Your Future As A Physical Therapist

Physical therapists have a deep knowledge of how the human body works, whether the patients are athletes, children, the elderly, or any of many others who need help with movement, strength, and flexibility. This comprehensive narrative guides readers through the options for choosing a physical therapy program, considering a workplace and specialization, and some of the specific challenges and rewards of the job. Featuring profiles of real-life professionals and tips and tricks for making the most of the job search and interview process, this inspiring volume gives aspiring physical therapists the tools they need to plan their careers.

The Preparation for the Professions Program by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching focused on education in five professions (clergy, law, engineering, nursing, and medicine), but its influence has been felt throughout higher education and has inspired other professions to turn a critical eye to their own pedagogy. Modeled after the Carnegie Foundation’s example, Drs. Gail Jensen, Elizabeth Mostrom, Laurita Hack, Terrence Nordstrom, and Jan Gwyer began an examination of the state of physical therapist education in the United States in their study, Physical Therapist Education for the Twenty First Century (PTE-21): Innovation and Excellence in Physical Therapist Academic and Clinical Education. With the same team of authors, Educating Physical Therapists documents this examination, detailing the key findings of the study and expanding on its implications. The text begins by looking at the current state of physical therapist education across the continuum, from professional education through residency, then continues by describing exemplars of excellence and best practices that were observed in academic and clinical settings. Through this survey of the profession, a conceptual model of excellence in physical therapist education is derived and presented with practical recommendations. Areas addressed: Elements that promote a culture of excellence Critical needs for advancing learning and the learning sciences Academic and clinical organizational imperatives The critical need for system-based reform Finally, after looking at the current state of physical therapy education, Educating Physical Therapists looks to the future, providing a reimagined vision for what professional education and the profession could be. These recommendations for growth come with commentary by international experts in physical therapy education, providing a wide range of perspectives. After an intensive examination of physical therapist education, Educating Physical Therapists is designed to change the way educators and administrators across academic and clinical settings prepare physical therapists for the future. From the Foreword... "The authors of this volume have much to teach us, and they have taught us well. We can accept their recommendations, or we can argue with them. To ignore them is impossible." - Lee S. Shulman, PhD, President Emeritus, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

Introduces the profession of physical therapy, including its history, tools, training programs, and areas of specialization.

Imagine an orchestra in your brain. It plays all kinds of harmonious melodies, then pain comes along and the different sections of the orchestra are reduced to a few pain tunes. All pain is real. And for many people it is a debilitating part of everyday life. It is now known that understanding more about why things hurt can actually help people to overcome their pain. Recent advances in fields such as neurophysiology, brain imaging, immunology, psychology and cellular biology have provided an explanatory platform from which to explore pain. In everyday language accompanied by quirky illustrations, Explain Pain discusses how pain responses are produced by the brain: how responses to injury from the autonomic motor and immune systems in your body contribute to pain, and why pain can persist after tissues have had plenty of time to heal. Explain Pain aims to give clinicians and people in pain the power to challenge pain and to consider new models for viewing what happens during pain. Once they have learnt about the processes involved they can follow a scientific route to recovery. The Authors: Dr Lorimer Moseley is Professor of Clinical Neurosciences and the Inaugural Chair in Physiotherapy at the University of South Australia, Adelaide, where he leads research groups at Body in Mind as well as with Neuroscience Research Australia in Sydney. Dr David Butler is an international freelance educator, author and director of the Neuro Orthopaedic Institute, based in Adelaide, Australia. Both authors continue to publish and present widely.

NEW! Updated content throughout the text reflects the current state of primary care and physical therapy practice. NEW! New chapter on electrodiagnostic testing helps familiarize physical therapists with indications for electrodiagnostic testing and implications of test results to their clinical decision-making. NEW! New chapter on patients with a history of trauma emphasizes the red flags that physical therapists need to recognize for timely patient referral for appropriate tests. NEW! Updated information on how to screen and examine the healthy population enhances understanding of the foundations of practice and the role that physical therapists can fill in primary care models.

M*A*S*H meets Scrubs in a sharply observant, darkly funny, and totally unique debut memoir from physical therapist Adele Levine. In her six years at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Adele Levine rehabilitated soldiers admitted in worse and worse shape. As body armor and advanced trauma care helped save the lives—if not the limbs—of American soldiers fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, Walter Reed quickly became the world leader in amputee rehabilitation. But no matter the injury, physical therapy began the moment the soldiers emerged from surgery. Days at Walter Reed were intense, chaotic, consuming, and heartbreaking, but they were also filled with camaraderie and humor. Working in a glassed-in fishbowl gymnasium, Levine, her colleagues, and their combat-injured patients were on display at every moment to tour groups, politicians, and celebrities. Some would shudder openly at the sight—but inside the glass and out of earshot, the PTs and the patients cracked jokes, played pranks, and compared stumps. With dazzling storytelling, Run, Don’t Walk introduces a motley array of oddball characters including: Jim, a retired lieutenant-colonel who stays up late at night baking cake after cake, and the militant dietitian who is always after him; a surgeon who only speaks in farm analogies; a therapy dog gone rogue; —and Levine’s toughest patient, the wild, defiant Cosmo, who comes in with one leg amputated and his other leg shattered. Entertaining, engrossing, and ultimately inspiring, Run, Don’t Walk is a fascinating look into a hidden world.

The most exciting and challenging times are upon the healthcare professionals of this nation today and it is my hope the issues covered in this book will help guide your future decisions. This book will assist the reader by providing valuable information to the student trying to decide if PT is the right career or the PT student contemplating what area of practice to take on first. The reader will get a genuine account of the PT profession and what it takes to get in and stay in. For the practicing Physical Therapist you can be certain that what you read in this book will either elevate your spirit or convict your soul. For the PT student staying up all night trying to make it through another lecture under a sleep deprived state of mind this book will lead you in the right direction before you begin your practice. Last but not least to my peers practicing daily, you know if you are providing quality care or just putting in your eight-hour day watching patients perform chair aerobics, this book will give you reasons to strive for more than mediocrity. If you are already aligned with the material in this book then enjoy the feeling of accomplishment because you are the moral fiber of the profession. Keep digging in finding the true cause of the patient’s limitations while simultaneously thinking of how to correct the problem and document the truth. Just a reminder, words like; Program integrity, and Error Rates, coupled with the fact that Medicare is requesting $720 million for the Medicare Integrity Program means the medical community should take notice. The information in this book will make a difference in your career and in the PT profession as a whole, will you?