Spirit week for patient appreciation

1. H E A L T H S C I E N C E I N T E R N S H I P
S A R A H P A D G E T T
F A L L 2 0 1 5
National Physical Therapy Month
(Patient Appreciation)

2. Project Information
 October is recognized as National Physical Therapy
Month. In order to celebrate this month and Breast
Cancer Awareness Month, Clemson Sports Medicine
& Rehabilitation participated in multiple events
during the month of October. All CSMR employees
wore pink breast cancer awareness shirt during the
month. The biggest project was “Spirit Week” was to
recognize our patients. This week was marketed the
week before the event and encouraged both
employee and patient participation. “Spirit Week”
was executed during the last week of October.

3. Breast Cancer Awareness Shirts
This was the design on
the t-shirts worn by
Clemson Sports
Medicine &
Rehabilitation during
October to recognize
National Physical
Therapy Month and
Breast Cancer
Awareness Month. The
shirts were not marketed
to patients. However,
several patients asked
about purchasing these
shirts in the future.

4. Planning for Spirit Week
 The themes for Spirit Week were chosen by the
employees at CSMR. Each day of the week had a
different theme:
 Monday – Pajama Day
 Tuesday – Safari Day
 Wednesday – Pink/Camo Day
 Thursday – Inside Out Day
 Friday – Flashback Friday

5. Marketing
 Throughout the clinic, there were several flyers
posted with details of Spirit Week.
 The clinic’s whiteboard contain the theme of each
day of Spirit Week.
 Most of the marketing was done by word of mouth.
When working with patients, we would have
conversations the purpose of Spirit Week and how
the theme of each day could be executed.
 This gave me a chance to show my excitement!

6. Patient Appreciation
 Prior to Spirit Week, all patients in the clinic were
encouraged to participate.
 The clinic decided to give back to the patients by
creating a drawing with a chance to win a gift card.
 Each time a patient participated in Spirit Week activities, he or
she was eligible to enter his or her name in a drawing to
receive one of two gift cards.

7. My Contribution
 From the start of my internship, I knew that I
wanted to get involved with the marketing projects at
Clemson Sports Medicine & Rehabilitation. I enjoy
coming up with new ideas, and I wanted to promote
my ideas as ways to market for the company.
National Physical Therapy Month and Spirit Week
allowed me to use my creativity to promote CSMR.

8. My Contribution
 I contributed several ideas for the advertising and
execution of “Spirit Week.” My ideas included
themes for each day of the week, ways to reward
patients, strategies to get patients involved, and
advertising the event. Flyers were created to post
around the clinic. I displayed the events of the week
on the clinic’s whiteboard for patients to see. I
promoted the events to the patients that visited the
clinic. I also helped facilitate a competition for the
patients. As a staff team, we were able to execute all
of “Spirit Week” and have fun with our patients!

9. This is a picture from
“Inside Out Day.” The
staff team of CSMR
dressed as the main
characters from Disney
Pixar’s “Inside Out.”
Many patients
participated with their
own interpretations of
the theme.

10. Thoughts for the Future
 This project is one of my favorite memories of my
internship, but there are a few things I would have done
differently. I would have liked to start marketing the
event much earlier in the month. This way, patients
would have had time to prepare for the themes and grow
in excitement. I wanted to add several other activities for
patients to participate in, but because of the nature of the
work setting, it was difficult to do this. In the future, I
think this could be done if there is ample time for
planning. Another idea to appreciate the patients is a
letter from the staff team, which could be done in the
future with proper preparation.