Student Blog

Trevor Bryant, May 2021 Graduate, tells us about his time at IIOP, how IIOP impacted his career, and what he is up to now!

IIOP Alum, Trevor Bryant –

My time at IIOP was ideal for my learning style. I had a smaller class compared to other Orthotic and Prosthetic programs, which allowed intimate learning spaces. I was able to have direct contact with my professors who still aid me in my navigations through residency to this day. The ample lab time and hands-on practice were, at first, daunting. However, it has made me comfortable in lab settings and knowledgeable about machinery and tools. I am thankful for my time at IIOP and hope I make them proud. 

Currently, I am nearing the end of my prosthetic residency in Orlando. The past year has taught me about the O&P field, patient care, and who I want to be as a clinician. Morals and integrity come into play far more than I was expecting. I am happy to say I am proud of the clinician I am and continue to develop into. 

Most recently I have been trained in direct lamination for both transtibial amputees and transfemoral amputees. This method allows me to laminate a definitive socket directly over a patient’s limb. I think this is where the field could be headed.

Hi All,

Welcome back hope you all had a fabulous Easter! 🐰 Our class celebrated Easter on the beach, which was different for most of us, but we all had a blast. As we approach the end of the semester, we are excited to head into our clinical rotations. We are finishing up lower-limb orthotics in the next couple of weeks and this week, and our final is April 28th! We cast, fabricated, and fit accommodative foot orthotics, a UCBL, and a solid ankle AFO. Everyone’s turned out great, and we are learning many different techniques and methods when it comes to the fabrication process. Enjoy the many pictures attached and stay tuned next week for the final week before the summer semester and clinicals.

Best,

Alyssa Noe

Hi everyone,

Time has been flying by! We are in the last three weeks of our first semester. We have already completed our first class, Clinical Gait Analysis, and everyone finished well. One of the labs in Gait involved an orthotic gait analysis where we tried on different lower-limb orthotics and compared our gait patterns with and without the orthotic device. We have done a few more class bonding activities, including indoor rock climbing and Topgolf. We are currently giving our major presentations for Anatomy class with a thorough review of the upper and lower limbs. Finals are just around the corner, so we are preparing for the showdown of this semester.

The student highlight of the week is Jacob! (He’s the one waving on the wall) He is a local to Florida coming from Orlando and graduated from the Seminole State College with a degree in Science Management with a Biology focus. For our Student Government Association, he will be taking up the mantle as the president for the summer semester. In his free time, he enjoys hanging out with his cats and going rock climbing.

Sincerely,

Brooke

Hello All,

Last week was very exciting we created a Custom Bivalve TLSO. We went through the processes of scanning, carving, modification, fabrication, fitting, and delivery. Being able to create my very own TLSO helped me understand and relate to patients who use custom bivalve TLSOs. This week we finished up our Orthotics Management of the Spine Class on Tuesday with our final exam which went well. Now, we are onto our next class adventure in Orthotics Management of the Lower Limb. I am so excited because we get to create a pair of foot orthotics that we get to keep! So, stay tuned and check back to see my foot orthotics! 

Until next time,

Alyssa Noe

Hello all!

After many hours of studying (shout out to Rachel for letting us use her apartment’s study space), we finally finished mid-terms last week, and everyone did well and passed! We had five exams total in a week and a half, along with our presentations for Pathology. Although we are enjoying the reduced workload, we are starting the following sections of our classes and learning new material for the finals. For our Gait Analysis class, we had a guest speaker, Dr. Sheila Clemens, the Assistant Professor of Physical Therapy at FIU, come in for two days to go over various gait deviations that result from pathologies and deviations from patients with lower limb prosthetics. We had the opportunity to work with two amputees to observe their gait and provide exercises to improve it.

This week’s student highlight is Terrance! He is a local to the Tampa area, living in Clearwater. He graduated from St. Petersburg College for Health Care Administrations. Terrance has the most O&P experience out of all of us since his dad is a CPO and founded the company Superior Prosthetics and Orthotics. He enjoys fishing, riding his Wave Runner, and hanging out with his nephews and nieces in his free time.

Busy week this week learned how to calculate Cobb angles on double major curves, learned how to make trim lines for a Boston brace, took our Orthotic management of the spine midterm, started scanning for our custom bivalve TLSO, and even celebrated pie day! This semester is flying by and I am enjoying every second of it. Can’t wait to see the custom bivalve TLSO scan be carved into a positive mold and see the thermoforming process next week!

Check Back!

Alyssa

Hey everyone,

The time is going by fast with mid-terms coming up next week. Everyone has been studying hard, and we have also started our semester presentations. This week, we had our neuroanatomy presentations with case studies including scenarios of traumatic brain injuries from gun shot wounds to infants needing cranial helmets to correct plagiocephaly. In our gait class, we have been using the gait mat to analyze our walking gait and compare it to the manual calculations we measured with the chalk and paper. We will occasionally take some breaks and finally got a photo at the bowling alley with all nine of us. I got to lead everyone in a combat workout class to de-stress from studying, and it was a bonding experience to say the least.

Brian is our highlight for this week’s post! (He’s the one next to the neuro presentation.) He is from Miami, Florida and studied Biology at Florida International University. In his free time, he is pumping iron or visiting his fiancé in Miami who is going to law school. He is one of the best presenters in the class and the champion of creating case scenarios.

-Brooke Merryman

The past couple weeks we finished our prosthetics management of the lower limb class! We had our final exam yesterday and I learned a great deal about prosthetics and can’t wait until fourth semester to learn even more. Today, we started our Orthotics Management class of the spine, and I am excited to learn all about spinal anatomy again and how we as future clinicians can help correct different spinal conditions. 

Alyssa

This week we saw patient models again! This time we casted a different patient for a TSB, total surface bearing socket. After the last couple weeks modifying and fitting our PTBSC, patellar tendon bearing, supracondylar sockets I feel more confident in going through the process of evaluation, casting, and fabrication! Not going to lie doing it the first time was a little stressful but after fitting my first socket I gained more of an understanding for the entire process. So casting, modifying, and thermoforming this week’s TSB socket I have felt more comfortable and relaxed. I can’t wait to continue learning different suspension methods and going through the process multiple times to build up that confidence and learn more and more to become the best practitioner I can be.

Until next time,

Alyssa Noe

Hi all!

The weather has been getting warmer in Tampa, so our lunch breaks have been outside with some recreational time. Midterms are drawing ever closer now being less than 3 weeks away and we have started putting together our semester presentations for most of our classes. Last week in our Gait Analysis class, we performed postural evaluations on each other and this week we did manual mensuration of gait parameters. This involved measuring our cadence and walking speed as well as putting chalk on our feet, walking across white paper, and measuring the length and width of our steps.

The student highlight of our class this week is Rachel (the one playing ping pong)! She is from Boston, Massachusetts and is getting her second Master’s degree here after getting her Bachelor’s and Master’s in Kinesiology at UCF. Our neuro class is a breeze for her, and she enjoys reading and hanging out with her two cats.