When patients are admitted into an acute care setting, they tend to spend most of their time lying in a hospital bed. Days or weeks of inactivity can lead to muscle atrophy, weakened bones, and more serious complications such as blood clots and pneumonia. Research shows that getting patients up and moving early in their hospital stay can significantly reduce recovery times and healthcare costs. Unfortunately, few hospitals have the capacity to provide that level of personalized attention.

“Physical therapists come in once a day. But if a patient is a fall risk, they can’t get up and walk around on their own,” says Kelly Pesanelli, a senior lecturer of health science. “That’s where our mobility interns come into play.”

Last year, Pesanelli and Shelley Brown, program director and a clinical associate professor of health science, worked with Jenn Keenan, assistant dean of clinical education administration & community partnerships, and Karen Mattie, senior director of clinical operations at Boston Medical Center (BMC), to spearhead an innovative pilot that brought 13 health science and human physiology undergraduates to the hospital as mobility interns. Trained in Sargent’s Simulation Lab—which mimics a real clinical setting, with hospital beds, IV poles, and oxygen canisters—and at BMC, interns learned how to safely mobilize patients who were recovering from illness or surgery.

During the pilot, which ran from January through April 2023, Sargent interns completed 3,363 patient encounters, successfully mobilizing patients 1,506 times. In fact, 89 percent of patients met or exceeded their daily mobility goal and more patients were discharged to their homes instead of post-acute facilities during the program. “Our students got hands-on experience in a level-one trauma center and acute care hospital,” Pesanelli says. “It’s a perfect example of how we prepare students for the future by taking them out of the classroom and letting them apply what they’ve learned in the workplace.”

Our gift as interns is that we had the time to connect with patients and listen to their stories while helping them along in their healing process.

—Queenie Qiu (CGS ’21, SAR ’23)

Queenie Qiu was a human physiology major assigned to the medical-surgical floor. “Right after surgery, patients can be in a lot of pain, and they either have difficulty or don’t want to move,” says Qiu (CGS’21, Sargent’23). She recalls working with a patient in his 70s who was reluctant to get out of bed. As they got to know each other, the patient shared that he had once been an athlete and a fitness enthusiast, but that he had lost motivation after his wife’s death.

Qiu tapped into the patient’s competitive spirit and encouraged him in his mobility goal of standing for one minute. With Qiu by his side, the patient ended up standing for five minutes. “I was so glad to be his cheerleader for that moment in his journey,” she says. “Our gift as interns is that we had the time to connect with patients and listen to their stories while helping them along in their healing process.”

Now a medical assistant in the Pain Management Center at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Qiu says the experience changed the way she sees patient care. “Before, I was very much like, this is science. You figure out what’s wrong and prescribe medication,” she says. “Now, I believe it’s just as much about the patient’s mindset and a holistic approach to patient-centered care that really makes an impact.”