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What is the hardest part about being a Physical Therapy Assistant?
I've always been passionate about health, specifically natural health and that's what made me want to go into the field. I'm just wondering what things I should mentally prepare myself for as I'm on this career path.
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Lauren Ellis’s Answer
Hi Breanna!
For me, the hardest part about being a Physical Therapist Assistant is the physical toll it's been taking on my body. For 10+ years, I worked in a busy outpatient orthopedic setting for a private company. I worked 10 hours. I was often double booked or triple booked on the hour. My schedule would like something like this:
9:00 3 patients
10:00 2 patients
11:00 2 patients
12:00 1 patients
LUNCH
2:00 1 patient
3:00 3 patients
4:00 2 patients
5:00 3 patients
6:00 2 patients
Or some variation of this. Sometimes patients would cancel, or come at the wrong times or early/late. There were days I'd perform manual therapy on 1 patient, wash my hands, start manual therapy on the next patient, and repeat. All day. I did all I could do with my two hands and whatever the patient needed despite how physically tough it was on me. I would do my best to maintain proper body mechanics. But it was just a lot of volume and a long day. 10 hour days, 4 days a week.
I burnt myself out. I didn't recognize it while I was grinding away working, I just kept at it, and didn't realize how busy I was, and how sore and tired I was, until I stopped. I had a break when the pandemic started and I got some time off work. I was then able to reflect and realized that what I was doing wasn't sustainable. I have since scaled back to part time in a geriatric setting where I treat patients one on one, and I only see 4 patients a day. I can breathe now. I love what I do. I still get the job satisfaction of helping others, but I don't beat myself up so much. But even when I was crazy busy, I still loved what I did (I just didn't always like my job due to high volume and physical demands). I did, however, gain so much valuable experience and was exposed to so many different types of diagnoses and patient populations.
So for me, the toughest part is the physical demand of the job - but that can vary depending on the type of setting you enter. A phrase you might hear a lot in healthcare is, "it depends." For other providers in different settings, there can be a mental tax as well. You might work with low-level patients that don't end up doing well or have a really rough history or road ahead of them. It can be emotionally upsetting, or with very young or very old patients that don't have a good prognosis, especially since we work so closely with patients and gain a rapport with them. Coping with that sadness may take some time and experience as well, everyone is different. But, that's a lot of areas of healthcare. It's tough because we care <3
For me, the hardest part about being a Physical Therapist Assistant is the physical toll it's been taking on my body. For 10+ years, I worked in a busy outpatient orthopedic setting for a private company. I worked 10 hours. I was often double booked or triple booked on the hour. My schedule would like something like this:
9:00 3 patients
10:00 2 patients
11:00 2 patients
12:00 1 patients
LUNCH
2:00 1 patient
3:00 3 patients
4:00 2 patients
5:00 3 patients
6:00 2 patients
Or some variation of this. Sometimes patients would cancel, or come at the wrong times or early/late. There were days I'd perform manual therapy on 1 patient, wash my hands, start manual therapy on the next patient, and repeat. All day. I did all I could do with my two hands and whatever the patient needed despite how physically tough it was on me. I would do my best to maintain proper body mechanics. But it was just a lot of volume and a long day. 10 hour days, 4 days a week.
I burnt myself out. I didn't recognize it while I was grinding away working, I just kept at it, and didn't realize how busy I was, and how sore and tired I was, until I stopped. I had a break when the pandemic started and I got some time off work. I was then able to reflect and realized that what I was doing wasn't sustainable. I have since scaled back to part time in a geriatric setting where I treat patients one on one, and I only see 4 patients a day. I can breathe now. I love what I do. I still get the job satisfaction of helping others, but I don't beat myself up so much. But even when I was crazy busy, I still loved what I did (I just didn't always like my job due to high volume and physical demands). I did, however, gain so much valuable experience and was exposed to so many different types of diagnoses and patient populations.
So for me, the toughest part is the physical demand of the job - but that can vary depending on the type of setting you enter. A phrase you might hear a lot in healthcare is, "it depends." For other providers in different settings, there can be a mental tax as well. You might work with low-level patients that don't end up doing well or have a really rough history or road ahead of them. It can be emotionally upsetting, or with very young or very old patients that don't have a good prognosis, especially since we work so closely with patients and gain a rapport with them. Coping with that sadness may take some time and experience as well, everyone is different. But, that's a lot of areas of healthcare. It's tough because we care <3
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