My thoughts...

Becoming a Physical Therapist requires seven years of schooling to receive a doctorate degree, tons of volunteer, observation, and hard work to receive good grades in college, however, I believe it to be worth all the work. After seeing how great of an impact a therapist can have on a patient’s life through all my observations and research, I am inspired to do the same for others. It is amazing how far a therapist goes beyond their job description to help their patients and the families to achieve a better quality of life after an injury or unforeseen incident occurs in their life. Physical Therapists' values to care for others are shown in therapy when they listen to the patient’s needs and offer help in any aspect of their patients lives. Physical Therapy is a great career that allows the therapist to form bonds with their patients. You are able to witness first-hand the effect you are having on others through close observations and one-on-one patient care. While Physical Therapy is not for everyone, I highly encourage everyone interested in the career to pursue it after witnessing the patient/therapist relationship that forms throughout therapy through my observations this semester. I will continue to observe Physical Therapy with the intent of one day becoming a Physical Therapist myself.

What about other people?

In order to compare other people’s opinion on Physical Therapy to my own and my findings so far, I created a survey. I distributed my survey to a group of college students and asked them questions about Physical Therapy stereotypes, their own experience with Physical Therapy if they had any, and their thoughts on reasons for Physical Therapy. Out of everyone that completed my survey, 55% of the participants have never had Physical Therapy. Most participants knew very little about Physical Therapy. The results show that most people believe that Physical Therapists work mostly with athletes and injuries due to accidents. However, the overview of opinions on Physical Therapists is that they work very hard, go through a lot of schooling, and push their patients to do their best. Even though the majority have never actually experienced Physical Therapy first-hand and don’t fully understand the extent of it, they recognize the fact that Physical Therapists are very motivating and caring towards their patients. Out of all the students that have received Physical Therapy, 67% percent of them had a very positive experience in therapy and felt very welcomed and comfortable with their therapist. While Physical Therapy is not something that people want to have to go through, the therapists try to make it as enjoyable of an experience as possible and help their patients with everything possible. Based off the results from my survey, I have realized that while most people are aware of the amount of work and schooling required to become a Physical Therapist, they are unaware of the gratification that comes along with the career. By saying this, I hope my blog has inspired and encouraged others that Physical Therapy is totally worth the work!!!

Affective Connection

        When researching Physical Therapy, I found an academic source to verify everything that I observed and the other articles I had found earlier over the life-long bond that can form between young patients and their therapists. In “The physical therapist-patient relationship. Does physical therapists’ occupational stress affect patients’ quality of life?”, eight patient/ therapist pairs are observed to see what effect a Physical Therapist experiencing high levels of stress has on their patients. This article acknowledges the fact that Physical Therapists often have deeper relationships with their patients because “physical therapists treat their patients for an extended period of time” (Citation #1). In this investigation, some of the therapists were given stress by situations such as job structure and climate and then observed to see if their stress affected the quality of life of the patient they were treating. After 62 days, results showed that the therapists who received more stress from work had patients who were more likely to be depressed and psychologically worse. However, Physical Therapists that did not experience stress were more likely to be more involved in their patients care and their patients experienced happier and better quality of life than those with stressed therapists. While this article shows a negative correlation between the therapist and their patient, it suggests that a strong and affective relationship does exist Based on this experiment, it could be concluded that Physical Therapists have a great impact on the lives of their patients and can use that influence to positively affect the patient’s lifestyle. Why not spend your time becoming a Physical Therapist? I find it to be a great experience to have a profound impact on someone’s life rather than my own.

Where I've been & What I've seen

Based off weeks of observation and research of the community of Physical Therapists I have concluded…the role of a Physical Therapist goes beyond the role of healing the patient. By saying this, I mean that a Physical Therapist goes above and beyond in caring for the patient and their family. After finding the examples of  close bonds in Pediatric Physical Therapy through the articles I have researched, I decided to pay more attention to that same bond in my observations. While observing, I watched the Physical Therapist aide the patient and their families past the hour of therapy they attend each week. The therapists take time to get to know their patients and the family members of the patients in order to meet their needs the best way they know how. By the end of therapy, the patients are prepared to go out into the world and function as normally as possible. During my observations at Flower Mound Assisted Living Center, I observed a Physical Therapist treat an 80-year-old man. The patient went on and on about how excited he was to see the Physical Therapist and myself because he did not get many visitors and loved to talk. We walked around the nursing home on the outside sidewalk to test out his new walker. The patient said he loved to dance and could not find anyone in the home to dance with him and immediately grabbed me and sang to me as we danced. Seeing the joy that the therapist and I brought to him by simply being there and having conversations during his therapy was heartwarming. I found the therapists work to be worth it through just that one patient. It was so much fun to be able to interact with him and watch the therapist and him work. While the therapist had to make sure that the work/therapy was completed, it did not appear as work to me. It was very social and fun to be a part of and made me wish that school was that much fun! The second patient I observed at the Flower Mound Assisted Living Center was a 70-year-old woman. We found the patient in the game room playing cards with other patients and walked her back to her room to begin therapy. The patient had clothes laying on her bad that had just come out of the laundry and the therapist took the clothes, folded them, and put them away in their correct spot in the patients closet so that the patient could freely sit on her bed. While these may be small details to others, these small acts meant a great deal to the patients and went beyond the role of a Physical Therapist. Having even the slightest impact on someone else’s life makes all the work of becoming a Physical Therapist totally worth it!

Worth the Work

          I have grown up with the impression that Physical Therapists are caring, loving, and passionate about their careers because of what I have witnessed from my family. Even after my observations, I have developed a greater appreciation for Physical Therapists. However, I couldn’t base my opinion of the few people/clinics I have observed to the whole community of Physical Therapists. To prove that Physical Therapy is a gratifying career, regardless of all the work and education required, I researched a couple of popular articles on the patient/therapist relationship in Physical Therapy. The first article was a blog post, “The Physical Therapist's Guide to Successful Patient-Provider Relationships”. This blog is about making the patient more involved in their recovery. The blog says the best way to do this is through creating a relationship and trust between the therapist and the patient. The blog urges therapists to always ask and address the patients’ needs to keep the patient actively involved in their recovery. Physical therapists are given the job of aiding in a person’s recovery process. This means that as a Physical Therapist, you are able to watch a person slowly get better with the knowledge that you play a main part in their recovery. While seven years of college may be a lot of stress to endure, it is worth watching others return to their lifestyles, knowing you contributed. The second article, “The Physical Therapist- Patient Relationship Through the Years”, is about the impact a physical therapist can have on young patients such as children. Because Physical Therapy can be a long process, Pediatric Physical Therapists are given the opportunity to watch children grow up and fight their injuries and disorders. The relationship demonstrated in this article is like that of a parent/child relationship. The satisfaction in possibly changing a child’s life forever is incredible. My mother is still very close with the children she treated as a Pediatric Physical Therapist even now that the children are grown adults. She was given the opportunity to watch them grow up and develop into great young adults. Because of the amount of time therapists spend with their patients, and the connection they develop, I find Physical Therapy to be completely worth the work.