1. Roger C. Peace
Rehabilitation Internship
HANNAH JOHNSON

2. Roger C. Peace Rehabilitation Hospital
Mission: Heal compassionately. Teach innovatively. Improve constantly.
Vision: Transform health care for the benefit of the people and communities we serve.
Values: Together we serve with integrity, respect, trust and openness.

3. Roger C. Peace Rehabilitation Hospital
Roger C. Peace has over 30 years of experience with inpatient and outpatient therapy
and is a leader in brain injuries.
The center serves on the South Carolina Brain Injury Leadership Council.
The center has 53 inpatient beds and an outpatient center that provides physical,
occupational, recreational, orthopedic, and speech therapy to patients.
Roger C. Peace works with patients to provide work, school, and community re-entry.
Goals:
1. Provide the latest rehabilitative and technological services with compassion and
encouragement
2. To help motivate patients
3. To assist patients in re-entering the community as smoothly and as quickly as possible

4. Special Features of RCP
Sponsor of a Para cycling team that has
competed in world-wide para-cycling events.
Therapists aid individuals with various
disabilities to allow them to participate in
water skiing, golf, sled hockey, and sailing.
Roger C. Peace Team at the National Championships in Chattanooga, TN
Roger C. Peace 2015 Annual Ski Bash

5. Outpatient Rehabilitation
The majority of my internship was spent in the
outpatient rehabilitation facility.
This facility sees a variety of patients but
specializes in brain injuries. Many of the patients
that come to this facility have suffered from major
traumas including spinal cord injuries, strokes, and
spinal fractures.
Through my observations I was able to see the
various methods of evaluating, treating, and
recording progress for these different injuries and
conditions.
Occupational therapist assistant working with the BTE in the
therapy room

6. Acute Care
During my time at RCP, I was able to observe an acute occupational therapist.
Acute occupational therapists work in the ICU and on the floor to see patients
that are recovering from strokes, heart attacks, surgeries, and other illnesses
and traumas.
The goal of these therapists is to determine if an inpatient stay is warranted
and to aid the patient in regaining their independence with self care activities
while still in the hospital.
This was an eye-opening and very educational experience as I got to learn
more about clinical diagnoses and how those diagnoses affect the patient’s
mobility, speech, and comprehension skills.

7. Inpatient Therapy
I was able to spend a day working with the inpatient occupational
therapy team.
Inpatient therapists work with patients who have been discharged from
the main hospital but are not strong or healthy enough to return home.
Therapists work with these patients to help them regain the strength and
coordination needed to complete basic tasks of self care and daily living.
I saw patients learn proper wheelchair mobility, complete strengthening
exercises uses weights and body resistance, and work on tasks that
involved using fine motor skills and advanced cognition.

8. Clinic for Underserved
The Greenville Hospital System sponsors a clinic near the hospital that serves
individuals who are underinsured or would otherwise not be able to receive the
care that is needed for optimal recovery.
I visited this clinic multiple times and observed occupational and physical
therapists work with patients recovering from surgeries, injuries, and strokes.
Splinting is a key component of providing care to these individuals because it
allows the therapist to control the position of the hand or extremity when the
patient is not at the clinic.
I was able to observe multiple splint makings, which helped me to get a
better understanding of knowing which splint to make, determining how to
make the splint, and adjusting the splint so that it does the most good and
discomfort is minimalized.
Demonstration of splint making

9. Clinic for Underserved
Visiting the clinic also showed me the importance of improving the Affordable
Care Act so that individuals can truly live healthy lives.
If unable to receive therapy after a major surgery or stroke, the individual is
unable to fully recover and permanent disabilities can form. These disabilities
have the power to cause chronic pain and keep an individual from working and
providing for themselves and their dependents.
Visiting the clinic also highlighted the many unseen obstacles that this
underserved population must overcome. Getting to therapy can often be too
difficult due to lack of knowledge of public transportation or lack of access to it.
To ensure that these individuals receive the best care, there needs to be more
institutions in place that aid these individuals in coordinating transportation,
child care, and time off work.

10. Driver Rehabilitation
Roger C. Peace hosts a driver rehabilitation program for individuals looking to
return to driving after a debilitating illness or injury.
This program is run by three certified occupational therapists from the
outpatient clinic.
The program includes an initial evaluation of strength,
coordination, cognition, and visual acuity. Drivers are
then placed in a simulator to learn how to operate any
new equipment that may be needed for their car. In the
last step, the therapist takes the driver on the road to
see how well he or she operates in a real driving
environment.
Driver simulator at Roger C. Peace

11. Kidnetics
Kidnetics is a part of the Greenville Health system
and is specialized to work with children from birth
through 21 years of age.
At Kidnetics, children receive services from
occupational, physical, and speech therapists.
During my time at Kidnetics, I observed an
occupational therapist work with a young child on
feeding. From this experience, I learned some of the
techniques that are used to develop a psychological
acceptance of food as well as how to build the
muscles and coordination needed to be able to chew
and swallow foods.Occupational therapist working with young
boy at Kidnetics

12. ALS Clinic
Greenville Hospital System is one of a few
hospital systems in the nation that hosts an ALS
clinic
The clinic is for patients with Amyotrophic
Lateral Sclerosis, a fatal disease that slowly
destroys the communication between the brain
and the muscles. This deterioration makes
mobility, speech, and breathing increasingly
difficult and eventually impossible.
Lou Gehrig – a famous New York Yankees player plagued by
the disease.

13. ALS Clinic
Once mobility declines, leaving the house becomes very taxing.
The clinic makes it so that the patients can see clinicians,
occupational and physical therapists, medical equipment providers,
respiratory therapists, and hospice care workers all in one day at
one location.
Going to the ALS clinic was my most meaningful and affecting
experience that I had throughout my internship because in an
environment where death is an ever present fear and reality, there
was constant smiles and laughter.
Through attending the clinic, I saw the power of patient – provider
relationships. The individuals suffering from ALS wanted to adhere
to all recommendations from their providers because they trusted
their providers and saw them as friends rather than authority
figures.
Each provider has a label that is moved from
one side of the door to the other to indicate
who is in the room with the patient.

14. Major Projects
ALS Patient Education Binders
Assistive Technology and Equipment
Resources Chart
Case Study
IADLs Home Lab

15. ALS Patient Education Binders
My main project was to construct binders containing educational materials regarding the many
components of ALS. Some of the components included in the binder were:
Symptoms and Treatment options
Respiratory Care
Nutrition and Feeding Tubes
Speech and Communication Devices
Physical and Occupational therapy equipment and exercises
Grants and Funding
Hospice Care and Advance Directives

16. Teamwork
Lauren Wegnerd is the occupational therapist on the ALS
team and was my supervisor in this project.
I worked directly with each individual from the ALS clinic
team to decide what materials should be included in the
patient binders.
Team members either submitted materials directly to me,
or gave me ideas of the types of items that they wanted
included.
Together, Lauren and I gave the final say in what materials
should and should not go in the binders.
The clipboard allows all the patient information to
remain in one spot and allows providers to make
notes for one another.

17. Creating Resources
While the ALS association was able to provide me and the team with
a large majority of the information for the binders, other materials had
to be created.
Some of the items that I created for the binders were lists of
resources that the patients could refer to if they wanted additional
information or services. Included were lists of resources for:
Mental Health/Counseling
Clinical Trials and New Research
Support Groups and Forums

18. Presenting the Binders
I presented the binders for the outpatient occupational and
physical therapists.
By presenting the binders, the therapists gained
new information that they can use to help treat
their patients with ALS
The binders inspired the other therapists to have
similar binders made for other conditions such
as spinal cord injuries, strokes,
and Multiple Sclerosis.
Outpatient therapy team to which I
presented the binders to.

19. Assistive Technology and Equipment
Resource Bank
An additional project that I completed during my time at Roger C.
Peace was the construction of a document that included all the local
associations and entities that loan or sell durable medical equipment
to patients with disabilities.
I completed this project by researching the various organizations
that provide these services and contacting the organizations if more
information was needed.
This bank was distributed to many of the therapists in outpatient,
inpatient, and acute care. The therapists were able to then distribute
this resource to patients who were in need of medical equipment.

20. Case Study
My interest in spinal cord injuries led me to choose to
complete my case study on a 56 year old male who
suffered from a cervical spinal cord injury after falling off
a ladder.
The case study allowed me to learn more about spinal
cord injuries because I was asked to compare the patient
with the typical case. By studying the typical case, I saw
how the patient was progressing in regards to others with
similar injuries.
Observing the patient’s therapy sessions allowed me to
see the progress that I had read in his chart. I was able to
discuss with him his opinions on the accident and his
hopes for recovery.
Me speaking with the patient I completed my case study for.

21. Instrumental Activities of Daily Living
Home Lab
Roger C. Peace was in the process of completing a project that would allow utilization of
their home lab that includes a bed, pantry, washer and dryer, and a kitchen table.
I aided in completing this project by helping to set-up the materials that would be
needed for the activities created by the therapists. I helped to create the following:
 A menu for an activity involving scanning for objects in the
pantry and making a list of which objects are not present
but are necessary for making the items on the menu.
 Cutting out fake money to be used by the patient to
practice money management at the store.
 Setting up fake pill bottles to be used by the patient to
practice medication management.
 Creating a phone and address directory to be used by the
patient to practice phone usage skills.

22. IADLs Home Lab
Participating in this project allowed me to get ideas for therapies that can be used to
help patients work on cognitive deficits and help therapists to assess a patient’s ability
to perform daily activities safely and efficiently.
I also learned the importance using activities that resemble the important skills
needed for living independently. Other activities included in the lab were bill payment,
table setting, and bed making.
Medication management activity that I
set up.
Money that I printed and cut out for the
bill pay activity.

23. References
Images:
◦ http://kcts9.org/sites/default/files/imagecache/618x350/homepage-slides/connectsals_0.jpg
◦ http://www.ghs.org/healthcareservices/rehabilitation/outpatient-inpatient-services/peacecenter#.VkD-
vE13G70
◦ http://www.clemson.edu/ces/departments/automotive-engineering/research/human-factors-hmi/i-
can-still-drive.html
◦ http://www.cincinnatichildrens.org/service/o/ot-pt/upper-extremity-splinting-orthotics/
◦ http://www.disabledsportsusa.org/chapters/roger-c-peace-rehabilitation-hospital-south-carolina/
◦ https://www.facebook.com/RCPCTEAM/photos_stream?ref=page_internal
◦ http://www.ghschildrens.org/myimages/p10305441.jpg