Eighteen students from three Asian universities participated in the UNMC Summer Experiential Education (SEED) program in physical therapy this past summer.
Students finished the program with a sense of patient-centered care and professionalism.
One student shadowed an in-patient physical therapist at Nebraska Medicine, gaining firsthand insight into care across multiple specialty units. “Because many patients required assistance from nurses or occupation therapists, scheduling treatment often depended on coordinating with the entire healthcare team,” said Shu-Ching Chao, SEED participant. “This experience helped me understand how important interdisciplinary collaboration is in acute care.”
Created for international physical therapy and rehabilitation students, the Summer Experiential Education program is a three-week, in-person experience at UNMC.
“I realized that rehabilitation is not only about restoring physical function but also about understanding patients’ perspectives and helping them regain confidence and independence,” said Qiaoxue Wang, SEED student. “I believe that only by understanding patients’ difficulties from their perspectives can we develop more appropriate and individualized rehabilitation interventions. This experience reminded me that empathy is just as important as clinical knowledge.”
Administered by the Office of Global Engagement and delivered by the UNMC Physical Therapy Program, the initiative offers research lab practice, faculty lectures, interaction with UNMC DPT students and observation of real-world care during clinical shadowing.
“The SEED program provides well-rounded and experiential learning opportunities for our international physical therapy students,” said Joseph Siu, PhD, director of the program. “All students graduated from this program are part of UNMC family and are welcome back for more advanced learning options such as graduate or DPT programs.
“This is the largest in-person cohort in the nine-year history of the program,” said Jane Meza, PhD, interim vice chancellor for academic affairs. “We are thrilled to share our physical therapy expertise so these students can apply what they’ve learned when they return to their home universities.”