorado Denver’s Marquette
Challenge team for two years. During this time the group recruited
nationally recognized speakers and hosted continuing education
courses to raise money for the Foundation for Physical Therapy.
During his tenure, the team was the most successful since inception
placing 2nd of 63 participating schools earning $14,450
in 2009, and 3rd of 60 participating schools raising
$11,000 in 2008.
A fine
example of Kyle demonstrating campus leadership and his commitment
to the profession of physical therapy occurred while he was enrolled
in an Inter-professional Ethics course as part of the DPT
curriculum. This course requires students from various programs on
our campus (medicine, dentistry, physician assistant, pharmacy and
physical therapy) to work together to examine ethical issues in
health care. Upon taking the class, Kyle recognized a need to share
physical therapy specific ethical issues with students of other
disciplines. After consulting with a faculty mentor, he developed 2
case studies about physician owned practices in physical therapy.
These cases are now integrated into the course.
In
2008, he was elected as the national chair for the student Special
Interest Group of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Manual
Physical Therapists (AAOMPT). In this role he organizes and
executes student social networking events in conjunction with the
American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) and actively blogs
about healthcare issues, contributions that have been recognized as
noteworthy by students, local and national faculty.
In addition to attending yearly APTA National
Conferences, Combined Section Meetings and AAOMPT conferences, in
2009 he attended a legislative day in Washington State, lobbying for
practice act changes to allow spinal manipulation by physical
therapists. Kyle organized a grass roots letter writing campaign and
marched with 600 other therapists on the Washington State capital,
leading nationally respected therapist Bob Boyles PT, OCS, DSc,
FAAOMPT to say of him “Kyle is dedicated, passionate and eloquent.
He speaks and lobbies on behalf of the profession at every chance he
gets using current evidence and strong logic.”
 |
APTA/Colorado Chapter
7400
East Arapahoe Road #211, Centennial, Colorado 80112 U.S.A.
Phone 303-694-4728 ~
Fax 303-694-4869
apta@assnoffice.com |