Personal Narrative: A Career As A Physical Therapy Assistant

My mother is a physical therapist who practices in a hospital, a setting I am familiar with, but I have also witnessed physical therapists in private practice, skilled facilities, and home care. I discovered that physical therapy is an open-ended profession and there is so much that can be done in the field. Being able to see physical therapy applied to different age groups with different needs in different communities has proven to be an invaluable experience. I knew that the career possibilities were

Learning to handle people at their worst, was one of the biggest challenges I faced as a Physical Therapist intern. Over the summer of 2016 I gained first hand insight of my desired career as a community volunteer in my area. I assisted patients daily for over three months, devising the best treatment plans and guidance for using equipment, preparing patients for electric shock therapy, but more importantly, being patient as people are less friendly and not talkative when faced with pain. I had to learn when to engage or when silence was golden.

Finally, my career moved back to teaching. It began with a substitute teaching and a long-term sub position as an EBD English Teacher. I found the experience to be very rewarding. I learned that there was a greater ability to get to know my students and a chance to make a more significant difference in students with special challenges.

I believe that my past personal and professional leadership experiences make me a quality candidate for this position because I have 8 years of experience working in an elementary school as a 6,7, and 8th-grade teacher and 2 years of experience working as English Learner (EL) Program Lead in a high school setting. These experiences have afforded me the opportunity to take on many leadership roles. For example, that of instructional leader and coach, science department chair, English Language Learner department chair, English language learner program lead teacher (ELPT), test coordinator, and facilitated scheduling and programming of EL students, MTSS coordinator, and a union delegate.

The career I became interested in is a Physician’s Assistant, or a few people call them PAs. I became interested in this job in my sophomore year of high school. It all started when I attended the STEM fair after school one day. STEM fair is only offered to students who are in either the biomedical Stem academy or the engineer academy. At this fair, students tour around to different classrooms to acquire information on different careers. I attended the Physician’s Assistant one, where there was an actual PA to give information on what PAs achieve. For example, PAs examine patients for diseases, injuries and illnesses.

In the Fall of 2014 I became an RA, Resident Assistant, a position longed for since I entered as a student at Landmark College, a college for students with learning disabilities and autism spectrum disorders. I went into the job aspiring to help other students and build upon the close knit and friendly community that was already in place. My job was to ensure the safety and security of all residents, refer students to appropriate services on campus, and run and plan programs alongside two other RA’s and a Resident Dean.

Hard work and empathy were instilled in me at a young age and ultimately have guided my life decisions. I always knew I wanted a career doing something that involved helping people and left me feeling that I made a difference in their lives. I finished my undergraduate degree in Nutrition, but in the end lacked passion for the profession. Following a personal experience with an Occupational Therapist, I was able to see the positive outcome she had on my grandfathers recovery which lead me to pursue my career in occupational therapy.

On my search for a full-time job, I came across this ad. This ad led me to a career option, that I had not be aware of. I had never heard of an occupational therapy assistant. The picture demonstrated what they did, and it moved me. In fact, I wish I had known about them when my mom was ill. We were looking for a physical therapist, and they had said that it would not be a good fit for her. She was ill, but she wanted that independence. Perhaps, an occupational therapist would have been able to help her with that.

Once I get my degree in Physical Therapist Assistant, I would like to apply my new skills. My new knowlege and skills in; psychology, medicine, and biology. It would help me rehabilitate my patitents back to their orginal health state.

When I first attended Lindenwood University and I had no idea on where I wanted to go with my life. All I knew is that I would not be stuck behind a desk for eight hours a day and that I wanted to work with people. For a while I thought I wanted to be a teacher. I wanted to be an influencing part in someone’s life, but it didn’t take me long to realize that teaching was not what I was being called to do. I had a very strong passion to help people, so I started working towards a degree in Exercise Science with the idea that I could do something with the rising obesity issues, but it still didn’t feel right. I started meeting with my advisor, Heather Pennington, who helped me start looking around for different options. She strongly encouraged me to try out different facilities, including several Occupational Therapy environments. I didn’t have a particular “aha” moment where I decided that Occupational Therapy was right for me, but the various experiences showed me what my potential future career path could be.

During my sophomore in high school at Wausau East, my parents told me that in a couple years, I was going to college and I needed to start thinking about what I want to do for a living. I knew right away that it was going to be something dealing with healthcare, but what specifically, I did not know. There was, however, a class titled Young Adult Medicine that was all about exploring occupations in the healthcare field and it lit a fire beneath my big decision. On one of the tours and job shadows that my classmates and I went on, this one in particular was to the Sport and Spine Clinic in Wausau. Every second we got to witness just a sneak peek of what a physical therapist job is like, the more I was intrigued by it and I began to ask myself

Ever since I was young I knew I wanted to work with and help others. Now at that young age I imagined being a teacher or a veterinarian. As I’ve grown older I’ve discovered both those careers weren’t exactly what I wanted. My dreams have changed slightly but I do still have the same dream of helping others. I hope to go into the medical field and become a physical therapist. Physical therapy is a career that not only reaches my goal of helping others but reaches other goals I have developed as I’ve grown up. One thing I know now is that I want to be someone who helps people get back on track and become their best self. Along with that I hope to help prevent future injuries and issues.

During my last clinical rotation of my adult-gerontology acute care nurse practitioner graduate program, I worked closely with an orthopedic surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital. He frequently became exasperated when residents would present new consults and focus solely on imaging. He wanted to know what the history and physical revealed. One morning on rounds, he grabbed my hands and exclaimed, “Always look at your patient! Touch them!”

Earlier in my years if someone would have told me I would be only a few steps from walking into a career in physical therapy there was no way I could have seen it, especially academically. It is amazing what lifes experiences can real especially to one who is re4siliant and wont let its hardships bring you down.

To understand how I will embody the American Physical Therapy Association's vision as a future physical therapist, it's important to begin from my past, where it all came from. My adoration of the human body began during the first few years of high school. It was around this time that I had been working and working; finally I had saved up enough money to buy my first car back in the summer of 2009. Everyone loved his or her first car, and I was no exception. Like a typical first car, it had malfunctions here and there which I would research and repair on my own, learning along the way. Well, it was around that time that I was taking my first anatomy class, and I thought to myself, "Wow, how similar an automobile and the human body are. Two robust, powerful machines that can be repaired with some research and experience, together with a bit of learning along the way." Little did I know how much more intricate, detailed, and marvellous the human anatomy was; I wanted to fix everyone.