Dr. Siobhan O’Donnell is the Physical Therapy Assistant Unit Supervisor for Pediatrics at Tisch Hospital at NYU Langone Medical Center and Dr. Daniella Klein is a Senior Physical Therapist in the pediatric acute care setting. Dr. O’Donnell currently is working with the pediatric rehabilitation team at Tisch on the Early Mobilization Project in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. Her prior experience includes being a physical therapist at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, DC with specialties including care of burn and trauma patients and also working at St. Mary’s Hospital for Children in Bayside, NY. She has spoken nationally at the American Burn Association annual conference regarding burn survivor support in the pediatric population, and also in the United Arab Emirates. She obtained her ABPTS Board Certification in Pediatric Physical Therapy in 2016. A graduate of Columbia University, her doctorate in physical therapy is from Northwestern University.
Dr. Klein has been working at NYU Langone Medical Center for the past seven-and-one-half years. She has spent her career working in all areas of the acute care setting with both adult and pediatric patients with her primary focus in pediatric intensive care. She has worked on multiple performance improvement projects and most recently has been involved in the early mobilization initiative in the pediatric ICU. She received her Doctorate in Physical Therapy from Columbia University and has her certification in Neurologic Physical Therapy by the American Board of Physical Therapy Specialties.
In this interview, Dr. Klein and O'Donnell discuss early mobilization in pediatric intensive care, services provided by physical therapists in that setting, reasons why some patients might be excluded from receiving this kind of intervention, the importance of working with parents of children in the ICU, and how children and adults compare in that setting.