It’s that time of year again. October is in full swing which means it’s time to celebrate National PT month. A month dedicated to appreciating the amazing work we do all year around. As PTs we know we deal with a lot of shit – packed schedules, never-ending documentation, and little recognition for it the other 11 months out of the year and that’s not even the half of it.
Despite both us and our places of employment knowing we do a lot of hard, but really great work, PT month celebrations tend to be a little …. let’s say… lack luster. Honestly most celebrations for healthcare providers miss the mark. I have seen A LOT of PTs voicing on social media how awful or non-existent their PT month celebrations are. Well everyone, we’re talking problems and solutions in this blog post. Here’s your chance to share how you actually want to be celebrated during PT month. (And if you’re someone who manages PTs, I triple beg you to read this post!)
How We’ve Been Celebrating
When we look out how PT month is typically celebrated in the workplace, it’s pretty sad. Lots of places do absolutely nothing. That’s no bueno. But I have seen some PTs say they wished their clinics did nothing because what they do comes off shallow or meaningless.
For example, a meaningless social media post. Some may think “Oh well it’s a shoutout to the public! Some verbal recognition is always nice!” It is… but how much of that is for show? Let’s be real, most of social media is for show and appearance. Social media itself is a very shallow place. Actions speak a lot louder than words. You can tell me you appreciate me all you want but if your actions don’t back it up, eventually words (private or public) become meaningless.
Another PT month troupe, one that’s become well-known across the US, is drumroll please . . . . a clinic pizza party!! Who doesn’t love a pizza party right??? Well turns out a lot of us. No one’s getting excited over them anymore, why? Because we’ve realized it’s the bare minimum form of employee appreciation. Also lunch of any form is not that great when you’re just inhaling it while trying to get as much documentation done as possible before your afternoon patients start showing up.
If you are a manager and think pizza parties are truly enough and everyone loves them, I’m not sorry to have to be the one to tell you to step your game up.
Time, Money, and Energy
So now some of you are reading this and are like “okay then girl, so how would YOU like to be celebrated?!” To me the most valuable commodities of a person are their time, their money, and their energy. If you can celebrate PTs in one of these three ways then to me you’re on the right track.
Time
During PT month what if we got a little more time back? One idea to implement this would be to give PTs an extra hour of doc time. Documentation is the WORST part of the job and for most of us we never feel like there’s enough time to do it. Giving me some extra doc time to make sure I leave on time or early would make me feel appreciated.
If a clinic can swing it I say go further and give a little extra PTO. A day would be great but even just an hour. Tell therapists they can each choose a day to leave a little early. No questions asked, block out the schedule and give that therapist some of their time back to get home to their family earlier, make that exercise class, get an hour in of their favorite hobby, grab dinner with a friend, or shit just get an extra hour of sleep. God knows they’ve spent plenty of days in the past staying late to finish a session with a patient, seeing an extra patient, or getting through their documentation.
Money
While giving all PTs raises for this PT month would be well-deserved, I’m going to choose to live in reality. Now I know we’d be hard pressed to be asking for large bonuses as a PT month gift. However, is that really completely out of the question? If we’re talking about a large hospital or corporation, admin people get monetary bonuses all the time. Sometimes LARGE ones at that. So why not us? I’ll just leave that thought there.
If that’s still too much, don’t worry because I have more ideas. Instead of buying me a couple crappy slices of pizza, how about even a small bonus or gift card? I mean I wouldn’t say no to even just an Amazon gift card. I guarantee you I can have that spent before the end of day even with 10+ notes and a packed schedule. At least I would actually use that.
Or what if the money got invested into the therapists? Leadership could use the money to buy something to help make PTs lives easier like AI documentation systems or voice recording doc. How bout a piece or equipment or technology the therapists really want for their treatments? Or a course they really want to host or attend. Or buy them that fancy coffee machine for the break room. There’s other ways money can be used to say “thank you” to therapists without just giving it to them.
Energy
Now time and money are sometimes very difficult to find, especially if it’s a clinic not associated with a large hospital or corporation. However, putting some energy into a meaningful, well-thought out gesture can go a long way.
I think a meaningful gesture from leadership and/or patients would be nice. They could write personalized notes to each therapist saying thank you or what makes that therapist so good at their job. Have patients share their success stories to remind the PT’s of all the good work we do. It’s so cheesy to say but there really is a little bit of magic to what we do but it gets lost on us sometimes because it’s our everyday.
It doesn’t have to be extravagant, but to me a gesture like that says A LOT more than a social media post or our picture in the weekly newsletter.
As PT’s we definitely don’t expect to be thanked everyday for doing the job we signed up for. More often than not this is a thankless job so we’re used to it. But if there’s anytime to have a discussion about how we’d like to be thanked, it’s now in October.
How do you celebrate PT month? How would you like to be celebrated during it? What’s some ways your employer has celebrated PT month that either hit home or missed mark? Let’s think creatively on what we would want and share in the comments. Leaders and managers who read this, THANK YOU. Did you get any good ideas? Hopefully there will be some in the comments for you as well. If you tried them, how’d it go?
Happy PT month everyone! If you missed the last post it’s linked here. To make sure you don’t miss any new content, hit subscribe below and follow on Instagram @the_pt_page to stay up to date on all things PT!
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