Hoggatt Injury Law Scholarship Spring 2024 Winner

Cameron Rawlings

Cameron Rawlings has been chosen as the Spring 2024 award recipient of the Hoggatt Injury Law Children of Injured Workers Scholarship. Cameron is an undergraduate student at Idaho State University. After graduation, Cameron intends to pursue a career as a physical therapist.

Read Cameron’s Essay:

Some callings in life are so necessary for pursuit, you’re born into it. My oldest sister was born with cerebral palsy and has several physical and mental disabilities, so helping take care of her within my family was and is certainly no easy feat. The weight of additional responsibility and the depth of understanding and compassion quickly molded my character into much of who I am today. That has led me to some of the greatest feelings of fulfillment and purpose I’ve ever experienced and to some of my most treasured relationships. These feelings of deep purpose are what have led me into pursuing a career in the field of physical therapy.

Among the reasons I want to pursue physical therapy, patient advocacy is one of the biggest. When seeing patients, they are in one of some of the lowest points in their life. Having worked for over a year in a clinic, I’ve seen it. Such simple freedoms taken away or slowly engulfed by the limitations of pain, disease, and disability. It’s humbling to think that there will be a time when an individual is going to come to me as a clinician in great time of need and entrust their health and the state of normalcy of the rest of their life in the hands of the team I contribute. In my formula of advocacy integrity and desire for another's wellbeing are the biggest two. Some diagnoses may not seem like a big deal; you can live with plantar fasciitis, you can get over a sore back, your body will heal from surgeries, and it's not the end of the world. But life is at stake, each patient’s potential and dreams. It's keeping up with grandkids, it's returning to a sport, and so much more. That weight is heavy and tangible. So in playing such a vital role in patient recovery and rehabilitation, I fully intend to dot i's and cross t's and make sure others are doing the same because that can bleed into and hinder progress.

I saw this over the course of the past year with my dad’s physical therapist and his injury. My father is the main provider for our family, creeping up on sixty and in a very manual labor heavy position. Last December he tore the entirety of his rotator cuff. Several of his muscles were severed from lifting seventy-pound chutes on his cement truck. Despite the inability to do any basic function with his arm, his company sent him to do a mandatory period of physical therapy because the ordered x-rays didn’t show any cause of concern. After a few appointments, the clinicians were quick to pick up that something was seriously wrong with his shoulder. The therapist had to repeatedly ask for weeks for an MRI to be ordered by the physician since x-rays only show bones and there was a clear musculoskeletal injury. Over two months after the injury, he was finally scheduled for his surgery as the MRI revealed that none of the muscles on the front side of his shoulder were even connected to bone. This additional time of forced therapy set my dad back months and froze his shoulder because of how frivolously his injury was taken by the physician.

Finally, over a year ago since his initial injury, he received clearance from his surgeon to go back to work. The lives of others are not to be taken lightly as a health care professional. I found in working in a clinic the importance of making every patient feel valued. One clinician might see ten to fifteen patients in a full day, but patients only see the clinician in the time they’re there. I admire the therapist’s persistence in advocating for my dad and want to implement that. Fighting for patients. The unsurity my family had to go through for was consuming and made my family sick and deeply anxious from the uncertainty we faced not only from my dad’s frozen shoulder, but financially. I know from my experience that this weighs on the mind of many patients who can’t afford to miss work for their appointments but must.

Along with advocacy there is an intriguing science behind the puzzle of injuries. Everyone is built with the same parts and pieces, but every anatomy is different. No one regimen is going to cure every patient case. It’s intriguing on the clinical aspect of it and yet very personal. Many individuals in this profession want to work with athletes, but I’ve found my niche working with individuals with disability as I’ve spent years alongside my sister and her friends at a myriad of events from campouts to the Special Olympics. Of course I will want diversity in my patient load, but I really want to give back to the people who unknowingly gave me so much and greatly impacted who I am and my heart for people.

As a first-generation college student, I want to obtain my degree in physical therapy and aid others for the entirety of my career to the best of my ability. I currently work two jobs, with my classes in between. I start at five in the morning and between late labs and my second job I usually get home after ten at night, which makes for long days. I provide entirely for myself financially, so this scholarship would alleviate me from the financial chokehold I am in and from the burnout I often face trying to navigate school, paying for basic cost of living and tuition. It would allow me to center my time studying the vigorous and complex material of my program and better meet the requirements established. This scholarship would also give me great peace of mind and make a massive impact during my two full time eight-week clinicals required for my program. Investing this scholarship in me will be the difference in many rehabilitations of individuals to come and carry lasting affects beyond the life of my own.