D.P.T students Mia Krackow, Kristin Strong and Jessie Gress work with Angie Plager, the 2009 Ms. Wheelchair Iowa.

Everyone is smiling on this golf outing.

Wheelchair users just want to have fun–and golf and bicycle and bowl and go kayaking. When the Spinal Cord Injury Association of Iowa (SCIAI) offers those opportunities to people with mobility issues, DMU physical therapy and osteopathic medicine students often volunteer to help.

“I enjoy the game of golf, so I thought it would be a good way to get out and help,” says Mike Spicka, D.P.T.’11, who helped at a SCIAI golf clinic in July. “I really enjoyed my experience because I was able to talk with the participants about things besides why they were in physical therapy. I’ve been doing so much studying from books and lectures, I forgot that physical therapy is about connecting with people as well.”

D.P.T. student Michael Spicka, right, and another volunteer help a new golfer get into the swing.

Other DMU students agree the experiences benefit them as much as the participants. They gain a better understanding of conditions that affect mobility and hands-on experiences with individuals and adaptive equipment. “I had the opportunity to help an individual experience a new activity for the first time and got the chance to get to know her as well,” says Jessie Gress, D.P.T.’11, who helped Angie Plager, the 2009 Ms. Wheelchair Iowa, hold and swing a golf club. “She taught us about her disability and how she copes with it day to day.”

Gress and other DMU students challenged Plager to hit the ball farther; if she didn’t, she had to dance for the group, but if she made the goal, the students had to dance for her.

Military medics practice triage in the simulation lab at DMU. Photo by Sergeant Shelaine Harbart

Local medics practice at DMU’s Iowa Simulation Center.

Oh, my leg! My leg! My buddy needs help. I’ve got to help him. Help me up. I’ve got to help him!”

Master Sergeant Jeff Lindsey from Moberly, Mo., clutched a bloody splinter of bone protruding from his thigh. A medic tried to calm him as Lindsey struggled to stand, intent on helping a fellow Army reservist lying prone with a severe head wound.

This was the scene not on a battlefield but in DMU’s Iowa Simulation Center for Patient Safety and Clinical Skills on a July weekend, when 25 medics from the 4224th Army Hospital, based at Fort Des Moines, took part in triage training on campus. Lindsey and his comrades were adorned with realistic rubber “wounds” in a scenario designed to enable medics to practice determining which soldiers were most seriously wounded, treatable or able to wait while others received care.

“Your job as a U.S. Army hospital medic is to work in a hospital,” Lindsey explained to the other participants, “but you also may be deployed as an individual medic with a unit. So you need to be ready for both scenarios.”

The simulation lab and its lifelike medical mannequins and other equipment provided an ideal environment for the medics to get ready. “I was very impressed by the tools that were made available to us and believe they will enhance our training,” says Lindsey.

“The exercise was part of DMU’s ongoing commitment to help train Army, Army Reserve and National Guard medics and nurses, as well as students and civilian health care providers. Simulation lab users gain skills in diagnosis, treatment and teamwork.

Michael Flood, D.O., explains aspects of a medical mannequin. Photo by Sergeant Shelaine Harbart

“We want this center to be a resource for the community and the military,” says Michael Flood, D.O.’77, center chairman and DMU associate professor. “This is the future of medical education. It’s the best thing that’s happened in medical education since we put computers in the classroom.”

Working with military medics benefits DMU, too. “I’ve learned a lot from watching the medics and how they work together,” Flood says. “I’ll be able to take that back to our students.”

For some, simply surviving marriage to a medical student is accomplishment enough. Not so Jon Kamrath: While his wife, Heidi, earned her D.O. degree at DMU, he commuted to Iowa State University, 40 miles away, to complete his master’s degree in fine arts; was selected to exhibit at the highly competitive Des Moines Arts Festival in 2008 and 2009; and was a leader in the DMU Student Advocate Association, now called Significant Others’ Support.

That earned him the American Osteopathic Foundation’s 2009 Donna Jones Moritsugu Memorial Award, which honors the spouses of graduating osteopathic medical students who provide “immeasurable support” to their partner “while being an individual in their own right.” Jon juggled both with hard work and dedication, Heidi, D.O.’09, explained in her nomination to the AOF.

For example, he was intent to accompany her to a rotation in Michigan from April to August 2008 and still participate in the Des Moines Arts Festival that June. To make that possible, he worked diligently early in the spring semester to complete his M.F.A. thesis and produce enough sculpture, pottery and other works to cover the festival and his M.F.A. solo art exhibition.

“He did all of this so that our family would not have to live apart for those four months,” Heidi wrote in her nomination. She is now in a pediatrics residency at the University of Minnesota. “I cannot imagine having gone through medical school without him by my side.”

Now an art teacher at Eagle Ridge Academy in Eden Prairie, Minn., Jon was active on the DMU campus, reaching out to other spouses and playing intramural dodge ball and volleyball. “Whenever Jon was on campus, he would know at least as many people there as I would,” Heidi noted.

For most high schoolers, highlights of the summer include sleeping in, hanging out with friends and going on vacation. For Lynnville-Sully High School senior Katelyn Van Wyk, a summer highlight was taking measurements of the cadavers at DMU.

“It is such a unique experience and made me excited for my future of learning more about the human body,” she says.

Van Wyk was one of nine central Iowa high school seniors who explored science and medicine in a pilot program June 15-19 offered by DMU and the Central Iowa AHEC.

During the inaugural “Youth Education in Science and Medicine” camp, or YES MED, participants experienced cases in the simulation laboratory, observed suturing demonstrations and osteopathic manual medicine treatments, learned to monitor blood glucose levels and investigated infectious diseases.

“I also enjoyed working with current med students and being able to ask them questions and learn first-hand from them and the professors,” says YES MED participant Amber McNace, a senior at Dallas Center-Grimes High School.

Program organizers plan to offer YES MED every summer to highly qualified applicants. Like this year, the Central Iowa AHEC will recruit the students, and DMU faculty and students will teach and guide them.

“YES MED reaffirmed the students’ interest in science and medicine and, for some, opened their eyes to career opportunities,” says Jill Whitson, executive director of the Central Iowa AHEC.”

For more information email Amy Smith or visit the Central Iowa AHEC website.