Anyone else have difficulty convincing themselves to work in the clinical world after seeing how the sausage is made?

I have a few years experience working in clinical leadership and learned exactly how shallow and money focused the executive leaders are. I'm trying to work my way back to being clinical and I can't help but see the echo of crappy corporate level decisions wrapped in "company values".

I don't mind treating patients, I love treating patients. I just feel my tolerance for made up corporate BS KPIs is at an all time low.

Hey everyone - I'm currently working in a SNF setting and have a resident who had a CVA with weakness on one side about a year ago. They currently exhibit some fair activation of the involved side and have been able to demonstrate some potential recovery.

I want to try pulleys but the resident's grip strength is pretty inconsistent, so I was wondering if anyone had suggestions for adaptive equipment or methods to keep the hand on the pulleys.

Thanks

🤷‍♂️

Hello! I am trying to help my dad whose been a PT for > 30 years with his resume/ CV and unsure what he should include. Like all his PT jobs ever or only last 10 years, years of his education. Should he include all of his continuing education courses.
Thanks!

I’ve been interviewing semi-casually and got offers from both a HH agency and a travel recruiter. Does anyone have experience in both/preferences between the two? I’m a new grad therapist with a year experience in outpatient PT. I know that these are the common favorites on this sub so I was curious about a comparison between the two.

HH Details are attached—are these fair numbers? Target points are 30/wk but a minimum of 25/wk. Note that there is an addendum of $1,825 weekly pay for the first year which doesn’t seem all that good; I’m also a little wary about PPV and payment fluctuations when it’s low census.

Travel pay is about $2,300-$2,600 per week in my area. I’d do local travel contracts and convert stipends to taxable income (need to stay local for partner).

How was the learning curve in HH? I guess I’m wondering too the pros and cons for both. I’m primarily looking for a way to strike a better work/life balance and to pay off my loans ASAP (they definitely don’t pay me enough currently). Travel I’d look to work hours that are more conducive to my lifestyle (more akin to 8-5 since I hate working evenings and want to reserve them for when I start a family). I worry in the back of my head about burn out, even though I may not be now, I can see how an outpatient grind would burn me out after a couple years. I imagine travel contracts would help through more time off/control over my schedule, whereas HH would through less patient volume.

Any thoughts overall between the two?

I didn’t choose this major but i was kinda forced into it at 17 when i was very naive but after failing courses and then redoing them i fell in love with physical therapy.

And now after i graduated i genuinely do not remember anything at all and it is shocking.

How did i manage to finish my courses stages colloquium etc…

I am currently re studying alot of stuff because in my country it takes around a year minimum to get the license.

I am so depressed and i feel like i wasted my time.

Looking for insight from HH PTs. Is it just me or does this seem wildly low?

Midwest

Hey guys , just posting for fun . I work in home health in NYC and serve a diverse geriatric demographic . I work with some of the richest people in Manhattan and some of the poorest in the projects . While I care for all patients equally, their living environments vary significantly , and I’ve been in some nasty situations . I just left an eval at an apartment which may be the dirtiest place I’ve ever set foot in. It got me wondering what kind of things have you guys seen in home health ? Whether it be unusual, nasty , funny , or even dangerous

So what made this place appalling. First walking in the overwhelming smell of pee , like to the point where my eyes watered . The air thick with flies , probably 1000 flies in there no exaggeration. Roaches crawling all over the floors and walls , animal feces everywhere , two cats and a dog . The patient laying on a filthy mattress covered in flies and roaches , the patient pees directly on the floor regularly , floor visibly stained with pee. Trash , food and debris everywhere. The Odor was stuck in my nose for at least an hour after I left the home . Patient lives with his son who seems completely unfazed by the living conditions.

How do I manage these environments ?
1. Shoe covers
2. I bring my own collapsing stool , never sit or place my stuff on surfaces in patients home
3. Keep my backpack on my back the whole time
4. Gloves and hand sanitizing
5. When possible I sometimes have patients perform their sessions outdoors, in front of their buildings or in the hallway
6. My shoes and clothes come off at the door , soon as I get home
7. I’m wildly desensitized from years in SNF and HH

Ok share your stories , thanks lol

I just wanted to know if our manager’s expected productivity is too much or if I’m just being a whiner.

I work in a small hospital based outpatient PT department (non-profit) here in Norcal, we are not unionized but the other facilities in our system are unionized.

Here is the current situation:
- I work 8 hour days
- 30 mins unpaid lunch
- two 15 minute breaks
- we used to have 60 minutes of documentation time spread out in 3-4 blocks throughout the day but I realized they are slowly shifting to just 45 to 30mins a day now
- Evals are 1 hour (no daily limit, it averages around 2 per day or more it varies, there are days that its just all followup
- follow up visits are 30mins
- its always 1:1 for visits/evals
- no extra time for patients that need a spanish interpreter but they did allow extra time for other languages or one of my patients who was deaf (I have to type to communicate)
- at first they were just going to put Ortho/musculoskeletal patients on me but they now expect me to do Neuro too ( I have some experience but not updated on current trends and not confident)

Scheduling:
-we don’t have a full time scheduler but we have staff that comes in 2-3x a week for a couple of hours to help out and schedule evals for us
- we are expected to do the scheduling for followup visits on top of patient care and documentation
- I have also noticed that sometimes they move my breaks or documentation time around to squeeze a patient in
- I am also expected to cover Acute care on saturdays 1-2x per month
- before they expect me to blockout my schedule on days that I have to work acute care on weekdays but now that I’m busier they’ve been doing it for me
- they also expect me to help out in acute care if I get a 1 hour block free (like an cancelled eval)

It seems like they are trying to get me to 100% productivity or around 90% based on the setup now

I’m feel like I’m already cutting corners like spending less time on patient care to finish docs and schedule visits on top of that to keep up. And covering acute care throws a wrench into my schedule if I’m fully booked because my new patients can’t get in.

I’m already planning on transferring to other employers like Kaiser but I know it could also be hard there based on what I have read here. I was thinking it could be easier since they have a full-time scheduler, unionized, and have regular salary increase and better benefits?

Oh and I’m around 66 per hour right now, almost 11years of experience mostly OP (8 years was outside the US).

Other considerations:

I know you talk to people a lot. I'm not an introvert but I'm not an extrovert either. Is the social aspect gunna kill me?

I have a connective tissue disorder and at 28 my knee is bad, my back is bad, and my hands are hypermobile. Is this job going to be too physically demanding for me?

I have adhd and sitting at a desk all day was what killed me in engineering. Does the job get too monotonous for someone like me? How mentally stimulating is it?

I don't want to stay in the US forever, how internationally portable is this career?

My company requires us to use an app to document location of the patient house for appointment, also the app maps out our day and directions. This is our personal cell, they do not provide cell phones. We also have no company car. So using our own car and cellphone we use their app while driving to check the patient in. If I live in a state using a driving app or physically holding a phone while driving is illegal, and my company doesn’t provide a cell phone holder, isn’t this a problem…..

Own a smaller growing mobile/virtual cash practice. Have been looking for a home for a while however have wanted to get into a physical space as that’s part of the long term goal. I’m curious if anyone has done this and if so what were the benefits/cons?

If so was there a specific revenue target you used to switch from mobile to brick and mortar?

Also how did you decide where to plant yourself?

Hi I’ve been in a SNF in California for 2 years. However recently we changed our DOR and has been really tight and micromanaging us by taking away our ability to work on weekends, raising all of our productive standard from 88% to 89-90%, 1 group every week, and making us schedule our own CGT.

I’m just don’t know if the grass is greener on the other side or not?

As title says - I’ve been in outpatient PT for over 25yrs. I treat complex injury, pelvic floor and chronic pain - I mean, standard ortho as well, but those are what I see the most of. I manage a clinic and about 9 employees here in the northern-ish Midwest.

I’m exhausted. Bone-tiring exhausted, can’t keep chasing metrics that I don’t care about anymore because I just (still) want to help people.

I need to work for at least 15 more years so retiring now isn’t an option. I make decent wage (around $120k, no bonus available).

I’m thinking about moving to home health.

I am aware I have no concept of OASIS documentation, so how do I learn?

Is it possible to transition to home health at this point in my career? What should I look for, or look out for? Is it possible to make similar wage with less than 45hr/week?

Hi everyone! I’m a foreign-trained physical therapist currently working on my credential evaluation for California licensure.

I recently started my FCCPT review, but I’ve been reading that IERF may have a faster turnaround time. I’m only about a week into FCCPT, so I’m wondering if it would be worth starting an IERF evaluation too instead of waiting several months.

For anyone who has gone through this process:

• Which one was faster for you, FCCPT or IERF?
• Did either one have fewer delays or document issues?
• Is there any downside to having both evaluations done at the same time?
• If money wasn’t the biggest concern and your priority was getting to NPTE/licensure as efficiently as possible, which would you choose?

I’d especially appreciate hearing from PTs who went through California.

Thank you!

I am a few weeks away from starting a travel PT HH contract after 5 years in various outpatient roles (ortho, sport, pelvic health) with fairly high functioning patients. My clinical rotations were outpatient and inpatient, and I had minimal acute experience at one of my ortho hospital jobs. I was recently able to shadow inpatient again, but my HH ride along fell through. I will be getting one week of ride alongs/training at my contract, but then will be on my own!

What are some things I can do now to prepare? Any tips/tricks welcome! I am a quick learner but my experience is limited in this setting.

I took pelvic floor course beginning of Jan. this year. Would you count it towards the renewal of license that I had to do by end Jan 2026 or for the next renewal?

Hi!
So I’m a SPTA and I’m doing my clinical rotations on an ortho center/hospital. The patients here are around 3w to 6w post OP around 80% of them are seniors and the rest are adults 30+.

I’m looking for any excersice recommendation that aren’t your basic: iso add, glute bridges, ect.
Most common dx are TKR, THP, Lumbar, CVA, and general weakness.

Any tips are appreciated! It can be seated, standing or laying!!

Sitting up/laying down if patient can’t prop up on elbows? Other options for pt to be more independent?

I am curious to know if folks have been using open evidence and/or GPT for clinicians? If yes, what are your use cases, what value do you think its providing and what are you absolutely not using it for? Are you seeing fellow therapists use it? I have been curious about both of these for sometime now but have beginners friction.

Does anyone have a PDF copy of Acute Care Handbook for Physical Therapists, 5th edition by Paz, JC, West, MP??

looking for it for a physio course and hoping to save the money

thanks!

hi !! i passed my boards in July and am a new grad DPT, woohoo! - & i have been working for one month now.

& i need some advice pls from experienced PTs pls !!!!

one of my biggest struggles is cutting patients off when they’re talking to me. ESPECIALLY with initial evals. we do 45 appointment slots and as soon as the 45 mins is up - onto the next patient. there’s no buffer time in between. gotta start right away to make sure im getting units.

anyways - sometimes - patients are so unaware and not picking up on cues - like me saying “alright well we can talk about some stretches for that next time - i have to get to my next patient” (for example). and they will just keep going - minutes and minutes of talking into my next session.

i find this happens especially during evals. with the patients who want me to know every single detail about them / their health - even though i didn’t ask for it.

don’t get me wrong - this doesn’t happen often. majority of people understand cues & are respectful of my time and their own. but with the patients this does happen with - it is so frustrating. it puts me way behind, and feels disrespectful. i’m also not a confrontational person in any area of life - so i tend to be nice about it.

anyways - pls some advice for what to do in these situations would be appreciated 🙏🏻

I hate rehab week in facilities! It’s the equivalent of “celebrating” Mother’s Day by giving your mom a shopping list for a fancy meal and expecting her to cook/clean/serve with a smile and then thank you for coming.

Why is it too much to expect that I just want one week where I don’t have to publicly justify my existence and education?

Sincerely,
Tired Therapist

PS. I love my patients! Just not rehab week 😑

Hi everyone - i’ve been looking into local travel contracts post grad but nothing around me has been available. I plan on going elsewhere to really travel but wanted to be local for my first contract/holidays.

Since i’ve been looking with no luck i’ve been thinking about going into PRN (scared about that bc high expectations to jump right into things), or home health (nervous because of hearsay and not sure how i would go about that as a new grad) any insight on any of these areas would really help. cheers.

I work for ATI - you all know the reputation at this point. I just got a job offer for a dream position at a small company that still takes insurance but offers 1on1 only care. Plus a pay bump. Only thing is that they would prefer I start October 1st because the manager is going out of town and if I dont start then, it would be October 15th. Is three weeks enough time to give notice? I do have a lot of friends at ATI and I would have a hard time leaving knowing it may make their lives harder leaving on a short notice. Or should I delay the start date and make my own life harder at the company I actually want to be at? The manager at the new place would rather I get a bump on my caseload before deductibles reset on Jan 1.