It has been a year already since I moved from a private practice outpatient clinic to a larger hospital system’s home health agency and I love it. This move was not easy for me because my previous job was incredible. Great people, fun environment, and very much a petri dish for my clinical practice. But I had to change. There’s a few reasons

1. Flexibility
2. Finances
3. Family
4. Broader clinical experience

Flexibility

My wife woke up sick one day and instead of leaving at 7 and wishing her luck or having to take off work. I checked my schedule planned to start seeing patients at noon and was still able to get home before 5, finished with patient care, just needing to polish up some notes. My kids’ daycare had a father’s day event from 10-12. As you may have guessed most father’s (paying for daycare) are working from 10-12 so there were not many there. I saw a patient before and then some patients after…simple as that. The flexibility of home health is truly wonderful. If you get your work done that everyone is happy.

 

Finances

Home health pays better. In some places much better. Simple put. There are also some benefits to working for a non-profit including the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, but that’s another post for another day.

 

Family

At the time of writing this I have a 4-year-old, a 2-year-old and a 7 month old. The previous 2 points also made sense for the family, but there is something else on this point. In school and when I first started practicing physical therapy was constantly on my mind. I was reading blogs, on Twitter, constantly learning and engaging with other PTs around the world, wanting to be known. And, while it was fun and probably made me a better PT it was ultimately unhealthy for me personally, spiritually and for the family. Home health has helped me put work in its place. A place where I still feel very passionate about what I do, and continue to strive to be great at it but 3 or 4 or 5th in life.

 

Broader clinical experience

Home health has given me exposure to much more than orthopedic/musculoskeletal pathologies….MUCH more. And with that my reasoning model and clinical decision-making has had to get bigger…MUCH bigger. For example, in the clinic I mostly assumed that the person was supposed to be getting physical therapy treatment, that their life was otherwise in relatively good shape and we just needed to fix the pain they were in. In home health sometimes physical therapy is the least of the persons concerns and because they are sitting in front of me it is my job to figure out what they need. Social work? OT? Placement in SNF or assisted living? Hospice? These are large-scale, whole person problems that take larger reasoning models than what tissue is the issue. It has made me a better PT.

 

I really enjoy being in home health and plan to do it for a while. If you have questions let me know.