HereComesEverybody

Motivation and Reward - Physical Therapy Career

2015-06-01T00:04:00.000-07:00

What motivates me to be a physical therapist is just that thank you note when somebody thanks you and gives you the big handshake, we helped them through a really difficult time in their life. That's why you wake up every morning and you rush to the office early and you work hard all day because you have a positive impact on a lot of people and that keeps me ticking.

Physical therapists have a great combination of salary and flexibility. We make a good, honest living; we’re not tied to our work 24 hours a day. We work hard when we're at the office and pretty much when you're done you rest up and get ready for the next day. We're not on email 24 hours a day and we have great flexibility so if you're an athlete you can run, if you're a reader you can read, there's a good balance between work and play.

Changes in the field of Physical Therapy

2015-05-10T23:54:00.000-07:00

The world of physical therapy is changing as we speak. More and more states have direct access which means patients can come directly to a physical therapist for a certain amount of care prior to seeing a physician. And the level of education as moved from a master's degree to a doctorate degree. Formally graduates of a physical therapy programs were granted a master's in physical therapy degree. Presently almost every program in the country has now a doctorate in physical therapy degree and the changes two to six months of additional education as part of that graduate program and it also allows the physical therapy community to have higher educated entry-level physical therapists.

The combination of direct access which essentially means easier access for patients to get physical therapy treatment and higher educated entry-level physical therapists and higher educated entry-level physical therapists allows more opportunities for the physical therapist and allows more opportunities for physical therapist to be involved in the rehabilitation of patients. These changes are great for the profession and allow more immediate access to physical therapy services for the patients that need them and it allows the physical therapist to have a stronger relationship with the physicians that refer patients to us.

Measurement of Success

2015-04-25T23:41:00.000-07:00

I measure my success in at least three ways, stability meaning I have a constant flow of patients. My business is busy enough that I'm not worried about the bank account. Flexibility, I'm able to have a certain amount of time with my family and my kids and enjoy myself outside of the practice and reputation. Within the referring community physicians are happy with my work and the success of their patients as well and just the number of referrals that I get from previous patients. That means that we're, myself and my staff we know we're doing the right thing we're doing good work.

Skills Required

2015-04-08T23:38:00.000-07:00

I think the characteristics that allow me to be a successful physical therapist are being a good listener. My professors taught me that to listen to your patients, they'll tell you what's wrong. I have a scientific mind so I try to apply the principles of science and what we call evidence based practice to the art of physical therapy and you have to be willing to use your hands to allow people to progress through their rehab but not hurt them at the same time.

A Few Truths about Physical Therapist

2015-03-23T23:37:00.000-07:00

The few drawbacks of a physical therapy profession are it's very physically demanding and there's multiple areas that you can work in but most of them involve some physical repetitious risk if you will. The second one is keeping up with the demands of reimbursement for your services. Third probably just you're responsible for people's well-being and that's always kind of sitting in the back of your head that when they're done with therapy you want them to be as good as possible.

Why I love this Career?

2015-03-08T23:21:00.000-07:00

Physical therapy is a good fit for me because I like to take care of people and although people are here for orthopaedic type injuries they need a little help just like everybody else. So sometimes making them work a little harder from a psychology stand point really what makes them better. It's not so much just the physical therapy. I am a good listener. My professors taught me listen to your patients they'll tell you what's wrong. I do you think scientifically. You have to be able to motivate patients through what is often one of the hardest things that'll ever go through in their life maybe a surgery or an accident, you have to be able to use your hands in a positive way so you can progress them but not hurt them.

The best part of my day as a physical therapist is when somebody walks in and says I'm getting better because often rehab and recovery is not a straight, linear progression. There's plateaus, there's disappointments, there's pain, there’s setbacks and so when they come in and they can see the light at the end of the tunnel and they know they're going to be better soon that really makes your day a good one.

People at Work and Workspace

2015-02-14T23:08:00.000-08:00

I spend the majority of my day with patients prior at least 80%, I spend maybe 10% or 15% of my day with my staff planning a little bit extra time with vendors or additional administrative duties. My daily interactions are with a mixed group of people. One of the things I love about my job as I get to meet people from all walks of life, professionals, young, old, athletes. I also have the opportunity to work with some of the great brains in the orthopaedic industry, orthopaedic surgeons, orthopaedic inventors, and pioneers in surgical techniques.

My physical therapy practice is about 2500 square feet. We’re in a business park in Newport Beach, California. So we're on the first level we have a small lobby upon entrance, reception to greet you and take care of the basic appointment staff. We have five private treatment rooms so I spend quite a bit of my time treating one patient after another. I have physical therapy assistance and other staff that helps me complete the process of educating and exercising the patients and using a variety of modalities to reduce pain and inflammation. We have a small but efficient gym space so people can exercise with supervision.

My PT Patients

2015-01-15T23:02:00.000-08:00

I had a high school water polo player just recently who was really on the verge of not being able to play due to severe shoulder pain. She was a collegiate potential athlete, scholarship athlete, who was really pretty bummed-out that she couldn't play to the intensity that she wanted to play and quite honestly she thought she may not play again. So she came in a bad place, couldn’t raise her arm, her hand really over her shoulder without some kind of pain. Not quite sure how she was playing water polo. So we reduce the inflammation in her shoulder, helped her regain the strength that she needed to play and more importantly we educated her on the process of how to take care for her shoulder preseason, in season and beyond the shoulder even. Training the core and training how to throw the ball properly so she would avoid such a future injury and the good news is that she did eventually get a full ride scholarship to the college of her choice.

One of my patients who's a self-employed business owner in the cleaning business, who's just a fitness fanatic, works out probably twice a day, 3 hours a day, was in a severe car accident and had been to multiple physicians with chasing the pain as we like to say and one doctor finally said have you came to physical therapist and she was a little hesitant to come in. She kind of pictured physical therapy being for old people and people that were of a much lower level of fitness that she was, but we allowed her to; physical therapy allowed her to get back to where she was. It was a slow process, she had lots of soft tissue injuries and through the process of therapeutic exercise and some mechanics training and ergonomics training and how to sit in her car properly, all reduced the stress of her injuries significantly and she was able to go back to working out.

Typical Work Week for Physical Therapist

2014-12-31T22:57:00.000-08:00

As an orthopaedic physical therapist I typically work on musculoskeletal type dysfunctions so that might be sciatica, someone who has pain in the leg, in the back, they feel weakness, they have a shooting pain that's going down their leg so we treat them for those symptoms and help them recover, a high school pitcher might have tendinitis in the shoulder and we would teach the athlete how to throw with reduced stress on the arm or improve the mechanics of the throw, decrease the inflammation so not only are we treating the athlete but we're preventing another injury. Golfer's elbow, tennis elbow, things that occur from just repetition, it's not so much that a trauma occurred, it's just that they did too much of something that they love.

My Rola as a Physical Therapist

2014-12-18T22:52:00.000-08:00

I help people recover from a myriad of different problems and dysfunctions from car accidents, sports-related injuries, trips and falls, lifting suitcases, walking the dog, people can get hurt doing just about anything and we help them get back to doing what they really love. It might be sports, it might be being able to hold and lift their child, it might mean driving, there's just a whole; everybody has a different goal and we help them reach those goals.

Studying Physical Therapy

2014-11-30T22:48:00.000-08:00

I think the biggest struggle for me on the road to becoming a physical therapist was there were some really difficult classes, physics, organic chemistry, and there's times when you take those classes and you’re looking at a C, C+ and you have to just dig deep and go okay if I want to be a physical therapist I got to put in the hours, I got to go talk to the professor, I got to get into a study group, I got to get through this with a high B or an to have a good shot at physical therapy. So there are sometimes that you have to buckle down and sacrifice to make it happen but I can tell you sitting here, it's worth it.

My journey to becoming a PT

2014-11-06T22:42:00.000-08:00

I think my work experience differentiated me from the pack just enough. I think most people have experience in more than one physical therapy setting and I think that’s more or less the minimum requirement so if you have some life experiences or if you have more than two experiences in the physical therapy setting or other medical settings, I think that's going to set you apart. I knew after speaking with many people in the physical therapy profession that I needed to do get experience in that profession as an entry-level student. So I embarked on a journey to complete that experience and it started in a more traditional way with being a PT aide and at a local PT practice and as I went through college I had many opportunities to do things that were related to medicine but not necessarily PT.

My experiences were varied I had a great opportunity to actually work as an autopsy assistant so I saw the highs and lows of life of course there and that gave me great anatomical perspective on the tolerances of the human body. I also volunteered in a orthotics and prosthetics laboratory and I worked at a hospital as a volunteer so that included everything from running charts and filing charts to seeing surgeries from afar, working with different medical professionals up close first-hand. So I think the more that you can diversify the better the chances that you’re going to gain acceptance into a graduate program.

I think my path to becoming a physical therapist was fairly conventional. I completed my college education, I got accepted into physical therapy school right away. There was the choice of waiting to go to a more prestigious school or getting into a school that was close and ready six months earlier so I chose to start earlier than versus taking a more established graduate program and I think working as a coroner's assistant was a little unconventional and maybe it helped me a lot.

Once you meet the requirements for a physical therapy license, getting a job is the easy part. You won't have to knock out a bunch of doors or send out five hundred resumes. It's more of just finding the right match between what you're looking for and what the employers looking for.

My Personal Advice

2014-10-25T23:59:00.000-07:00

My advice for somebody that wants to be a physical therapist is to get work experience, get practical hands-on experience in a local clinic, a local hospital, or some other setting that physical therapy is performed every day. And along the way gather some letters of recommendation and continue with the academic progress and make sure that physical therapy is right for you.

Physical Therapy Program and Schools

2014-10-12T22:33:00.000-07:00

To be a physical therapist you have to complete our an accredited physical therapy program, ten years ago when I went to school that was a master's degree in physical therapy. The modern equivalent is a doctorate in physical therapy, so upon completion of the program and passing of the state board exam, you are a physical therapist.

My bachelor's degree was in pre physical therapy kinesiology. Most applicants to physical therapy school have a science background because others that studied accounting, philosophy, or something like that and if so then they have to do a little bit more education and complete a variety of classes in a minimum requirement of science classes to be accepted into the graduate physical therapy program.
I think an ideal candidate for physical therapy school has completed the scientific courses required with above average grades. They also want to see a well-rounded student, they like to have multiple experiences in the world of physical therapy.

So for myself, I volunteered in a outpatient physical therapy practice, I volunteered at a hospital. They’re looking for a variety of experiences not only in the world a physical therapy but in other parts medicine because they want to make sure that you've chosen physical therapy as a career, a lifelong passion and you're not going to shift gears y midway through a graduate program thinking you want to be a dentist or a nurse or a PA or something in lieu of being a physical therapist. In addition I think schools they do require letters of recommendation, they require a personal statement of why you want to be a physical therapist and so I think the more well-rounded you are in your experiences in the world of medicine, even in the world of life. I know there was a number of people that I went to school with that were older than the typical applicant but they had great lifetime experiences academically and not academically that I think made them an ideal candidate to be a great physical therapist.

Going to College

2014-09-27T22:24:00.000-07:00

I went to college because I wanted to and it was step number one to the career path that I wanted to complete.
I chose my college mostly due to an agreement that I had with my father. At the fifth and youngest child two of my older sisters that already completed college and two were still enrolled in college and so it was a benefit all of us for me to stay close to home benefit to him financially at a benefit to me because I got a car of the deal.
My parents financed college for me. They worked very hard to provide an education so that was not a responsibility that I needed to burden myself.
In college I studied pre physical therapy, kinesiology. Upon graduation I had acceptance into physical therapy school, so at completion a PT school I took and passed the state board exam and immediately had a job as a physical therapist.

A Little Thing About Me - Why Physical Therapy?

2014-09-06T22:15:00.001-07:00

My name is Mary Hendricks, I'm a physical therapist and I've been doing this for 7 years. My dad was a professor of medicine and veterinary medicine. My mother is a retired librarian and travel agent.
My father was one of twelve children. He was the 10th and he was the first one to go to college and he got that opportunity through a football scholarship which he turned into a PhD. So he was passionate about all of his children getting a college education. He had no preference of what we chose to study or what we chose to do as a profession but it was pretty well known that you were going to go to college.
My high school experience was a good one. As a high school athlete, I had a good time on campus. I knew a lot of people from the various sports that I played so it was a pleasant social experience.

I feel very fortunate that I had good teachers even in junior high that made me realize I had certain academic strengths. I had to work hard but I could do well in school and so that allowed me to know kind of deep inside I can achieve what I wanted to achieve. Socially you get mixed up with that, sometimes you want to spend more time with their friends so I worked hard to balance my life so I could have fun socially, work hard in academics and also complete the sports that I wanted to complete. I was like above average student in high school. I wasn't the brightest in the class, I think I worked just hard enough to get solid B+’s, a few A’s I probably could have worked harder looking back but for me that came pretty naturally if I worked hard I could get a B+ or an A. I was never a natural at English or Literature, I was always drawn to the science, the sciences due to my genuine interest in that world. So I had to work a little harder in the non-scientific classes.

When I wasn't in class in high school I spent a lot of time with my friends. I had a really good friend who was an auto mechanic and I use to love watching him performance his craft. I like to spend a lot of time in the weight room kind of year-round preparing for the sports that I participated in.
Through some hardships I learned what I wanted to do for a living. I had a great opportunity through a couple injuries and surgeries and going through physical therapy the light bulb went on. I want to be a physical therapist or an orthopaedic surgeon and as it turned out I became a physical therapist.

University of Maryland

2013-10-06T03:19:00.000-07:00

School name: University of Maryland
Address: 8082 Baltimore Ave, College Park, MD
Phone: (301) 405-1000
Programs: entry-level Doctor of Physical Therapy degree & Ph.D. in Physical Rehabilitation Science.
Website: http://pt.umaryland.edu/default.asp
Youtube:http://www.youtube.com/user/UMMCVideos

University of Texas Medical Branch

2013-09-28T03:14:00.000-07:00

School name: University of Texas Medical Branch
Address: 301 University Blvd, Galveston, TX
Phone: (409) 772-1011
Programs: Entry Level DPT (DPT) & Post Professional DPT (t-DPT)
Website: http://shp.utmb.edu/PhysicalTherapy/
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/UTMBGalveston

University of Washington

2013-09-20T03:11:00.002-07:00

School name: University of Washington
Address: Seattle, WA
Phone: (206) 543-2100
Programs: Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) & Neurologic Physical Therapy Residency Program
Website: http://rehab.washington.edu/education/degree/pt/
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/uwhuskies