There are millions of jobs around the world because there is so much work to get done and “someone has to do it.” My interest in the medical field is motivated by my future self-confidence and mental rewards when I succeed one day. Helping others who can’t help themselves physically does wonders for my self-esteem because I know I have the ability to serve the citizens around me. I have never been top of my class regarding academics, but as long as I know the essentials to assist someone in the real world, I can appreciate the tough education I have received and gather more energy to continue supporting people with poor health.
There is a vast variety of positions to occupy in the health science field, and unfortunately, I have not picked a specific branch to go into. My goal is to get a Bachelor of Science in Nursing so I can have more job opportunities when I start to look for a full time career. I would love to be a travel nurse so I can collect experiences from different states, or rather, different countries, but I am willing to look into obstetrics, gynecology, or physical therapy. Based on my results from Career Cruising, I may perform well as a physically active person who gets other people moving with me to improve their health. For example, a physical education teacher, acting instructor, coach, personal trainer, outdoor guide, and diving instructor were in my top nine matched results based on my responses in the skills test (Matchmaker & My Skills). All of these careers depend on loads of energy and leadership skills. I fully agree with these results, however, I do not understand why housekeeping was first on the list. I do pay attention to details often, but I enjoy being outside or being mobile.
Between the eight siblings my mom has, I have an army of relatives, many of which are in the medical field. I have always been fascinated with their knowledge and abilities, but it was not until I started high school that I showed an actual interest in human science. I found that I had a difficult time paying attention in the required science classes such as biology, chemistry, and physics. However, I excelled in athletic training, principles of health science, anatomy and physiology, and the health science hospital rotation class. I constantly made A’s in courses related to the human body, and I believe it was God’s way of showing me where my gifts were. I was devastated when I chose to leave my days of being an athlete behind at the beginning of high school, but the Lord allowed me to see how one door can open just as another closes. I think my turning point came when a missionary from my church visited for a conference and he showed people pictures of medical miracles that were happening in the country that he practiced medicine. That’s when I realized I could combine my undying desire to travel with an occupation like physical therapy and become a medical missionary. My opinions will customarily change between now and the time I get my degree, but I would like to try and become a travel therapist or nurse of some extent.
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There is a lot of hands-on work as a physical therapist. Patients usually come in with some sort of injury that can be corrected or healed if managed properly. It helps if the specialist uses their own hands to get a better idea of what may be going on with a patient. The goal is to restore function and/or mobility in a specific area or areas that were damaged by an illness, surgery, or injury (Strauss 2016). Some remedies are simple and require few visits to a physician while others need a little more assistance over time. Not everything can be fixed right away. In fact, most people who go to a physical therapist for improvement have to make their visits a regular occurrence for a designated period of time.
A lot of physical therapists work at an office. This type of work is typically performed in urban areas where there are more people who have medical emergencies/complications. By being available in the city, a greater amount of people can access the resources that a physical therapist can offer. There are lots that work within a hospital for more convenient recovery plans, but others work in a facility separate from a hospital. Many PTs operate in the same place as audiologists, occupational therapists, and speech therapists. It is also common to find a PT serving at retirement or assisted living homes. Most rehabilitation steps take place indoors, so the work environment is almost always inside somewhere. Very few physical therapists have their own practice (Summary).
Most therapists work eight hour days five days a week (Pink 1984).The projected average earnings for a physical therapist is $85,400 annually (Global Search). At the beginning of entering the career, the average pay was around $66,545 a year. Entry level is considered having five or less years of experience as a PT (Strauss 2016). An entry level job could pay around $25 an hour, and a person working full time could earn from $55-60 an hour (Becker).
The job outlook is predicted to increase by 28 percent from 2016-2026. The “baby boomers” are getting older and are becoming more susceptible to health issues found in later generations. These people need physical therapists to be available to take care of them and recover. The projected employment in 2026 is 306,900 jobs which is a 67,100 positive change from 2016 (Job Outlook).
In order to get any decent jobs as a physical therapist, a Bachelor’s degree is required at the least. People with a Master’s degree or a PhD receive a higher salary and have more job security because of their greater knowledge of the field material. A Doctorate in Physical Therapy (DPT) or a professional degree is needed to begin practicing. It usually takes around three years to receive a DPT (How to Become a Physical Therapist ). Most people who are working on a Bachelor’s degree or higher have a part-time job in a related field to gain experience that is mandatory for future positions.
In almost all health related occupations there are endless piles of paperwork that have to be filled out every day. Ellen Becker, a Nurse Practitioner, typically arrives at work early so she can finish charting from the day before and get a head start on current papers. Then she explains to patients the details of optional procedures or assessments that are about to happen. They are informed about post-procedure instructions and may be told to come in for a follow up visit. Sometimes Becker calls patients as a form of following up and she asks about how they are feeling and if they are obeying the recommended home treatments. She is allowed to prescribe medications and other remedies just as a doctor would, but 10% of the charts that Becker constructs has to be checked off by a supervising physician (Becker).
Physical therapists record a patient’s history because it could be a factor in their therapy plan. They must observe and document each person’s progress and struggles to assist in a positive change over time (What Physical Therapists Do). Therapists create exercises that help restore skeletal muscle function as well as activities that allow the patient to get their full range of motion back. Each day varies as there are different people with different complications that need to be addressed. However, every day starts and ends with charting both electronically and physical files.
Technology has provided a lot of machinery that play a heavy role in people’s recoveries nowadays. A hundred years ago we did not have treadmills and other types of equipment that you could find in a workout gym. Many of the mechanisms you might see in a gym can be used for a patient’s benefit. For example, a treadmill is a common tool to help people with some sort of leg problem get back to ambulating normally. Now we also have devices that monitor current activity, document health records, compare past data with present, and recommend solutions to a patient’s condition (Liss 2017). Lab technology and machines whose functions relate to patients are changing. Lab equipment is becoming more detailed, thus more accurate. Supplies that are used on a daily basis in health facilities are being modified and perfected to improve patient recovery and data collection.
Mechanics will always be advancing to try and make things easier and more convenient for citizens. This also means that every single health care worker needs to remain updated on the advances in medicine for the benefit and safety of all patients. Additional education of modifications consists of knowing new types of machinery, medicine, methods, and prevention strategies. Staying up to date is challenging for many employees who depend on automatic devices. For some, this could be where they begin to have issues when working on a patient because of a new software or an entirely new machine.
No one can be a physician and not want to interact with other people. There are many positions that require employees to work behind the scenes and avoid patient interaction, but doctors and related physicians cannot expect to be included in this group. Great listening skills and problem-solving expertise are helpful when dealing with other people. Patience is also a key skill that is critical to being successful in this field. All sorts of patients with varying conditions, ages and attitudes come in for help every week. Some are pleasant to be around, others can ruin your day. Change is a learned skill, and every time a physical therapist gets a new patient, they must use their readiness to make the fresh relationship work (Sherfield & Moody).
According to the Learning Style Inventory and Multiple Intelligence Survey, I have a visual preference when I learn. For the past few years, I have found that color coded notes and pictures help me retain information better. Patients will come in with signs and symptoms that are both visible and unseen by the eyes. For the signs that can be analyzed through sight, remembering pictures that I studied will assist me in making an educated decision on how to approach the situation. There are millions of anatomical photos available to assist my personal retention abilities. Posters and textbook images are color coded to make different sections stand out. As for the material that I do not have a visual to review, I use music to help me focus on rough text. The Multiple Intelligence Survey also concluded that I am a musical or rhythmic learner. Oddly enough, this method works the best when I turn my volume a notch higher than usual. This way I am canceling out extra noise and switch my attention to what I need to be memorizing.
As long as I have plenty of visual aids at my disposal in each health science class, I think being a physical trainer can be within reach. The Personality Assessment grouped me with people who are introverts and are thinking and perceiving individuals. I do try my best to “[make] things clear to others” because I do not appreciate being in the dark about anything, no matter how small the matter is. This is a crucial trait to have as a physical therapist since they serve patients that need to be aware of what is going on in their body. Physicians should perceive that not everyone understands the medical jargon they use around the office. The assessment also states that others with my type of personality are curious about how and why things work. Making sense out of something and knowing all the functional details go hand-in-hand in the entire health science field. Once I fully understand how and why parts of the body work, I need to be able to communicate that thoroughly to my patients. I believe I can do this part of the job well because I know the consequences when there is lack of communication, so I would enforce and encourage discussions to prevent confusion and error.
It is recommended by many teachers and counselors that someone who wants to be a health professional should take human health classes in high school. Thankfully, I took a handful of human body courses throughout my four years at Ryan High such as athletic training, principles of health science, health science: hospital rotation, and anatomy and physiology. These all prepared me well for college as I have seen already in my anatomy class. Since physical therapy and nursing degrees demand a certain type of disciplined individuals, I will need to make time management, prioritizing, and setting specific targets a habit to support my goals. I must “carve out time” to study and realize what is more important than other things and should be finished first. Something I struggle with is being specific with my goals – maybe that’s why I feel like I don’t achieve them very often. Perhaps it would be beneficial to me and my success if I took smaller steps of action. Bigger steps seem to have been a stretch in the past and could be an indicator to slow down and arrange my schoolwork wisely.
One of the biggest factors I will have to consider is how long this whole process will take to become a physical therapist. It is thousands of dollars of schooling that could last a decade or more, and it’s hard to think that far ahead when it is my first year in college. I should also research how to get an entry level job in the field. Having a position that offers health insurance is a huge benefit to take advantage of if and while you can, so I will look for jobs that possibly offer benefits for someone without experience. It is tough to get my foot in the door when all I have done is work in the food industry, and I have no certification or degree yet. However, after spring semester of 2019, I will be seven credit hours away from receiving my Associate’s degree which will look better to employers on a resume. I plan on attending Texas Woman’s University in fall of 2019 to begin working on a Bachelor of Science in Nursing. With at least a nursing degree, I should be able to find a place to “bridge the gap” until I pursue a bigger degree in the health science field.
References
- Bureau of Labor Statistics – Healthcare Occupations
- American Nurses Association – Career Development
- PubMed – Medical Research
- ScienceDirect – Scientific Journals
- National Institutes of Health – Research Training
- NHS Health Careers – Explore Roles
- CiteSeerX – Scientific Literature Digital Library
- Association of American Medical Colleges – Aspiring Doctors
