Assignment 16: Written Proposal Draft

When I was first assigned to create my essential question, I had no clue where to start... What is an essential question?... How does it affect my interning?... Are there stupid questions?... All of these thoughts ran through my head, but through an intense process of researching and speaking to my mentor and teacher, I came to my current essential question -- "How can I, as a Pediatric Physical Therapist, design the most personalized plan of care for my patients?" My essential question is an edited version of my original question "How can I, as Pediatric Physical Therapist, design the most personalized treatment for my patients?" I changed treatment to plan of care, because throughout my research, I have using plan of care more so than treatment. Although they mean the exact same thing, I felt that you, my readers, would better understand my research. From reading my research, you may be wondering what has driven my research. Well here is the answer you must be anxiously wanting to know... One day I was avoiding homework and watching TV when a trailer for a new show came on. Now I don't remember the name of the show, but one of the characters said, "The difference between us is that you treat patients and I treat patients with care." This resonated and it influenced what I need and want to know. So far from my research, I have been slowly piecing answers together, but despite all the questions I have asked, my research is not completed. I still want to know other components of a personalized plan of care and how it truly affects a recovering patient. To further my research and answer my developing questions, I plan on using real inquiry, which is research beyond using information from books and websites. One real inquiry I have used is an interview. (My interview titled Assignment 15: Interview can be accessed through the hyperlink.) My interview gave me detailed answers I would have never been able to find through books or websites. It paved me into asking deeper questions and wanting and needing to know more about personalizing a plan of care for patients. To further my research and utilizing real inquiry, I plan on using a survey to ask patients on how their physical therapist has personalized his/her plan of care and how it has changed to tailor for his/her needs. This survey will take me one step closer into my research, and I am excited to find more and complete it to share it with you and other educators and students. To best showcase my research, I envision creating a pamphlet and/or illustrated story. The pamphlet will include my essential question, summary of my research, and experience from interning at Children's Healthcare. If I were to choose to do an illustrated story, I would show a personalized plan of care versus a general plan of care. Both visuals will aid in the convention of my research and allow you to refer back to information I may have moved on from.