We don’t need no…..

Education…..

But it turns out , I do!

This is the mission statement of the APTA

Vision 2020

“Physical therapy will be provided by physical therapists who are doctors of physical therapy, recognized by consumers and other health care professionals as the practitioners of choice to whom consumers have direct access for the diagnosis of, interventions for, and prevention of impairments, functional limitations, and disabilities related to movement, function, and health.”

This means by 2020, yes I know it is 9 years away, but they are working toward it yearly, that therapy with be a direct referral practice, meaning I will diagnosing the majority of my patients before the MD sees them, no testing, no preconceived notions. It will be my responsibility, and it is to a degree now, to pick up red flags for more serious problems that could present as pain in a joint, back or limb. Therefore, it requires some further schooling on my part. All therapy grads at present are DPT’s. Doctors of Physical Therapy.  Not a PhD not an MD, a “doctorate level” practitioner.  No one is really sure right now who will be grandfathered past the law, if anyone, or what the decision will be. So I decided, it was time. I always knew I would advance my degree some day. I was the last class at Temple to be able to practice after graduating with a Bachelors degree. Some day I intended to get my masters, perhaps in a specialty and perhaps an APTA specialty certification.

Enter marriage, kids, life and putting everyone else first. I have always all along enjoyed learning new things and challenging myself but never made it back to college. And now, there is no other option than the doctorate. If I already had my masters, I would need to only take two semesters. But since I don’t, it is 3 1/2 semesters.

So, if I start now, I can finish before K graduates high school and we pay for her college! In fact, if all goes well we will “graduate” at the same time. I will also graduate before I am the same age as most of my patient population and I am in Depends!

Forget that the last time I step foot in the academic world, it was 1986, and stirrup pants, tunic tops, and neon, as well as “big” hair were “in” the first time around. I can remember walking into my dorm room the first time like it was just yesterday. You had to access as computer in the “computer lab” and I thought I was the cat’s meow because I had a word processor with a 15 character display so I could fix mistakes before they printed.  There was no such thing as a “power point”, and most professors lectures with slides, laser points and remotes that never seemed to point directly at the slide machine.

Now, this is my “desk” – laptop on the bed, since I can’t concentrate downstairs with everyone up and about……

But let me tell you…..

Man oh  man, is academia different from 21 years ago!! Yes, all my classes are completely online. I do not set foot in a classroom. Thankfully, most topics are based on decision making skills, diagnosing, radiology and pharmacology, so no hands on learning.

Everything is pdf’s and down-loaded power points, which I hear is also the norm in “real time” classes.  No longer after the first day of class, do you trudge over to the Kinko’s to spend another $50 a piece on the syllabus and literature for each class, in addition to the text. Instead you go to Staples and invest a small fortune in printer paper and ink! I wonder if the Kino’s on Broad St is out of business without the college business!

I myself, can not read on the computer screen and retain, I have to print. Highlight. Is there nothing better than a fresh notebook and highlighter pen? Nice pink and yellow lines throughout the text, standing out to you, read me read me! Obtaining the discipline for the reading and posting, and discussion board reading required of two classes, is a HUGE adjustment. I was wondering this week what I got myself into that is for sure. I am a good therapist, I know that, but I fast discovering how much I don’ t know for this direct care model. My apathy toward being “required” to do this, is slowly turning into the realization that it is necessary, my specialty is going in a direction dramatically different from what I trained to do 20 years ago.

I will probably also show my age by most likely purchasing my first pair of “readers”. then again, that may be akin to Sir Fartsalot’s socks and slippers. Not sure I can “go there”

I can keep up with these younger students – Mr. Oh I graduated from XYZ huge university in 2000, and am working in a huge teaching hospital saving the world, with my three specialty certifications….I’ve got 20 years ex-perience baby, beat that!  LOL! He just may, but I will go down fighting!

So if you log on here one day and find pictures of my limp cross eyed body draped over my laptop, in lieu of flowers send, M&M’s and barbeque corn chips (and there is only one person in the world who will get that joke! My bff from college, who sported an awesome assymetrical Cyndi Lauper hair cut when I met her!)