The Rise of the Creative Practitioner

Abstract

Good afternoon, Polly and colleagues. Thank you to the Education section for granting me the honor of giving this presentation, and to Mr Jeff Martell, Polly's nephew, who has supported it over the years. He and his family send their best regards to all of you. In a recent discussion with Jeff, he told me that he and his wife and three children visit Polly regularly, in a small home-type residence in New Hampshire that meets all her needs. While Polly is essentially wheelchair bound, she moves throughout the home, followed everywhere by the resident dog named Whiz. Jeff says Polly responds expressively to the cards that she receives, and which he reads her when he visits, and she appears to be uplifted by them. The surrounding land is enough to be called a mini-farm, and has chickens, rabbits, and sheep. The electric fence around the grounds doesn't appear to phase or shock the sheep that carry a very thick coat. Recently, Jeff related that when an emergency vehicle came to transport a resident, they found one of the sheep had hopped into the vehicle when they were inside the home. But of course they foiled that resident's attempt to take it on the lamb. So Polly is not without access to some fun around her. We are here to honor Polly Cerasoli for her tireless and dedicated professional work as an educator, administrator, and mentor. It also attempts to reflect Polly's personal demeanor, who she is, and what she stands for. The lecturers who have gone before me have accomplished this. Each of those presenters (some of whom are with us today . . .) has deepened our insight through their individual contributions, and in doing so, has deepened our insight of our profession. Each past presenter structured their presentation according to an attribute descriptive of Polly. This presentation follows that pattern. I count Polly as a friend, and have chosen to highlight an attribute that I observed as a result of an experience I shared with Polly. I first met Polly in the early 70s, when we attended a workshop for on-site visitors sponsored by the Association's Accreditation Department. She and I were randomly assigned to work on a mock problem we might encounter on an accreditation visit and report to the group the next day. As Polly was staying outside the hotel about 5 miles away, I envisioned work over breakfast the next day. Polly envisioned work that night. I envisioned describing our problem to the group. Polly envisioned posing solutions. I envisioned 8 hours sleep. Polly envisioned completing the task. We worked on the task for some time until we stalled. Polly said, Donna, let's imagine we are these people. Let's be them in their environment; then what would we do? In that moment everything changed. The problem became ours. We became fully engaged. We were the people with the problem, and we were the people with a stake in the outcome. Our perception of our own role changed. That immersion within the problem, and the true reversal of roles, fostered creativity within us and we were able to address the task constructively. The experience, of itself, left me changed. Our life experiences prepare us for future action and they are the basis of our vision for the future. Each life experience that triggers feeling within us is accompanied by incremental change. To the descriptions that have been offered of Polly, add . . . creative. Physical therapy today faces many challenges, as do other health care professions. The challenges and the problems they present in the delivery of health care to society do not appear to be responding to solutions that have been applied to such issues in the past. We seek creative solutions for change. The motivation to be creative comes more readily when we recognize that we really do have a stake in the outcome. Many of the problems we are now experiencing in health care delivery are directly linked to changes in society itself.1 The more we are genuinely part of the environments in which we live and work, and the more closely we identify with the issues presented by those environments, the more we will be able to affect the direction of the environments and our future. …