PT on TV (and the big screen)

Seinfeld has had a few mentions of PT, of course where they are being portrayed as people who give "massage." They also get into the referral issue and insurance coverage. Another episode has Elaine's boss "tear her humeral epicondylitis" and Elaine leaves by saying "take care of that condylitis." It is of course impossible to tear anything that ends in -itis because this simply means inflammation.

The Sopranos this past season (one of my favorite shows, with only 8 episodes left ever!) had mention of PT after Tony got shot. His wife Carmela complains that insurance won't even cover Tony's Physical Therapy. Then the insurance company tried to send him home before he was ready for financial reasons. Earlier in the series Tony's mother was very upset to be in PT.

On Eve's self-titled show, her on and off boyfriend was a PT and actually prescribed her some kind of funky looking orthopedic shoe. The movie The Program has an athlete rehabing her knee but no sign of a PT, ah well.

One of our professors likes to mention numerous movies to give us examples of certain diseases. This semester he has brought up Unbreakable (osteogenesis imperfecta) and Mel Gibson's ability to subluxate the shoulder which he does in at least one of the Lethal Weapon movies... if not all. (Subluxation basically means to pop a bone in and out of its proper place in the joint, PS this video of subluxation is not fun to watch for everyone, proceed with caution.)

If anyone else knows any other PT mentions in TV or the movies let me know.

Update

I am finishing up my application for the Student Assembly, and although I feel like I am cutting it close it is ok, because the Nominating Chair recommended that I wait until I get back from Orlando to do this. So here I am three days away from the deadline just doing some fine tuning.

Now we also have about 35 1st years coming in next week which officially makes me a 2nd year, yay me. But I want to take this opportunity for what it is worth and not only hopefully get each and every one of these students excited about PT and the APTA but also start a mentoring program at my school that will hopefully help make their transition to graduate school a better one. We shall see how that goes.

Still setting up small things for the Downstate NY Regional Student Mini-Conclave which we are hosting on September 30 (the day I get back from my first clinical affiliation). Hoping to advertise that a bit more and get the NYPTA more involved and myself become more involved in the NYPTA.

Sending out a letter to the Board of Ed to hopefully set up some information sessions in the public schools although the timing isn't that great as they are all starting their summer schedule.

This isn't even everything by a long shot and somehow I have to squeeze in studying. Bringing me to one of the statements I heard from a Board of Director of the APTA: "Sometimes doing too much is just as bad as doing nothing at all."
And one that I have been saying about myself for quite some time now: "I tend to be a jack of all trades and a master of none." But hopefully I can not only be a master of PT but go on and be a doctor of it :-D

Inspired

The Annual Conference was very inspirational, along with the House of Delegates (HoD). I served as an usher for both which meant sitting through lectures and collecting evaluation forms for general programming and running messages from state to state in the HoD. The lectures were interesting, I went to one on ACL injuries, CAPTE on-site reviewers, the Maley lecture (this years was about patient-centered care), designing an effective clinical experience, and the McMillan lecture. The McMillan lecture given by Dr. Stanley Paris (pictured) was very idealistic and spoke about where PT should be. He spoke of 10 main points that all rang true and overall emphasized autonomy. Dr. Paris has an amazing bio and can almost single-handedly be thanked for bringing spinal manipulation into the world of PT.

The point that was most dear to my heart at this time as a student was to make a standard for pre-requisites. Currently schools many of the PT schools have wide gaps in pre-reqs that are not only confusing but irritating and can be a deterrent to the application process. Sometimes there are different levels of BIO required, or different statistic courses, and almost every school has a different amount of volunteer hours required (Northeastern as I recall asks for 1,000!). To be safe of course every student can take every course and have thousands of volunteer hours, but is this really worth the time and energy. I was told in Canada there are schools without any pre-reqs, which would be interesting in the USA...


Numerous issues came up throughout my time in Orlando that will change the world of PT for years to come. For instance, Direct Access passed in the Assembly and Senate in NY (Just waiting for the Governor before it's official.

Also, there is a great debate on the idea of grandfathering in the Doctor title into PT to bring our profession forward. Unfortunately only 10% of currently practicing PT's have earned a Doctoral degree in PT and 50% have only earned a Bachelors. Obviously the degree level compared to years of experience is not always a gauranteed means of being a better PT, but this is a debate that will rage on as we move forward as a profession and hopefully more and more PT's can get their transitional-DPT.

But back to NY and reality for a second... I have to go work for my mothers accounting business and get her some flowers for her birthday, have to find a piece of paper that means a few extra points in one class, hmmm... and I have to finish writing my statement to apply for the Student Assembly.

Thanks to everyone who was just great in Orlando, I wish I could take you all home with me.
Nothing but love.

Too much time, too little to do

Wait... scratch that reverse it.
So, I am here in Orlando for PT2006 - Annual Conference and having a very good ol time. But I must cut this short as I am writing this on my Treo and if I get an incoming call I lose everything I just typed (this is the third version of this post).. See ya'll real soon.

Busy Busy

Since I am leaving for Orlando on Saturday, I have to take all my exams and practicals this week.
So not too many posts while I study... Feel free to leave a comment or ask a PT related question.
One of my main goals with this blog is to share my knowledge with anyone willing to listen.
Nothing but love.

7 Minute Dr.

There was a March 22 Op-Ed piece in the NYTimes entitled "The Doctor Will See You For Exactly Seven Minutes" (May have to log in to the times to access the article). Yesterday when I went to the doctor for a physical this article came to life for me.

First I had to wait in the waiting room for about an hour. When my name was called I was a bit excited to finally think I was closer to getting out of there. However, I did not see the doctor for another forty minutes (btw, there was not THAT many patients that this should be going on). Once I finally saw the doctor he came in and asked his series of generic questions to gauge what was going on with me and he left. Total time with doctor so far: 4 minutes.
I filled up a cup, and sat in the room for another 15 minutes, then had blood drawn. I got a wee bit lightheaded after the blood draw probably because of my lack of eating before hand, so the nurses as they tend to do are overcautious which is good. They got the doctor who peeked his head in for another minute to tell me I look the same color as my shirt (which was a green Jets shirt). Total time with doctor now: 5 minutes.
When I got my color back I got up and was ready to leave. On my way out I overheard the doctor talking about the hospital where I will be doing my first affiliation, so I stopped and tried to have a conversation with him about the hospital. His first question was what program I was in. I replied with the school name and that I was in my 1st year of a 3 year doctoring program. He assumed this was a PhD program as some people may do when they hear a doctoral program. Then he reminded me to be back next Monday to check on the PPD skin test I had.
Final amount of time spent with doctor: 7 minutes (with 2 minutes that I incited)

So for the 150 minutes or so that I was at the doctors office I actually saw him for 7 minutes in a clinic that was not terribly busy... I just do not get it... Back to the Times article, I sensed "a malaise within the doctor [system] that has eroded the respect [I] feel patients deserve." He was semi-pleasant as a physician, seemed competent at checking my vitals, but it really was not a pleasant experience overall. The article also had suggested that as the patient we can make the system better by demanding a better visit. Perhaps I will switch my PCP but how many "mills" do I have to go to before I find a little old doctor who doesn't have great facilities because he has cut out a few patients by seeing others more than 7 minutes.

This all brings me to two points.
1. I am in a Doctorate of Physical Therapy program (DPT), this is a clinical degree and considered to be entry-level into the field of Physical Therapy. There is also a PhD program which is an academic degree, it is based more on research and "the philosophy of PT". I don't expect every other health care professional to know that, but it would be nice if people knew these differences. But it is better than being labeled "people who do massage".

2. This is the main reason that I chose PT over medicine. Yes it is true, I was pre-med my 1st year in undergrad. But upon further examination I wanted to be able to spend time with the patient to be able to really understand what is going on with them. I have never looked back at my decision with regret solely because of the patient first attitude. I really believe in Physical Therapy when carried out correctly.

Speaking of which I am going to go study for mucho exams this week, right after I go wish my Grandpa a happy bday, and complete my mother's accounting work for the week.
Hope everyone is doing great :-D

TKR

Today in musculoskeletal pathology we watched a video of a TKR - Total Knee Replacement, courtesy of OR-live.com. This is an amazing procedure where they cut open your knee, cut the ends of your thigh bone (femur), kneecap (patella) and leg bone (tibia) off and replace them with pieces of metal or plastic. Simply amazing to watch the whole process. Also amazing how these patients rehab before and after the surgery.

Also learned about wheelchair mobility and prescription and Spina Bifida in my other two classes.

In between classes I was running around trying to put some things together for the student conclave we are hosting at my school in September, a little PR and such, and I also put some things together for my plans to run for treasurer of the Student Assembly.

Now I am off to watch the Yanks beat the Sox while I study for some exams...

5

Next week I have 5 pretty major exams/practicals... then I leave for Orlando for PT2006 - the annual conference of the APTA.

But the 5 exams/practicals is what concerns me at this very moment... So I will go ahead and study a little... in a moment or two...

But on a brighter note Connecticut just received Direct Access which is a good thing assuming they didn't give much of their Practice Act up to get it. They are the third state to get it this year (Georgia and Mississippi are the other two) and that brings the total to 42 out of the 50 states. I still think New York will be the 51st state to get it...

Interesting side note from an article I came across... AIDS drugs have saved 3 million years of life in the US which is an amazing statistic considering that AIDS has been around for 25 years and how long it took for the medications to be more and more useful. Another interesting note from the article was that the NIH has spent over $30 billion since 1980 on HIV/AIDS research.

Go Baby Bombers, keep beatin' them Sox.

Slow goings

Loans stink... Consolidation stinks... My advice to all, avoid them darn loans... get all the scholarships you can... don't sacrifice a great college expereince for a cheaper school but loans stink.

Getting ready for Orlando where I will be enjoying PT2006 - The Annual Conference.

At this point I plan on running for student assembly to make an impact on this great profession. I really want to use the passion and energy I have to make our profession better and better. Gotta do what I can, and I think everyone should try to do the same for their profession.

It irks me when people don't even join the APTA. This is our professional organization that works for our present and future. I will get off my milkbox, but if everyone makes a small contribution its going to make everything a lot easier.

Until next time, hope everyone is staying healthy.

PS. My sister had her second child on Thursday 06/01/06 at 12:40 in the afternoon, an 8 pound 1 ounce baby girl !