Recently, we celebrated a holiday to honor those men and women who have served our country. But for those who work with our retired soldiers and pilots, everyday is Veterans Day.

Katie Neaves, 21, works as an intern at the Tuscaloosa Veterans Affairs Medical Center – commonly referred to as “the VA.”

“It’s where the veterans go,” Neaves said.  “[The VA] has every single field. They have physical therapy, normal practitioners, there’s an eye doctor… there’s everything you can go to.”

In honor of Veterans Day, Neaves said the hospital closed – except for the inpatients and the emergency room. Celebrations included a parade, trivia and other games for inpatients to enjoy and participate in.

“There were American flags from McFarland Blvd. all the way to the Veterans Hospital,” Neaves said.

Neaves began working at the VA in the beginning of September because one of her classes – Internship Field Placement for Pre-Professional Fitness – requires her to work at a hospital to gain hands-on experience.

“The only two hospitals around are DCH and the Veterans Hospital,” Neaves said. “I thought it would be cool to work at the VA because one of my grandfathers was in the marines and the other one served as a pilot. It’s nice to give back in a way that I can.”

This class is required for students who have a focus in exercise and sports science with a concentration in pre-professional studies in fitness. Twice a week, Neaves spends her day in either the outpatient physical therapy clinic or the inpatient physical therapy clinic.

“I really like the inpatient clinic,” Neaves said. “We [work with] stroke patients and they’ve typically been in a bed for two weeks – they’re not able to function really at all and we have to get them up and walking.”

Day-to-day operations include shadowing an assigned physical therapist around the hospital, helping with patients, and observing exercises that the physical therapists do with their patients.

Michelle Dunn is a physical therapist at the VA. Both of Dunn’s parents served, and she says this is her way of giving back to her country and thanking those who have served. She typically works in the inpatient physical therapy clinic, and is one of the several physical therapists Katie shadows. 

“When I work with Katie, she follows me around, and I try to educate her as we go,” Dunn said. “I tell her about our patients, and about how and why I’m treating them the way that I am. I try to give her a good appreciation for the job of physical therapy. You want to make sure this is what you want to do before you go through all of the schooling.”

Neaves said inpatients typically stay for two to three weeks depending on their treatments. She said she enjoys watching patients recover from their injuries and walk out of the hospital, healthy.

“Just today there was a guy who had a double hip replacement and he gave me a huge hug when I got there,” Neaves said. “He goes, ‘I get to go home Friday!’ He was so excited. He was walking, he was doing all of his functions normally, and it was so exciting to see a guy who had both hips replaced walk out of there.”