Hey classmates,
I want to do 3 things with this post today. First, I want to educate. I don’t think many PT students think about advocacy for our profession until we get out if school (if ever). The second, I want to encourage advocacy, not by telling you to do things, because that doesn’t work, but by showing you what it does for you as a professional. Third, I want to create discussion. I am new to the PT social media world and I am not in school yet so I want to bring in the big hitters that have been fighting for our profession for a long time. With these 3 points I hope to provide a sweeping answer to the question Why should We care?
Category: DPT School
Education and the Reverse Classroom
More than anything this is post will be stream of consciousness so bear with me and ask any questions if you need to.
I have recently been introduced a heap of information about using technology in education to improve quality and to decrease costs. This video by the RSA was one of the pieces that really got me introduced to the topic, you can watch it here. The gist of it is basically that education is still set up on principles that worked when it was initially designed–to create people capable enough to function in society and work in “good” jobs. The system is a cookie cutter approach to getting every one “up to speed” or on a somewhat educated level so that they can work for other people. For this purpose, the current educational system is doing great! It puts out thousands of college grads every year who didn’t apply themselves for a second, skipped lots of class and never were forced to creatively or critically use the information they were putting in their noggins. But what is the real goal of earning an education? I as well as several other people (all smarter than me) think it should be about LEARNING how to THINK.
It wasn’t until I finished going to school (undergrad) that I realized how ineffective my past 16 years of education had been. When I really reflected on how I operated all of those years I almost wanted to chuck. I am really good and regurgitating information from power points onto a scantron and then forgetting everything I just did and for MOST colleges in the US that is all it takes. Actual learning is not happening, just memorizing.
I think it’s a problem.
There are some great minds tackling this Jerome Bettis sized problem. One of the proposed ideas to change education and take a stab at making it more effective is the idea of a Reverse Classroom. The idea here is that much of the lecturing is done by the professor beforehand in the form of videos outside the classroom, then the students spend time doing what would typically be homework in the classroom. The model is flipped. Be lectured to on your own time at home and then come and sharpen your skills (whatever the subject is) in the classroom with other students and the teacher there to ACTUALLY TEACH. Its brilliant.
One of the best resources I found on the entire internet is Khan Academy. It is a database of teachings on a bunch of different subjects that you can watch for free. With this technology some schools have implemented reverse classrooms and the results have been incredible. Its more personalized, more hands on, and more effective. My question is can this be applied to higher levels of education such as Medical School or Physical Therapy School. I think it’s an interesting idea.
What do you think? Leave a comment below or Tweet at me @zduhammy
Shout out to my friend Ryan Patton at the University of Arkansas, who is just a student finishing up his undergrad but he has taking his education into his own hands and is now working with the university to reform their approach to the basic sciences using technology like this. Check out some of his videos here.
Great Advice from Dr. Kyle Ridgeway
Hey Classmates,
I’m getting really excited for class to start up, Rockhurst starts June 3rd! That excitement has really been channeled into asking absurd amounts of questions to all the PTs, business people, random people in coffee shops and the occasional inanimate object around me. And I have gotten some KILLER responses but none have been as good as what Dr. Kyle Ridgeway (@Dr_Ridge_DPT). In an effort to stay on topic, I’ll keep his bio short. The dude is a stud..He is a PT in Denver that works primarily in the inpatient acute while also working in a private practice orthopedic clinic. He is a researcher, a contributor at www.ptthinktank.com (fantastic resource) and a general evangelist for right thinking in physical therapy. He was kind enough to take time out of all of those things to send me some incredible advice for starting school. I am literally going to copy and paste what he sent me because it is so thorough and awesome. (The bold question on the top is what I asked him, the rest is his response.)
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One question that I have been trying to ask as much as possible to current DPTs is this, if you had one (or many!) piece of advice for someone who is about to go into school what would it be?
1. Involvement
Find a club, organization, or cause to join. This could be student special interest groups of the state chapter were your school is located, student special interest groups of larger organizations like the America Academy of Orthopaedic Manual Physical Therapists (http://www.aaompt.org/education/student_sig.cfm).
I was a part of the Marquette Challenge Team at my school as well as the AAOMPT sSIG. Those connections and experiences were HUGE.
2. Open Minded…
Explore new topic areas and practice populations. Take a chance on a rotation that seems different or out of your comfort zone. Don’t be afraid to explore classes and ideas and concepts that intrique you. Study the hardest in classes and topics that you like the least (if you want to be an orthopaedic PT, study hardest in neuro and cardiopulm. You will automatically engage in ortho, because you are interested in it).
3. But, not a garbage can…
Question, question, question, and reflect. Be critical of information, ideas, and approaches. Ask why.
Learn how to:
Argue and disagree > Learn about logical fallacies:
4. Get to know your professors
Go to office hours. Ask questions. Listent to their professional stories
5. Connect!
Via social media and other mediums with students and professionals from around the world
6. Find a mentor
Clinical and academic. May be within your program, may not. This will change over time. Before you graduate, and as you are nearing the end of school, attempt to set up a formal mentor relationship with someone
7. Read
Read outside the PT literature. Read business, psychology, neuroscience, etc. Read blogs, books, and research.The most profound information on how to conceptualize PT is not even in the PT literature.
The fact that you are this engaged already is an awesome thing. You will rock!
Cheers,
Kyle
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Hope that is helpful!
Evernote for DPT Students
As part of #techweek I wanted to touch on one of my favorite apps ever Evernote. Evernote has almost endless applications from collecting ideas, organizing recipes, or creating documents, Evernote is probably one of the best free apps ever created and it can be downloaded on your smartphone, computer or tablet and all your information will be synced across each device.
I wrote a blog post previously about advice that the PTs at the clinic I work at gave me, and one of the best pieces of advice that I received was “get a system of organization and stick with it the entire 3 years.” With that piece of advice in mind I write this post.
Why Evernote would be a great tool for the organization in DPT school:
First off, in school we will be barraged with an inordinate amount of information across several classes across the three years. All or most of which will have to be returned to and restudied for comprehensive exams. The worst thing of all time is losing notes or being just plain disorganized…that’s where Evernote comes in.
In Evernote the organizational structure is from largest to smallest: Stacks, notebooks, notes.
Stacks are made up of multiple notebooks, notebooks are made up of multiple notes and notes are made up of whatever the heck you want (audio files, pictures, videos, powerpoints, text, etc.) 
In order to help you understand the breakdown I stuck a picture of my Evernote above. As you can see I have stacks: Business Plan, Class Spring 2013, Create|simple Clients and Notebooks within those stacks (developmental psych, ethics, etc.) The same number to the right of the notebook is the total number of notes within that notebook. So this is clearly a great way to organize information into categories.
In DPT school it will be important to have info like class notes organized in ways that makes them easily accessible. Evernote gives you the option to search for keywords and any note that contains those words will be presented, something your paper notebook can’t do. It also gives you the ability to share notes or even notebooks with classmates, that way if your friend misses a lecture or you miss a lecture the notes can be easily shared and placed into the right notebook.
Overall, I think that its important to find what system is comfortable for you and really stick to it. I think that Evernote can be a great option for anyone that likes technology and feels confident enough to organize their LIFE into it! Check out Evernote in the app store.
Hope this is helpful 🙂
What to know before physical therapy school
Once I got accepted into Rockhurst in February I started asking a LOT of questions. All the PTs at my clinic are probably getting sick of me, but they have to answer all my questions. These are some of the responses to the questions “If you had one piece of advice to give someone who is about to start school, what would it be?
1. Sleep and Workout
One of the first things to go when stress hits is the care for our own bodies. Working out helps relieve stress and helps you feel better about yourself and the importance of sleep can never be over emphasized.
2. Be organized and stay organized
This was probably the most helpful piece of advice I got. The PT told me that he switched off between paper and electronic note taking and he got really disorganized and when it was time for comprehensive tests he was all over the place. He said Pick a system and stick with it. I think I’m going to do another post of different systems that have worked for people.
3. Get teammates.
One PT told me that the most important thing he did in school was build a group of friends that could study with and PRACTICE on each other. He really emphasized the importance of constantly practicing manual techniques.
4. Don’t work–if possible.
One PT said that all the students who tried to work during school got really stressed out and ended up “not being as good.” Simple enough. I know that this is not possible for everybody, he even said that he had a TA job, but keep your job commitments to a minimum. It’s worth it to really focus on school, you come out the other side a better PT.
My Application Essay
This is my PTCAS essay, I hope it is helpful for you. Please don’t copy it or misuse it in any way, it is for your help.
The smell of rich warm coffee fills our tiny yellow apartment as I sit at our round antique dining room table. My head hurts from thinking about life, my career, school, grades, my family and my future. My wife sits down at the table beside me and we start to talk. I had been sitting at the table all afternoon and had been on hundreds of websites with information pertaining to all kinds of different career paths, most of which were in the medical field or pertained to the body in some way. As my wife sipped her coffee, she looked at me with that look I had gotten millions of times before, the look that said, “Well…what do you think?”
I knew what she was thinking. Here was the woman who knew what she wanted to do with her life from birth. She started asking me probing questions and then sat back and let me talk. She wanted me to talk about my deepest passions, ways I wanted to impact lives and about things that intrigued me. As I talked, she soaked it all in. After about thirty minutes, she stopped me and said, “You were born to be a physical therapist.”
At that moment it all made sense. The search for the perfect career, the career that fit me best, something that had troubled me for several years was over. Finally, as a junior in college, the light bulb came on, and I started to think back.
Like most kids, I loved playing sports, almost as a full-time job, soccer, baseball, football, tennis, basketball and cross-country. Not only did I enjoy competing, but I quickly learned about my interest in health. I loved being active and the feeling of being healthy. I saw the benefits of those things very early. As a child, I wasn’t able to relate my passions and interests to the field of physical therapy, but I did realize my love. I remember encouraging my little brother to go on runs with me because I wanted him to feel the way I felt when I ran. I was the kid who didn’t eat any of his Halloween candy, oh, except for butterfingers. I was a 12-year-old wellness advocate and I didn’t even know it!
As I grew a little older, I realized not only was I passionate about a healthy lifestyle for myself, but I wanted to see others strive for the same thing. As a senior in high school, I was one of the captains of our varsity soccer team and of our cross-country team. I had the opportunity to lead workouts and prepare for practices in each sport. Through this, I began to recognize my passion to lead and encourage others, but still didn’t make the connection to the career of physical therapy.
Life continued to go on, and before I knew it I was in my junior year in college, still without a clear-cut idea of what I wanted to do with the rest of my life, which terrified me. I had spoken with several of my professors about medical professions and spent time researching them, all the while, completely neglecting my initial and seemingly inborn passion for physical therapy. As Thomas Edison said regarding his quest to find the perfect material for the light bulb, “I have not failed 1000 times. I have successfully discovered 1000 ways to not make a light bulb.” I had found 1000 professions that did not fit me, but in that struggle for a career path, I found the one that did make the light bulb. Physical therapy.
That day while I was sitting across the table from the woman who knew me better than anyone else, more stressed out than I had been in a long time, all the weight of not knowing what I was going to do was gone. I finally knew. I was no longer searching but striving. I realized that my passion for the body, for helping others live a healthy lifestyle, and for sports, in conjunction with my energetic, extraverted personality all fit perfectly into the physical therapy profession. I love the hands-on, relational approach to patient treatment that physical therapy embraces. I love the variety of people I will get to meet, help, and grow to know. I love the vast amount of possibilities the field offers to be adventurous and reach all kinds of needs in all areas of the world. I love that I will be able to relieve suffering and bring joy to the lives of the people I treat. Everything lined up that day, and ever since then, I have been pursuing this dream of becoming a physical therapist, setting goals, overcoming obstacles, and staying focused on such an exciting career ahead of me!
The [dreaded] Application Process
Hi everyone, this is my first official DPT School Post. Just to let you know I’m going to try to keep these as short, to the point and fun as possible.
First things first, I am a slightly nontraditional student. What I mean by that is that I didn’t apply for PT school my senior year of college halfway through my senior year. Actually I applied for chiropractic school (which is a WHOLE other story, that I might get to in another post) which definitely has affected my perspective on the whole process.
The PT school application process for me was not too bad. Most of the schools I applied to (KU med, University of Central Arkansas, South Carolina Med School, St. Mary’s, and Regis) were on PTCAS, which is the centralized application service. One was not, that is UT Southwestern in Dallas.
There were several landmark events in my process of applying, I’ll hit on them all briefly, hopefully this will give you an idea of how the process works as a whole.
PTCAS: PTCAS is the centralized application service that most PT schools use. What this means for you is that you make one application online and send that one application to several schools. So, applying has a whole lot easier than I expected…at least at this point.
Pros:
- one application
- can send to several schools with ease
- all electronic
Cons:
- can get expensive quickly
- there are usually extra applications for schools
So I filled out my PTCAS which includes a extensive amount of information including: all the information about every class you took in college (most time consuming part), a resume, personal essays, letters of recommendation, observation hours, and a couple other things. Filling in my entire course history was pretty exhausting. I recommend having a transcript in hand, it doesn’t have to be an sealed off, super intense one, just something with all of your classes, grades, credit hours, and course numbers.
I can’t emphasize enough how important the essay portion of the application is!!!!! For most of the schools you apply to this is the ONLY thing they have to “really get to know you,” which I think is criminal. That being said, have a voice in it, as clique as it sounds be yourself and tell your story well. I might post my essay on here so you can get a feel for it (not that mine’s great or anything but just so you can see). That’s all I’ll say on that.
SUPPLEMENTAL APPLICATIONS: Theres not a ton to be said about this but I think it is important to mention one thing. Almost every school will have some form of supplemental application, usually they just want your money 🙂
WAITING…. This one is the killer my friends. I finished my application near the end of September and I didn’t hear back from anyone until the middle of December, and they [Rockhurst] were very quick to get back with me. I didn’t hear from other schools until January and February. So just be prepared to wait and wait hard.
INTERVIEWS: Ahhh the interviews…everyone’s favorite… I’m weird in that I actually like interviews, I think that the schools who take time to interview their applicants are much more likely to have a successful relationship with their students. There are tons and tons of resources out there for how to nail an interview, how to come across professionally and all that. Personally, I think that stuff just stresses people out more. The programs want to see that you have a passion for physical therapy, a passion for patient care and a passion to succeed in school. They don’t care if you wore the right power color or if you looked them in the eyes for 2 seconds instead of 3, remember the people interviewing you are most likely PTs, who have similar passions and people skills that you do. I had 3 interviews, all 3 of them were completely relaxed, conversational and enjoyable. That is what the majority of interviews will be! So relax, put on some extra deodorant and get after it.
LETTERS: After a shorter time of waiting, usually around 2 weeks, the schools will send you a letter, or an email or both. This is both the most terrifying and awesome experience of the whole process. There are 3 options: yes, no, or waiting [alternate] list. I’m assuming you know what yes and no mean, so I’ll talk briefly on alternate list, hopefully lift your spirits. The alternate list can be a tricky and confusing thing, I was on 2 of them. It essentially means that if one of the people they selected decides to go to a different school then a spot opens up. Simple enough right? Well, the filling of that spot is the tricky part. Most, I may even say all schools will NOT tell you what your position on the list is. I don’t know why but they just don’t. The good thing about the alternate list is that students often get into multiple schools and spots open up like crazy. I got into Rockhurst off the waiting list..so whoever you are out there who peaced out..THANK YOU. The waiting list was a huge test of patience and a growing time for me and my wife. Lots of good came out of it.
DEPOSITS: You need to pay a deposit to accept your spot in the class, this goes to your first semester of class’s tuition.
All right folks that post was long enough, hope it was helpful, let me know if you have any questions–I kinda simplified some things.
F3 Physical Therapy 
