Student trainee impacts: Morgan Flynn

Student trainee impacts: catching up with Morgan Flynn

When a student makes the decision to undertake their college degree in another country, it’s a daunting prospect; however, it’s a chance to see new places and experience new perspectives. This is exactly what happened for Morgan Flynn. She joined the CDHD student trainee program as an international student from Canada. She came to the University of Idaho as a student athlete, looking for the opportunity to play soccer while pursuing her passions in physiotherapy.

Morgan joined the CDHD team to gain required hours for Allied Health membership, but what she found was a welcoming environment that encouraged her to grow and succeed. She told us all about it in a recent chat with Trainee Coordinator Olivia Lebens about her time at the CDHD and what she’s up to now …

Olivia: Do you remember what project(s) you worked on?

Morgan: Yes. I worked on what is now known as the Healthy Active Lifestyles project with the Movement in the Park program. I worked on another project. I don’t remember what it was umbrellaed under, but I did the Idaho research COVID project. I partnered with the emergency preparedness for all with AUCD. I can’t remember what that was under.

Olivia: It was just under CORE. It was an opportunity that AUCD created during COVID for trainees to be involved in emergency preparedness in their state. That’s where you got connected with AUCD and I believe the State Independent Living Council out of Boise. You attended their emergency preparedness meetings and then did a presentation with AUCD at their national conference.

Morgan: I did! I did do that. Yes, yes, yes. Was State Independent Living – was that our state partners?

Olivia: Yes. That’s who we partnered with.

Morgan: Ok. I remember that now.

Olivia: You collaborated with AUCD pretty regularly. They were all over the country at the time. They weren’t in DC.

Morgan: Yeah, it was a lot of Zoom meetings. A lot of module work. A lot of email back and forth to get ready for the conference.

Olivia: Movement in the Park, Emergency Preparedness for All with AUCD and the Idaho State Independent Living Council.

Morgan: Mm hmm!

Olivia: What do you remember most about the CDHD or your time at the CDHD?

Morgan: What I remember most is – because I was so far away from home – I remember feeling so locked out. I remember coming into work every day feeling so welcomed and valued. All my ideas were good ideas even though some of them needed some work. I felt like an equal even though I was a student.

It really gave me the confidence to grow and try new projects and try new ideas, do presentations at national conferences that I never would have thought I would have ever been able to do.

I was there over the summer so there were limited options, but I was still able to grow. I did my nine-credit internship. I worked with you and Dr Chantell Vella. Everyone was just able to make something work for me, which in a time when nothing was working for me back home, it was really nice to be a part of. Building the Movement project – Audrey had started it and I was able to build it up from there. Having full creative liberty to try things out. To start partnering with the City of Moscow to get the indoor site through …

Olivia: 1912 Center.

Morgan: Yes! The 1912 Center. I spearheaded everything. I had never done that before. I was able to take all those skills back home and create projects here. Yeah, I just had a great experience. I could go on and on, but I think the biggest takeaway – I always felt so supported to try new ideas and participate in things that I never thought I would be able to.

Olivia: Awesome! What do you miss about your time at the CDHD?

Morgan: I miss the people. Canada’s lovely but I think I miss the sense of community. Because now I’m in a big city again so there’s not that shoulder to lean on, or you always feel a little guilty when you ask for help. I never felt that at the CDHD. So I miss the actual support.

Even though people say, “Yeah, no questions are dumb questions. We’re always here to help.” It’s not really the truth, but I know at the CDHD, all the employees there – you were really good at actually taking the time to let me have meetings when I needed it or bounce ideas around. So, I do miss that sort of support.

Olivia: Are there any specific skills that you picked up at the CDHD that helped you through your career.

Morgan: I would say working at the AUCD conference and starting the Movement in the Park project from scratch. Being able to ask questions on how I start those projects. I learned a lot of skills on organizing meetings, spearheading meetings, trying to find funding and resources, learning how to ask the right questions from the right people. All those skills have transferred over.

My first year out of the CDHD, I was still doing my master’s, but I was also helping to start a conference for the first time. It’s the Increase BC Conference. They just ran their third year, which is really exciting. But I helped Co-Chair the first one, so all those skills came right over. It was a lot easier to run that because I had the experience of starting the Movement in the Park project from the ground up. That was really helpful.

Olivia: That’s cool, Morgan. That’s way cool!

Morgan: Yeah! Oh and also public speaking in front of different populations and different groups of people. Changing the language and changing how I approach conversations has translated right over to what I learned in school and how I communicate with a lot of my clients and patients. Patient First Language and all of that.

Olivia: Did you learn Patient First in Language in Canada?

Morgan: I learned it with the CDHD first. Do you call it Lay Language?

Olivia: We call it People First Language.

Morgan: People First. Ok. We have Patient – I think it’s all kind of … it’s the same idea. I think it was first introduced to me at the CDHD. We did a … it was those Tuesday nights when we all came in and there was a presentation. I learned it first with you guys.

Also, this is so specific, but the elevator pitch. I learned it at a trainee seminar and I’ve been able to use it ever since then, and I’ve used it A LOT!

Olivia: Oh that’s great! I needed to hear that. We haven’t revisited the elevator pitch this year.

Morgan: I didn’t get any of the jobs that you served as a reference for, but I did get a different position that I’m working at right now. I used my elevator pitch. I think she really liked it, so I got the job.

Olivia: Awesome! Good job!

Morgan: Thank you, thank you!

Olivia: Are there any people at the CDHD who inspired you or supported you while you were pursuing your degree or subsequent career. If so, who and how?

Morgan: Well, I mean everyone! But probably, you the most. I mean, I think we had the most interaction.

Any time I felt like I wanted to do too much, you would help bring me back and center. I always remember you telling me how I get out of something I would love to do, but I don’t want to stretch myself and I want to stay within my scope of practice. Being able to give all of me in a specific project rather than stretching myself too thin, like I said. Also, any idea that I brought to you, I always felt like was a good idea and I could pursue it. I never felt discouraged.

Also, Julie, but I think you said Julie is not there anymore. Is that what I heard?

Olivia: Julie Fodor has retired.

Morgan: Ok, yeah, I think I did see that online. I know I had some interactions with her with the AUCD-level stuff. She was always super supportive. Especially with the research project and asking her ideas about designing and developing the project.

Olivia: Yeah, she was always good at research. Would you recommend the student trainee program to a current student. Why or why not?

Morgan: I would recommend it 10 times over. My only wish is that I had started the program sooner. I mean, COVID limited us, but I would have been able to do so much more in a longer period of time. It would have been fun to start a project and see it through for more than a year.

You guys are so accommodating with scheduling, which as a student athlete, was so hard because there’s just so many hours that I had to dedicate to sport and school. It’s so rare to find a job that says they’re accommodating but then they’re not actually accommodating. But you guys really were! That was really important.

You said anyone who’s ever wanting to be an Allied Health member, this is such a good exposure to different sorts of populations, which is (as you come to realize) the main population. I went into physio thinking that the majority of what we do is sport and private. It’s not. At all. There’s so much public work that we do.

If I work in public practice at all in Canda, it’s all different sorts of populations. They all need our help. Being able to be exposed to that in a supportive learning environment and an environment that does those trainee sessions, all the different events like artAbility – how to interact with different people. How to interact, being friendly, but staying in your lane … there’s so much good out of this program that helped me as a student. I was really lucky!

I still can’t believe the way I found you was just a poster. It was just a flyer in the Bruce Pitman building.

Olivia: Are you serious?

Morgan: Yeah! That’s how I found you guys. It was, ‘Come join our program’ and your email address was on it.

Olivia: Oh my goodness. That is wild and crazy, Morgan!

Morgan: I know. It was so old school, but it worked! I was able to put all my experiences on my physical therapy school application. I’m certain this program was one of the main reasons why I was able to get in.

Olivia: Wow! Ok, that’s cool! I may be putting more posters up.

Morgan: Yeah! It caught my eye. I know a lot of Allied Health schools require a set amount of hours working with people with a disability. That’s what drew me to it. Then I realized I actually really liked not just treating but working with [people with disabilities],and I started moving more toward a career in public health. Rather than just getting those hours as a requirement. It was fun!

Olivia: So, yes, you would recommend a student.

Morgan: Yes. Long story short – yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!

Olivia: What would you say to convince them to join the program?

Morgan: To convince them?

Olivia: Mm hmm

Morgan: Well, to convince them you should probably always tell them what they’ll get out of it. If they’re applying for Allied Health, they’ll get their hours, which is good. But it will also allow them to develop in different ways they didn’t think was maybe where they wanted their career to go. It opens a lot more doors. You get a lot more skills, so can take your career in different directions.

Again, I thought I wanted to do physio sport, athletes, but then I had that experience – didn’t like it at all – but I did really like the work I did at the CDHD. I really enjoyed it. I was never clock-watching like I was in practice. I never thought I would see myself working in public health or anything like that, but that’s now … I’ll take my physio degree and I’ll do some one-on-one patient interaction, but I want to work more upstream in prevention. This is what I learned a lot at the CDHD. The importance of trying to fix the root cause rather than treating the issue where it’s at.

Olivia: That’s so cool. Thank you. What are the biggest benefits of the trainee program for students?

Morgan: I think one is that it’s paid. That was huge. Being an international student. Because there weren’t a lot of positions that would be able to pay international students. There were some weird things going on there. It’s good work but you’re also paid – which a lot of volunteer gigs, while they’re good and you want to volunteer your time, it’s tough as a student if you’re trying to balance all that.

Gaining all the communication skills. Project management skills.

I didn’t get a lot of this at the time because there weren’t that many of us, but I would have loved to get more trainee interaction and being able to work with the other trainees. That probably would have come too if I’d started earlier. The only interactions I got were those Tuesday night trainee sessions. Or if I went to artAbility or rock climbing. I know it was difficult because of COVID.

Olivia: What were the biggest benefits of the program for you?

Morgan: Biggest benefits were all the experiences I got. It definitely got me into PT school. Definitely shaped who I am now.

You hear a lot of things. You can make conclusions, but unless you see how things work … For example, disability funding and agencies. You hear certain things. You make assumptions but being able to see it from the ground up changes your perspective. It gives you a greater perspective on how individuals live, how you can help, and other ways you can overstep. It’s a good perspective. It gives you a really good perspective of – especially if you’re going into Allied Health – where you should be helping and where you can take a step back.

Olivia: Aside from your professional pursuits, has the CDHD impacted your life?

Morgan: Yeah, I would say, touching on what I just said. You get a bigger perspective. You become more compassionate. Empathetic. I feel like I approach a lot of situations differently now that I’ve had this experience. I ask myself a lot more questions about situations. Understanding the hierarchy of where money comes from and how it’s distributed … it’s important to learn. It gives you a big bird’s eye view of how systems work.

Olivia: Totally. Ok, I’m going to move on to your career, which you’re about to start. What is your current role, including your job title.

Morgan: Grad student in physical therapy and I just recently started as a Research Assistant working in implementation science. Instead of running a lot of studies, she [my supervisor] takes the results of studies and figures out ways we can better the community. It is so important because we already know that exercise is good. We don’t need to do more human trials to figure out exercise is good. We need figure out better ways to implement it in practice.

Olivia: How do you feel this role impacts your community?

Morgan: it’s tough. I’m really struggling with this. We have a public health care system here [in Canada]. It has its flaws but otherwise it’s great, but it’s only for physicians. Physical therapy is a public and private system here. You make more money when you go into private, but you’re limited in how you can help.

What I hope to do in this role – you can’t really help much in the public system either. All you can do is treat. It’s too many people. Not enough money. So, being able to combine the physical therapy scope and working in research, I’m hoping to work upstream and make more of a difference in trying to implement best practices. So, taking the resources we have and creating a system of physical therapy that’s very effective even though we only have a limited amount of time with patients.

It’s tough, but in my role, I’m hoping to bridge the gap between research and actually implementing it into practice. Figuring out how physical therapists can make a difference upstream even though we know they can already help at the level of one-on-one interactions. 

Olivia: I love it. You’ve identified a problem and you’re implementing a solution. What made you want to take on this role?

Morgan: It’s my journey of being an athlete – getting all the injuries, going to my physios and seeing how wonderful they were. Again, I wanted to do sport. I went into sport and saw it was awful.

My time at the CDHD made me realize that I don’t really want to work with that population. I want to help individuals who don’t have the resources, or have the resources but don’t have the education, or all different sorts of combinations. Help them be able to walk again or move their wheelchair. It makes so much more of a difference to help someone go from 0% of function to 50% of function. For me, you have so much more power to help someone learn how to walk again.

Olivia: What is the most rewarding part of your role?

Morgan: I really love what I do. I love exercise myself and I love being able to help people find an exercise that works for them that they love. A lot of people don’t like exercise. I understand why they don’t like exercising. It’s just being able to educate them on, “Yeah, maybe you don’t like sprinting but walking still counts,” or “you sit all day, maybe you can take the stairs.” Making them realize that three changes in their life can be really small but can make a big difference. I had a client who came in in a wheelchair. Five weeks later, they left on crutches. That was really cool. Being able to help them make those big leaps in terms of mobility.

Honestly, I really like the education part. Coming in as an athlete, I already knew half the stuff I’m learning in school – the big idea that exercise is good for you. Some people don’t know that. Exercise is scary if you’ve never done it before. Being able to start really small and working with them on a plan is a lot of fun. Especially if they stick to it. This education is a lot of fun.