Summer has come to a close. Fall is officially here. For some of you PT and PTA students you may be starting your first or second semesters of school. I primarily speak to the current working force of PTs. However, I wanted to take a moment and write a post specifically for you. (You are important, being the future of our profession and all.)
If you’re new here, Hi! I hope you find The PT Page to be a great resource and community! If you’re a returning reader, I hope I haven’t scared you off the profession yet and made you rethink all your life choices. I’ve been a PT for five years. So I’m not a new grad anymore, but I also wouldn’t say I’ve been a PT a long time either. I’ve been out of school long enough to forget the Modified Ashworth Scale but I DEFINITELY remember shitting my pants before a cardiopulm practical. This one is for you PT and PTA students. Here’s the top three things I wish I knew when I was in PT school.
#1. Getting A’s Doesn’t Mean You’ll Be a Good PT
This first one will hit home with my perfectionists and high achievers. I look back on PT school and now think “Wow, me and my classmates were psychotic.” We talked so much about who got an “A” on the last exam or whose GPA was the highest in the class. We viewed success in the classroom to be a predictor of our future success as PTs.
Guess what? It. Didn’t. Fucking. Matter. Now, I’m not saying don’t study at all and C’s get degrees. You still gotta know your stuff. You still gotta pass boards. But if your thoughts are “I gotta study so I can get an “A” on this test or in the class”, I advise you to reframe your mindset. Instead think “I want to understand this stuff so then I’ll be a better clinician.” I don’t know why we were all putting that unnecessary pressure on ourselves as PT students. No potential employer has ever asked me what my GPA was in PT school.
Your GPA doesn’t correlate with your success as a PT either. I mean think about some of the people you probably go to school with. We all know them, the kids who are book smart, good test takers, or don’t have to study very much and it’s so annoying because it seems like they ace every test. However, when you imagine them actually working with a patient, things don’t seem so unfair anymore.
Honestly most of what I do now as a PT is education and building trust. No “A” in any class taught me that or made me good at that. If you can talk and connect with a patient, you have the most important part down. You can be the student that got straight A’s in PT school, but if you can’t communicate well with your patients you’re not gonna be an effective PT.
There were so many times in PT school when I overstudied, even though I probably already knew as much as I was going to. Or I studied extra because I wanted the “A”. I could’ve been doing so many other things with that time. I could’ve worked more to help with student loans which are my biggest problem now. I could’ve worked a job that developed me more as a clinician than a student. Shit I could’ve taken a nap which I also desperately needed at the time. . . (spoiler alert: I still need one.)
#2. It’s Good to Have a Life Outside of PT School
When I was in school, myself and most of my classmates had trouble doing anything that wasn’t related to PT. We often felt guilty or stressed if we weren’t focused on school. If I was texting a classmate that was studying and I wasn’t, I felt a little guilty or like I was being lazy.
Again, I’m not saying don’t study or don’t dedicate yourself. You gotta study and you gotta study hard. PT school is hard. But it’s okay to have a life outside of school. Do other things. Go grab a coffee or lunch with a friend. Have a hobby and actually do it. Go home for the weekend. As a PT student I always thought about doing that stuff but then talked myself out because I felt like I needed to study. While it’s true you may not have a lot of time for those things, you still have time and should do them!
On closely related note . . .freaking take care of yourself. I’m telling you, you would and WILL tell a patient the same thing. You are literally learning to be in a profession that helps take care of people. Take time to workout, eat right, go to bed at a decent time. At one point in PT school I made a rule for myself: no studying past a certain time. I’ll be honest, I don’t remember if it was 8 or 9, but it was something like that.
And you know what? I did better when I did that. Putting a time limit made me more efficient. I got better sleep and I got better grades. Find a balance in your life now. It will only get harder as time goes along. You’ll likely actually do better!
#3. Clinicals are for Learning, Not Just Working for Free
Okay, so I was pretty lucky when it came to clinicals. I didn’t have any major issues with my sites or CIs. Actually, I liked clinicals WAY more than being in class, but like many of you, I did get a little nervous. I felt like I should go into it knowing most of the answers and often worried about making myself look like a fool.
For me I saw clinicals as a situation where I had something to prove. To a certain extent that was true. That is PARTIALLY what clinical is for. You take the info learned in class and apply it to the real life patients. However, you should learn some stuff too.
Clinicals are considered a class. It’s just a class that’s 24/7 where both your testing and learning all happen at the same time. Yes, you should show what you know, but your CI is still supposed to teach and evaluate you. I had classmates and still come across students who have absolute horror stories about their clinical sites.
Let me be very clear. YOU SHOULD NOT BE WORKING FOR FREE. If you are at a clinical site seeing a full caseload, with your CI no where in sight to teach or observe and provide feedback, you are essentially just being used for free labor. At that point, you have every right to reach out to your clinical coordinator, because you’re not getting anything out of that situation anymore.
Don’t get me wrong, you should have some autonomy. No one likes it when someone is just right there over their shoulder the entire time they treat. But your CI should be in the vicinity observing you most of the time in order to give you feedback. If they’re not watching you treat patients how do they know what your strengths and weaknesses are? Or what you need to get better at? What other skills might help you?
We already established that clinicals are a class, yes? Don’t get it twisted, you paid for those credit hours and this isn’t a residency. You’re not getting paid. If you let a clinical site take advantage of you by basically using you like a licensed therapist, then congrats you just paid someone else to have YOU work.
THAT IS NOT WHAT YOU PAID FOR. This problem is seriously rampant and needs to stop. If you are in a clinical where you don’t feel like you’re getting appropriate feedback or learning because your CI is always treating another patient while you’re treating a patient, seriously, talk to your clinical coordinator. You pay your school a ridiculous amount of money. You should get what you paid for and that is to learn, not provide free labor.
Student PTs I hope you found some helpful advice in this post. What are some other problems you face during school? I’d love to get a perspective on how things have changed over the last few years. Regardless, don’t worry, I promise you’re gonna make it. I hope you’ll come back to The PT Page along your journey and even after you’ve graduated! If you’re a working PT who read this, what do you wish you’d known in PT school? Share in the comments and drop some advice to current PT students. Student or not, to get more content check out the blog page, hit subscribe below, and follow on Instagram @the_pt_page so you can stay up to date on all things PT.
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