Exploring Our Future

Something is always lost in translation when you summarize a summary.  But I intend to try.  On Saturday I had the honor of attending and presenting in Emory University's "Exploring the Future of Physical Therapy Symposium."  We set out to bridge and contextualize two seminal APTA events, the Physical Therapy and Society Summit(PASS) and the Vitalizing Practice Through Research and Research Through Practice(VRTP) Conference.  The symposium though not officially sanctioned by APTA was certainly peopled with many of its luminaries.  Similarly to PASS, at which I was the youngest PT in attendance, I was surrounded by NIH grantees, journal editors, and progressive thinkers from academia and the clinic.


Emory's event built upon and went beyond past efforts.  PASS imagined the future.  VRTP established strategic goals.  On Saturday, with the help of an APTA lobbyist straight from D.C. and with the Chief Disability and Health Officer from the CDC, we began to compare the current state of affairs with our goals as a profession.  To borrow from Capitol Hill, this was a big "frickin" deal... ahem.  (Not bad for what was initially a simple Alumni weekend and Foundation Fundraiser.)

Exploring the Future was about initiating change in the PT world.  Ivory towers, silos, bloated curricula, exorbitant debt, disconnected scientists, and disinterested clinicians were all on the chopping block.  The audience was engaged and asked to reflect on how change can happen and where change is needed.  Topics ranged from ACOs to regenerative medicine to innovative co-pay incentivization schema.  Comments ranged from "Translational clinicians need to be honored within APTA." to "If you don't donate to the Political Action Committee, at least marry a congress person."  

The seemingly obligatory product of Symposiums these days is the White Paper.  While such a paper is in fact forthcoming, there was a strong call throughout the event to take action beyond the keyboard.  Hopefully bloggers are granted free license in this regard.  No blog of any readable length could do this day long event justice.  So I want to share a personal perspective that grew out of PASS and was strengthened over the weekend.

Physical therapists must come to lead community initiatives.  Our skill set has expanded in many helpful areas but the need for our skill set has exponentially out accelerated that growth.  Patient demographics have become population statistics.  As clinicians, researchers, and just professionals, our reach needs to extend further now than ever.  My personal mission, having attended PASS and presented in Exploring the Future as young leader, is to promote a skill acquisition model for leadership development within APTA.  The sooner we identify the societal needs of 2020 and beyond, the better we will be able to "skate to where the puck will be" by preparing our clinicians and leaders to meet those challenges.  Where do you think the puck is going?


cheers,
Ben

Specializing

Firstly, obvious congrats to Ben for the nomination and all things moving forward.

Now my question to all of you... why specialize?

I will be taking my OCS exam, Ben will be taking his NCS and I know a few of the other NP's have already taken one of the specialist exams.
As NP's is it too soon or just the right time to etch out a specialty?
The field that we are in is so broad and diverse it can create a jack of all trades and a master of none situation. For me it was a simple choice because ortho/sports is where my passions lie and are so interspersed (plan to do SCS at some point). I am taking it to force me to sharpen my knowledge base and hopefully serve to make me more marketable in an otherwise saturated NYC market.
I am very curious what all your experiences have been. Has it made you more marketable? Did it actually help sharpen your skill set or was it just an affirmation of what you already knew?
The SCS is the only way a PT can legally (to my knowledge, or also having your ATC) cover sporting events on the sideline, has anyone taken advantage of that? Do other specialties provide you with other 'benefits'?
What was your approach for studying (obviously very personalized question, but good info for us in this boat)?

I apologize for just asking a lot of questions but I feel like this is the right group to ask and hopefully this will stimulate some good convo...
GO!

The Fountain of Youth

Unfortunately, I have nothing new to report on the election front. Stay tuned! But I have been ruminating on a blog for quite some time. You lucky readers, you.

I was reminded of the idea tonight when suggesting a continuing education course about the impact an overweight population has on the practice of physical therapy. By this, I do not mean "bariatric physical therapy". Bariatric PT is a great specialty, or would be, if the APTA made it one. I could easily digress into why it should be a specialty alongside Prevention, Metabolic Regulation, and Community Centered PT, but that is not what's calling me tonight.

Tonight I just wanted to point out the fountain of youth. We've all seen it. It's the short one, the one next to the taller one that we all tend to drink from. So yes, I'm talking about water fountains. Stay with me here and feel free to point out wheelchair accessibility, biomechanical issues, and the vertically challenged, if you absolutely must. But the point I'm trying to make is that, when given a choice between an easy option and a minutely more difficult one, we tend to take the easier of the two.

I won't argue that you burn more calories by stooping for the lower water fountain. But I will say that a conscious, symbolic dedication to a more effortful why of doing things would help lessen our societal waistband. Am I wrong? It's not that people are lazy necessarily. I think it's the same poetic sensibility inherent to our brain's motor planning ability. We don't think about it. We just see, and take, the path of least resistance. A brilliant strategy for the serengeti, less so for a perpetual office safari. Perhaps there is a time to tell our clients, "Work harder not smarter!"

But exerting more effort will only get our society so far. Many people have dealt with weight related musculoskeletal issues so long, their anatomy no longer responds typically to stressors. And then they have their stroke, COPD diagnosed, diabetic event, heart attack, fall, car crash, or come to Jesus moment. That's where we come in. Except, wouldn't it be great to have prevented it all in the first place? To slap the proverbial Big Gulp out of their hand ages ago? To push for the short fountain while the short fountain was still an option? I think so. Where do you stand and where does your state measure up?


Cheers,
Ben

A challenging situation and a dangerous subject matter

I imagine some of the other NPs out there have more experience on this one than I do. I've been with the same employer for going on 4 years, ever since I graduated. So now I'm weighing my options and considering moving to a different company. How on earth do you discretely have conversations with your potential "next" employer when you're at work 8:30-5? I have a 30 minute lunch break, a student, and about zero privacy. Don't get me started on my utter lack of paid time off, in the event I actually make it to the interview stage. Does one call in sick? Schedule a day off without explanation? Lie? I have a knee-jerk, honesty response which could get me in trouble soon. Not to mention there are all sorts of inadvisable things about writing this type of blog in the first place.

I see the risks of putting this information out on the interwebs. I'm banking on the benefits outweighing those risks. But in fact, I'm happy to report it's getting a bit more treacherous! The Move It Blog is up to 75 visitors and counting. It's even getting some attention from APTA staff, and no, not just my ex-roommate ;o)

My philosophy is that we are in an age where there is no sense in not having a commonality of resources and shared experiences. I love being a PT, especially a neuro-PT! I take the opportunities before me for advancing my clinical expertise and trying to foster leadership cred, but that isn't always enough. As New Professionals, we have unique stressors. I would like to think that this blog will eventually give voice (and not just my own) to remedies for, or at least ways to handle, that kind of stress.

Something that would help me would be a periodically updated list of PT negotiation skills and advice for job hunting in a depressed economy. Any know any? ... Bueller?

Back to the resumé ~ ben

An expert profession versus a profession of experts

One of the themes from the NCS prep course was that expert clinicians run towards difficult patients not away. Embracing challenge was touted as a sign of excellence. Over the next few days that theme jumped out in a number of other talks. Interestingly, some of the parallels were not actually linked to clinical skills. Specifically, I attended Incubating Innovation which was about coming up with new ways of solving problems, thinking laterally, and overcoming barriers. The thought occurred to me that in some ways we are our own barrier. Specialization in physical therapy is coming and it’s a wonderful thing! But the challenge we face as a profession is to specialize ‘smarter’ than the MDs.

This means two things to me:
1) We should strive to address emergent, growing health issues by “cutting them off at the pass” (i.e. obesity, diabetes, sedentary lifestyle).
And 2) We should focus our expertise around symptom complexes and the skills necessary to address a given constellation of impairments (i.e. bariatrics, metabolic syndrome, community-centered, activity-based wellness).

Our current system, through the APTA/ABPTS, is superb at imparting knowledge but is far from svelte. Where is our Prevention specialty? How about Obesity? Metabolic syndrome? These demographics are where we, as a profession, should be running! PTs should own obesity. We should champion prevention!

Perhaps I’m naïve. Perhaps the profession would go bankrupt because no one is paying us to move in that direction yet. But I am willing to bet that our market share, public image, and evolving skill set would be larger, better, and more relevant if we take ourselves there, instead of being led.


We are the movement experts. We should tackle the hardest, most prevalent movement disorders within our scope of practice. Here’s the exciting thing, everyone moves. And movement, framed as exercise or not, changes gene expression and brain structure. We have the capacity help these people change who they are, mentally and physically, for the better, just by doing what we love to do. Our depth of knowledge puts us in a position to have a significantly impact societal needs, if we rise to proactively meet the challenge.

Sweet, sweet (frustrating) simplicity

So, seemingly HR thought better of approving my qualifications. I received today what appeared to be the negative counterpart to their original communication. Rather than confirming that I met the minimum job requirements, this one disputed that prior assertion. No explanation, no personalization, just a recantation. Go figure. I will chalk it up to a second read through by a less open-minded reviewer. (That, or they are one of the dozen or so people to read my blog in the last few weeks.)

Well, It never hurts to take a long shot, well, maybe a little. :o) I'll be prepping for CSM in the next 7 days and hope to post some new hopes before my departure.

Cheers and let me know if anyone has had a similar experience!

Ben