Dr. Stacy Fisher Honored with Award of Excellence in Academic Education from the American Physical Therapy Association
While the wound care specialty is relatively unknown within the world of physical therapy, Dr. Stacy Fisher has made it her mission to change that.
“Wound care is one of the smallest, most close-knit groups in physical therapy,” she said. “There also aren’t many options to pursue wound care after graduation because there isn’t much interest collectively throughout our industry.”
Dr. Fisher, an Associate Professor in the Touro University Nevada School of Physical Therapy, was recently honored with the Award of Excellence in Academic Education from the American Physical Therapy Association’s (APTA) Academy of Clinical Electrophysiology & Wound Management.
Dr. Fisher was one of two award winners in a cohort of 500 physical therapists from across the country. Of the 95,000 APTA members representing 21 specialties, only 500 physical therapists belong to the Academy of Clinical Electrophysiology & Wound Management.
That represents just .005 percent of APTA’s total membership.
“I am proud that our national association has recognized Dr. Fisher for the exceptional skills she brings to our students,” said Dr. Michael Laymon, Director of the School of Physical Therapy. “Her commitment to teaching our DPT students the importance of wound care will enhance their knowledge as future physical therapists and will benefit our profession as a whole.”
Dr. Fisher became wound care certified in 2020, partly for herself but mostly because she wanted to be as current on her education as she could for her students.
“Every patient you interact with has skin,” she said. “We need to understand the dynamics of the skin. It’s the largest organ in the body.”
Dr. Fisher said she’s noticed an increase in interest among Touro’s physical therapy (PT) students wanting to pursue wound care as a specialty. She currently teaches wound care management to PT students and takes them on rotations so they can gain more experience in the field.
“It was a tremendous shock when I found I won the Award of Excellence. I nearly fell out of my chair,” she said with a laugh. “But I don’t do this for the awards. I do this for our students, the next generation of clinicians who benefit from this education. Even if just one student chooses to go into wound care, that’s one more student helping the populations who desperately need it.”
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