Neuro and Manual Therapy

[engmedpt]

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Neuro:
Difficult topics to get ready for?
Links to sites or videos to help with prepping?
Where do students trip up?
Practice questions and exams from sites?

I can't find resources for continually testing and prepping myself for the exams. I need sources. Our exams are incredibly application based. Low level simple recall questions which is obviously good but when I have to have a tree in my head for thinking through 4 pieces of info. for a process it is difficult finding a practice source and I find myself trying to do it for the first time on the exam which is nerve racking.

Does anyone have sources for high level neuro/msk/manual therapy questions I could use to work with for future coursework?


@Azimuthal
@jblil
@starrsgirl

 

[Azimuthal]

You should ask your professors. For me, observational gait analysis was not so bad once you study the cycle and muscle activation patterns. The rest comes by memorizing and understanding the relationships (gross anatomy and biomechanics).

I would draw out and audibly recite everything. You are your best study tool and practice source. I mean, look at your LE's when walking...

 

[jblil]

One book that I found extremely useful in neuro classes and during my neuro clinical is "Stroke Rehabilitation - Guidelines for Exercise & Training to Optimize Motor Skills", by Janet Carr & Roberta Shepherd. Carr is an Australian PT who focused on stroke rehab. The book has an excellent section on gait deviations after a stroke, among other stuff. I got this book by pure chance, when pawing through a pile of textbooks in a thrift shop; it turned out to be a real nugget.

 

[starrsgirl]

For me, to get through neuro, I had to go back to the basics first. I know that seems counter intuitive for a high level course (ours was too). I had to make myself know the lecture notes inside and out first, before I could move on. For every lecture slide, I learn the material THEN I ask myself "why?"". Personally, I hate to recommend too many outside sources because that only seemed to pull me away from material that was required for the exam versus helping me focus and do better. Here's what I did....I started with the lecture. For any type of test mentioned in lecture (let's say the FIM), then I would breakout on that and fully understand it. How it it done, how is it scored, who is it used for, what's the evidence. I definitely brought in outside material but no one source (PT resources online and 3 textbooks). For gait deviations, I would write an impairment that was from lecture down on a sheet of paper (let's say drop foot). Then research drop foot (using my other random textbooks and online PT sources) and capture relevant info. What does it look like? What are things that cause it? How can you test for it?

Even though it's high level application, it will be connected (hopefully) to your course material. Also, in my course, a lot of the application aspect came from the lab, not the lecture notes. So when I started studying from the lab manuals/notes as a primary source, that helped immensely.

I'm the first one to say I hate group studying (ain't no one got time for that, haha). BUT, neuro is the one class (ok "classes....I've had 3 so far) I sucked it up and did it and it paid off. Force the group to have general discussion about a topic (say, a gait impairment). Write all thoughts out on a white board. Then make sure to have one person summarize it succinctly before you move on.

 

[starrsgirl]

My 2 favorite texts that we used are"Neuroscience:Fundamentals for Rehabilitation" by Lundy-Ekman (easier reading book....good charts and condition breakdown) and "Neuroanatomy through Clinical Cases" by Blumenfeld. The second book is very high level. Most of my classmates didn't buy that book at all but I LOVED it and used it purely as a reference book to look up anything I got stuck on. (not a good book to just sit down and read in my opinion). That second book does have a lot of clinical cases and examples at the end of very chapter. A lot of them tended to be at a higher level than what we needed to know in class (they don't necessarily tie to rehabilitation)...but certainly if you understood things at that level, you would do well. I don't remember any real focus on gait deviations in that second book.


Also, I agree with the above that you need to know gait inside and out. Every part of the gait cycle, muscles that are activated and in what way. If you feel weak on that, focus there first.