This week, we welcomed Dr. Alvin Tam, a physical therapist from the San Francisco Bay Area, to give us insight into physical therapy school and what working as a physical therapist is like. Here's a summary of our workshop:
To start, what is Physical Therapy?
The goal of physical therapy is to restore a person back to better physical health after a muscular-skeletal related injury or issue, often by prescribing certain exercises for the patient to perform.
About Dr. Tam
Dr. Tam told us that he wasn't a great student in high school or college until his junior year. It was his work after college that inspired him into becoming a PT. After working in a medical records company on the computer all day, at UPS, and as a medical transport, he realized he wanted a job where he could interact with people and help people who wanted to be helped and get better. He told us that the key to a good PT is that you must be compassionate.
Getting into PT School
The basics: a Bachelor's degree, the GRE exam, 200 volunteer hours (preferably a substantial amount in a PT clinic), and a 3.0 GPA overall
The core pre-reqs: statistics, psychology, anatomy, physiology, a year of gen chem, a year of gen physics, human bio, and sometimes abnormal psych
PT School
At PT school, the goal is to become an expert in musculoskeletal movement. You learn about surgery protocols, wound healing, neural anatomy and physiology (how does the brain affect movement), and statistical research (i.e. how effective are certain techniques and practices?). The first 1.5-2 years are focused on the fundamentals and gaining more knowledge. Clinical rotations start towards the end of the 2nd year into your third year and last about 7 months.
Working as a PT
As a PT, you have to decide on the exercises to help your patient, the modality with which you will use (i.e. ice, heating, parafilm, manual therapy), and how to educate your patient on what's causing the pain and how PT will help.
3 common fields for PTs:
In Patient: typically in the hospital, geared towards treating patients after surgeries like hip or knee replacements, or paralyzed patients
the focus is on helping them regain their strength for basic movements like getting in and out of bed, walking, and going up and down stairs.
Out Patient: typically working with everyday people who were injured at work, during sports, and the like
the focus is on exercises for mobilization and gaining their strength back so that they can return to their daily life. Treatments are more varied and can be manipulated to better address different cases.
Home Health: typically working with people who cannot got to the clinic, such as older and weaker people or people with disorders
the focus is on improving strength and mobility so that they can go about their daily lives safely. This field is also the more lucrative field.
Q&A
What is the difference between Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy? A sports medicine physician and a physical therapist?
Occupational therapy deals more with the arms and hands-on, work-related activities. A occupational therapist helps a patient learn how to dress, shower, type, cook, etc.
A sports medicine physician usually doesn't see the patient or work with them on a regular basis. A PT sees the patient much more and is able to create a more specific plan to recovery.
What is the most challenging part of your work?
Sometimes, the doctor doesn't tell the patient the problem or is too vague, so the PT has to figure out the problem. PT work is sort of like detective work: you have to perform specific tests to find out the problem. PTs also have to manage emotions, whether it be working with resistant patients, figuring out what your patient likes and dislikes, and creating the optimal treatment for your patient. For kids, you have to make the exercises fun.
How has COVID affected your work?
Generally, there are more safety precautions and we limit the number of people at the clinic. Patients are usually more cautious, as are we, about sanitizing high-touch equipment.
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