{"id":2090,"date":"2018-01-09T21:36:47","date_gmt":"2018-01-09T21:36:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fitpt.fitbux.com\/?p=2090"},"modified":"2020-06-30T19:03:44","modified_gmt":"2020-06-30T19:03:44","slug":"ten-things-learned-in-my-first-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fitbux.com\/fitpt\/interviews\/ten-things-learned-in-my-first-year\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Things I Learned In My First Year As A Physical Therapist"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Dr. Meghan Wieser, PT, DPT<\/em><\/p>\n

Now this may not be an exhaustive list but there are a great deal of things I\u2019ve learned over this past year through personal reflection, passion, and the outstanding drive to pursue my own excellence that will far surpass anything I learn in a continuing education course. Here\u2019s the part where I tell you about a few of these things:<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> You have about 3 minutes to make a first impression on someone \u2013 make it a welcoming and charming one.<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> What you say\/do is often much less important to a patient than\u00a0how<\/u><\/em>you say\/do things.<\/p>\n

3.<\/strong> You can memorize all the statistics and randomized controlled trials you want but if you can\u2019t talk to a patient like they\u2019re a human being, you will go nowhere in your career \u2013 patients don\u2019t care about the statistics on the study you read last night. They want a care provider they can trust and enjoy being around, and someone who will go above and beyond for them.<\/p>\n

4.<\/strong> Patients don\u2019t care if you have the alphabet soup after your name \u2013 they want you to help them and they are looking for someone who genuinely cares.<\/p>\n

5.<\/strong> The power of human touch, whether a patient needs aggressive manual therapy or not, can go a long way\u2026I\u2019m not saying massage everyone that comes in your door [far from that] but there are certain patients who benefit from gentle soft tissue work. Make it up if you need to — there\u2019s actually research out there that shows you can really tap into the nervous system and decrease pain\/stress just by putting your hands on someone\u2014doesn\u2019t always have to be a fancy technique you learned in a weekend course.<\/p>\n

6.<\/strong> Don’t ever underestimate how much patient education you\u2019ll have to provide.<\/p>\n

7.<\/strong> You don\u2019t always have to dumb things down for a patient \u2013 I know some of us are taught to use layperson terminology \u2013 which I agree with to a certain extent\u2014but if you take the time to explain the anatomy briefly to\u00a0the right patient<\/em>they might truly appreciate it [notice I said\u00a0the right patient<\/u><\/em>\u00a0\u2013 that’s a different story for a different day]<\/p>\n

a.<\/strong> Small caveat to this one – learn to provide education in a manner that does not promote a fear-mongering behavior\/beliefs in that patient<\/p>\n

b.<\/strong> E.g. intervertebral discs to that of a jelly donut \u2013 those things are fragile as hell!! The human body is STRONG, don\u2019t instill the idea that jelly is going to squirt out of your patient\u2019s spine if they bend down slightly to tie their shoes.<\/p>\n

8.\u00a0<\/strong>In the outpatient setting, the evaluation process is ongoing and should include every visit.<\/p>\n

9.<\/strong> Where you think it is it ain\u2019t \u2013 look at other joints\/body parts aside from the site of pain because more often than not, the painful area isn\u2019t the actual cause of the mechanical issue.<\/p>\n

10.<\/strong> If you love what you do, your patients will be able to tell \u2013 and they\u2019ll love you for it.<\/p>\n

I hope some of this was helpful – or at least thought provoking to some of you. I could probably name 100 more things but these have been the most prominent in my mind.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Dr. Meghan Wieser, PT, DPT Now this may not be an exhaustive list but there are a great deal of things I\u2019ve learned over this past year through personal reflection, passion, and the outstanding drive to pursue my own excellence that will far surpass anything I learn in a continuing education course. Here\u2019s the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2105,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[87],"yoast_head":"\n10 Things I Learned In My First Year As A Physical Therapist - FitPT<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ten things a new grad physical therapist learned the first year after graduation.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fitbux.com\/fitpt\/interviews\/ten-things-learned-in-my-first-year\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"10 Things I Learned In My First Year As A Physical Therapist - FitPT\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ten things a new grad physical therapist learned the first year after graduation.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.fitbux.com\/fitpt\/interviews\/ten-things-learned-in-my-first-year\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FitPT\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-01-09T21:36:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-06-30T19:03:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cindy Hon\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.fitbux.com\/fitpt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Top-10-things-to-know-Post-Graduation.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Cindy Hon\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fitbux.com\/fitpt\/interviews\/ten-things-learned-in-my-first-year\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fitbux.com\/fitpt\/interviews\/ten-things-learned-in-my-first-year\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Cindy Hon\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fitbux.com\/fitpt\/#\/schema\/person\/4c771e385082b36f38ed066897a8b2cc\"},\"headline\":\"10 Things I Learned In My First Year As A Physical Therapist\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-01-09T21:36:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-06-30T19:03:44+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fitbux.com\/fitpt\/interviews\/ten-things-learned-in-my-first-year\/\"},\"wordCount\":563,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fitbux.com\/fitpt\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"DPT Student Loans\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Interviews\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.fitbux.com\/fitpt\/interviews\/ten-things-learned-in-my-first-year\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fitbux.com\/fitpt\/interviews\/ten-things-learned-in-my-first-year\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.fitbux.com\/fitpt\/interviews\/ten-things-learned-in-my-first-year\/\",\"name\":\"10 Things I Learned In My First Year As A Physical Therapist - 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