Hand Therapy for Rock Climbers

Saturday, September 7, 2024


9:00 am - 10:00 am

Pacific Time

Duration: 1 Hour
CEU Credit: 1

Presenter: Emily Hartnett

Topic: Tailoring our expertise in upper extremity rehabilitation to meet the unique needs of a specific community: rock climbing

Learning Objectives:

  • Identify and intervene with common injuries sustained by a rock climber
    • A question I get often (and had in the ASHT podcast) is, “What are the mechanics that lead to climbers’ overuse injuries?”
  • Identify when something is within my realm as a therapist, and when I should consult my peers for collaboration
    • On a different podcast I was asked, “Do I have to climb to be a good CHT?”
    • Absolutely not. But lets build a network so you can identify a CHT who does climb, or who does knit, etc. for you to collaborate with to facilitate best practice.
  • Utilize my other occupations to complement my work occupation.
    • We are all experts at something. How can we bring UE rehabilitation to our other communities, and how can we share this knowledge with our peers?
      • Teach the basics
      • Open up your network so you can collaborate with other medical professionals when they enter your field of expertise or when you enter theirs

My name is Emily Hartnett, I graduated with a Masters in OT in January of 2019 and immediately began putting in my clinic and study hours to pursue my CHT, which I obtained in 2022.

About one year into my career, I noted a gap in knowledge within my leisure- occupation community: rock climbing. I returned to my Alma Mater, Quinnipiac University, in August of 2020 to pursue my OTD and completed my thesis on an orthosis I fabricated specifically for rock climbers.

Today, I practice in my clinic, Hands And Rock-climbing Therapeutic Network, LLC, and advocate heavily through outlets such as this one for the rehabilitation of rock climbers. I run a blog which receives its topics from my clinic’s Instagram thus keeping a client- focus, I have a second office inside of a rock climbing gym thus keeping an environment- focus, I engage in monthly Zoom calls with other Rock-climbing medical professionals to upkeep and increase my education (so far we have two PTs, a dietician, and an OT student!), and I seek opportunities such as this one and the ASHT podcasts and conferences to engage with my CHT peers.

My goal is not necessarily to prepare the whole world to treat rock climbers, but rather bring awareness to niche communities and encourage medical professionals to delve into communities and apply their expertise to said community to promote more client- focused or community- focused health and wellness. I like to share my story of combining my two worlds of hand therapy and rock climbing in hopes that other people will do similar. The goal of this presentation is to share common diagnoses and interventions I see in my clinic to prepare you to treat a climber should one walk into your clinic, provide you with a resource (me  ) should you see several climbers or several less common climbing diagnoses in your clinic, and provide a rough draft of what it looked like for me to build a hand therapy practice around a niche community I happened to have expertise in.

Register for Webinar Here

Rules for 2024. In order to earn CEU credits:

  • You must be a paid up 2024 HTA-CA member
  • Attended the Event (logged into the Zoom webinar) for at least 85% of the run time
  • Complete the quiz with a score of 80% or higher

Not a member? Check out the Benefits and  Join HTA-CA Here!

**This webinar will be recorded. If you are not able to attend live, please register anyway and we will email you a link to the recording after the event. All members need to complete the post-session quiz in order the receive the CEU. Make sure that the correct contact information and credentials are entered in the registration and quiz. Thank you!**