Cross Town Splint Off

Context

Students had no hands-on comfort with splinting materials.

As marketing lead for St. Elizabeth’s Hand Therapy service line, I worked closely with the clinical team day to day. Occupational and physical therapy students often reached clinical placements with no hands-on comfort using splinting materials. These are tools that harden within minutes and demand confidence the moment they touch a real patient. So Meg Robinson, a St. Elizabeth occupational therapist and certified hand therapist, and I built a friendly competition to fix it.

Action

A two-school rivalry that grew into a three-school tradition.

Together, we planned, organized, and created the Cross-Town Splint Off starting in 2012, developing the competition concept, rules, judging criteria, and every year’s campaign materials, from invitations and posters to press releases and trophy design.

What launched as a two-school rivalry between Mt. St. Joseph’s Physical Therapy and Xavier’s Occupational Therapy programs grew into a three-school tradition once the University of Cincinnati’s PT program joined in 2014. We introduced new formats to keep it evolving each year, including a live head-to-head build challenge and an inter-school trivia competition.

Result

A recurring tradition that earned national recognition.

The competition became a recurring regional media moment for St. Elizabeth, covered by local news outlets and earning national recognition from the American Society of Hand Therapists. It grew steadily year over year, building a lasting rivalry between the participating programs.