Show Notes:
What does it take to move ICU rehab forward — and who’s leading the charge?
In this episode, co-hosts Dr. Leo Arguelles and Dr. Daniel Young sit down with Dr. Monica Silva Damasceno (MD Anderson Cancer Center) and Dr. Vinh Tran (University of New Mexico) — two clinicians who shared the stage at CSM’s ICU Rehab panel alongside Dale Needham, Jen Ryan, and Chris Wells.
Together, they unpack what’s changing in critical care physical therapy — from dismantling barriers and writing mobility into unit culture, to building true interprofessional collaboration that lasts beyond a single champion.
Monica shares her journey from Brazil to Houston Methodist’s Critical Care Fellowship, and how mentorship shaped her vision for ICU practice. Vinh reflects on his path from cardiac medicine to academia, bridging implementation science with bedside experience.
The conversation highlights the power of structure, communication, and persistence in advancing early mobility — especially in smaller hospitals where “doing more with less” is a daily reality.
Today’s Guests:
Monica Damasceno PT, DPT, CCS
monicasdapt@gmail.com
linkedin.com/in/monica-silva-damasceno-pt-dpt-ccs-03989965
Vihn Tran PT, DPT, PhD, CCS
https://www.linkedin.com/in/vinh-tran-169015200/
Guest Quotes:
15:25 Vihn “ I agree in the shorter duration just because by necessity, if they're in the ICU, they're medically unstable, right? So you're limited on how aggressive you can be, although I do think we can be more aggressive than the average person thinks. So yeah, I think that seems reasonable to, to shorter sessions, but perhaps more frequently. With a caveat that there is potential out there to do longer sessions in certain really niche or precise circumstances.”
20:24 Advice for those therapists that working like the smaller kind of rural community hospitals that wanna kind of make a dent and or wanna start implementing more ICU rehab?
Vihn “ ..really, it's not just a PT or rehab driven process, right. Like we in rehab can just flick a switch and all of a sudden this happens. It requires an extensive amount of collaboration between providers, nurses, techs, your own staff, your equipment managers. Everyone needs to be on board with what the overall aim is. So in order to really get the ball rolling first to me, like identify champions in, in allied communities. So whether it's a nursing manager that potentially sees the value in early mobility, perhaps it's a Mutually beneficial relationship where we can provide higher quality therapy or an earlier timeframe. At the same time, we can relieve some of the mobility tasks that nursing might have to do or help them do it in a more safe aspect.”
Monica “ ..having an agreement with your team and having the the champions. One from or multiple people from different groups, a doctor, nurses, and then have a plan of what you see for your unit in the future with this, those people, and create your practices like every day. Cultivating that practice of mobility and encouraging and helping each other.”
29:06 Monica “ one of the strategies to try to encourage more mobility is asking. What is the mobility plan during the rounds? Any rounds you have to have an answer. Then, then you think about mobility.”
Rapid Responses:
What's your go-to karaoke song?
Monica: “it is Mariah Carey. It's song Mariah Carey. Always Mariah Carey. Yeah. Any song that I can find? Mariah Carey. Which is the hardest to sing. Can you imagine talking about the scales there?
Vihn: I’m from St. Louis and I love Nelly, so I just gotta go with Nelly.”
You know you work in acute care when…
