Unique Opportunities to Educate High School Students About The Physical Therapy Profession

The purpose of this project was to expose high school students to health-related fields such as physical therapy and research.

RAMP (Research Training And Mentoring Program) is a paid five-week summer internship program for high school students (11^th and 12^th grade) in Southwest Baltimore City to learn about research from bench science laboratory skills to health professions research including physical therapy. The students were introduced to the variety of career paths within the profession of physical therapy. Physical therapists led the students in three labs including taking vital signs, learning about muscles, doing surface anatomy, and performing outcome measures. The functional outcome measures included ones across the life span from pediatrics to geriatrics. 

There were seven (7) students in the first cohort (4 males and 3 females). The pre- and post- survey results demonstrated encouraging results for the first year of the program. Students completed a questionnaire on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree) and the findings are below:

• Skills to do research: average was 2.4/5 pre-RAMP and 4/5 post-RAMP (68% change)
• Interest in research career: average was 2.9/5 pre-RAMP and 3.7/5 post-RAMP (28% change)
• Will get a job in a science related field: average was 3.8/5 pre-RAMP and 4.6/5 post-RAMP (21% change)
• Will have a successful professional career and make substantial scientific contributions: average was 3.3/5 pre-RAMP and 4/5 post-RAMP (21% change)

The students were very engaged throughout RAMP. The biggest change in scores was in the area of research as the students likely had less research experience. The students who applied for this program were likely already interested in science careers which may account for less change than the research statements. Additional research is needed to follow these students longitudinally to determine their ultimate career path and the influence of RAMP on that trajectory.

There are many opportunities within the profession of physical therapy that students may not be aware of such as research which can include basic science research to clinical research. Exposing high school students to the profession of physical therapy may increase their interest in pursuing physical therapy as a career.