Why I'm Including "Clinical Sites" Section
Being a short time into my first of my 10 week internships in my final year I have had several realizations that I wish I would have had back when I started school, or even before. Here it is. PT school although intense and daunting at times, is just the beginning of your PT education. Honestly, the true purpose of PT school, besides the school making money, is just to prepare you to be able to pass the licensure exam. There is so much more to learn about the art of physical therapy that is not taught in school but rather learned in the clinic, through clinical education and further education (residency/fellowship). Some PTs are content graduating and writing DPT after their signature and calling it good with that. And the majority of these PTs are working in clinics today most likely ultrasounding, e-stimming and hot-packing everyone that walks through the door. This is not only doing a disservice to their patients by providing low quality, non evidence based treatment, but this is a disservice to our profession! The vision of up and coming PTs needs to change to becoming EXPERTS at assessing, diagnosing and treating movement disorders. However, to become and EXPERT requires more than just entry-level DPT education.