This past year, I sat for the LANA (Lymphology Association of North American) Certified Lymphedema Therapist Exam. For me, I wanted to take the exam so I could advance my lymphedema knowledge & practice. The LANA organization’s website has a great outline that covers testable content. As I was preparing for it, I was getting way too bogged down in the details of each section that I thought could possibly be pertinent for the exam. Frustrated, I turned to one of the lymphedema therapist Facebook group for some encouragement. Boy, am I glad I did that. Priscilla Santiago-Maldonado posted her strategies & tips for successfully preparing the LANA exam, & it totally changed my exam preparation.
4:08 What inspired Priscilla to take the LANA exam
6:04 Benefits of being a LANA-certified lymphedema therapist
6:54 Process of signing up for the LANA exam
9:02 Priscilla’s preparation for success
19:03 Priscilla’s suggestions/advice for LANA exam preparation
Priscilla’s Bio
Priscilla Santiago-Maldonado was born and raised in Puerto Rico. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Occupational Therapy from the University of Puerto Rico, Medical Science Campus back in 2004. She briefly worked in pediatrics, but ultimately ended up working with adults as a travel therapist. Priscilla has mainly worked in SNF and Home Health, and recently started working in Acute Care. She is currently living in Ft. Myers Beach, FL.
After working for a while, Priscilla found that she really enjoyed treating patients that required a lot of hands on techniques (soft tissue work, ROM, retrograde massage, mobilizations, etc). One thing led to another and Priscilla decided to take the CLT course through ACOLS in 2017. She immediately started seeing lymphedema patients as a Home health therapist, attended an NLN conference, got involved with several Lymphedema groups on Facebook and fell in love with this type of work. Priscilla unfortunately can’t always use her CLT as a travel therapist, but she believes the need in the travel world is going to start growing real soon, “fingers crossed.”
Interesting facts about Priscilla: she traveled around the world for 1 year in 2016 with her husband 🙂
Find Priscilla at p.santiago.dc@gmail.com.