Giving Back
Since joining PNWU’s School of Physical Therapy, Assistant Professor Dr. Michael Blizniak has harnessed his passions and blue collar roots to care for some of Yakima’s most vulnerable community members.
I grew up about thirty minutes east of Buffalo, New York, in the small town of Marilla, home of a general store, volunteer fire department, and about ten cows for every one person.
Growing up, I played many school sports and had a job roofing with my dad on the weekends. I learned the value of hard work right away and the toll years of physical labor have on the body. Most of my dad's coworkers had aches and pains all over and "put up with the pain" to make it through. I was always curious if there was a way to help ease the suffering of my working-class community.
Choosing physical therapy as a profession was a natural fit.
Ithaca College offered a chance to swim and attend physical therapy school a couple of hours from home. I constantly reflected on my roofing days when learning anatomy, orthopedics, and patient communication skills. I merged my new clinical skills and childhood empathy while helping patients on my clinical rotations. After graduating, I moved to Seattle to pursue outdoor recreation activities and advanced clinical skills with the North American Institute of Orthopaedic Manual Therapy.
“I was always curious if there was a way to help ease the suffering of my working-class community. ”
I came to Yakima with over ten years of clinical experience in rural Washington and Oregon settings. My amazing wife Hailey Blizniak, ARNP, and I moved here in 2018 to complete her residency and HRSA loan repayment programs at the Yakima Valley Farmworkers Clinic.
I worked clinically in a local outpatient clinic and recognized the similar postures, stories, and musculoskeletal impairments I saw at home.
The Yakima Valley has a tremendous need for more physical therapists to help the large agricultural workforce. At PNWU, I immediately had the opportunity to pursue my dream of teaching others the skills I once learned to help give back to the community that gives us so much.
PNWU's mission to help improve the health of the rural and medically underserved communities was also a natural fit.
“The Yakima Valley has a tremendous need for more physical therapists to help the large agricultural workforce.”
Since signing on as a faculty member for PNWU’s new School of Physical Therapy (SOPT), and with the assistance of our founding Director of the SOPT, Dr. Peggy Trueblood, PT, Ph.D., we received a Move Together Grant that allowed us to purchase a small amount of exercise equipment to outfit a PT clinic at Yakima Union Gospel Mission (YUGM) Medical Care Center, Washington’s largest free healthcare clinic for the uninsured. I have seen patients one day a week with the fabulous interprofessional staff at YUGM, and continued to be humbled by the well-orchestrated volunteer organization.
The treatments at YUGM are not uncommon. I’ve treated countless patients with the common musculoskeletal conditions I see, including shoulder, knee, and spinal impairments. What is uncommon is the extraordinary path our patients often take to receive care.
YUGM’s free clinic provides the Yakima Valley’s most vulnerable uninsured working population a last chance to access the rehabilitative care they need to work again. Our primary patient population includes uninsured agriculture workers, many of whom have been injured while working in the agriculture fields or warehouses and denied proper opportunity to fully rehabilitate or receive the necessary surgical care they need from the labor and industry system.
“What is uncommon is the extraordinary path our patients often take to receive care.”
Additionally, Yakima's large, underinsured population lacks adequate physical therapy care. Historically, few providers in town accept Medicaid insurance, and long wait times to access therapy with few treatment sessions covered add up to limited overall access.
To help meet the mission, I am advancing my skills by pursuing a Ph.D. in Health Professions Education at Rocky Mountain University. I plan to research health disparities, specifically learning more about how health outcomes are affected by our personal biases at the intersection of the clinician and the patient.
How can we improve our bias awareness to have a better patient-clinician relationship?
What can we do to improve our curriculum to help increase our cultural competency? How can we create a safer practice space capable of helping our patients thrive?
YUGM offers an excellent opportunity to help improve access, and can provide our students with the invaluable expereince of serving the most vulnerable members of our community. I hope to continue to learn more through interprofessional collaboration in clinical practice, teaching, and scholarship to help our students be the best possible clinicians they can be.
I am honored to have the privilege to work with all of the fantastic providers at YUGM and PNWU to help infuse a sense of service-oriented, patient-centered, compassionate care to all of our students. We are just getting started, and I hope that one day we will have a Yakima Valley graduate from the SOPT run this clinic, and many more throughout the rural Pacific Northwest!
Dr. Michael Blizniak, PT, DPT, OCS, COMT, CSCS
Assistant Professor
Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences School of Physical Therapy (PNWU-SOPT)