How to take responsibility for your own professional development as a PT

A few days ago, I asked my Insta Fam about their common struggles as a PT. Many of you replied with various challenges you face. So, through my #SmartPT series, I am trying to explore possible solutions to some of our problems. This week we will be exploring how to take responsibility for our professional development as a PT.

One of the things we look for in a job is an opportunity to grow. Growth is an essential component one needs to experience in their professional career. The lack of it negatively affects motivation and job satisfaction. 

Achieving professional development as a PT is especially difficult if you are working at a small clinic. You may become one of the experienced physiotherapists at that clinic but you are never going to grow beyond the clinic owner. 

Physiotherapists working for bigger organizations such as hospitals, and clinic chains may get promoted after certain years of experience. However, it vastly varies depending on the organization and immediate seniors. 

Hence, for the most part, our professional growth becomes our own responsibility. We need to be proactive in shaping our professional journey and the career path we embark on. Here are some steps you can take to ensure you are growing professionally. 

#1 Start your observership when you are a student 

The ideal time to start your physiotherapy observership is in your final year. You don’t have to commit to it for all evenings in the week. Start slowly by just doing  2-3 hours for a couple of days a week and build from there as you can. 

If you start your observership early on, instead of waiting till you get your degree, it benefits you in several ways. First and foremost you will get real-world working experience which will be valuable in deciding which specialty you want to pursue. When you learn at 2-3 different clinics covering different specialties, you will be a lot more clear about what you want to do.

Secondly, it will add to your experience and build up your resume. If you have varied observership experience on your resume, it shows that you are serious about your career. Additionally, it highlights one of the important qualities employers are looking for: willingness to learn. 

And finally, observership gives you a good start on your professional growth. You learn a lot more from your patients than you will ever learn in the books. Moreover, you meet several PTs working in the area of your interest. You can network with them and learn about various certifications, and courses they are interested in learning. 

#2 Learn from your peers, your seniors & colleagues.

If you are a student, your seniors can be wonderful mentors to you. When you see them working with patients and applying different techniques, simply ask about what they are doing. If your seniors are anything like my seniors they will be happy to discuss and show you the technique. It is the cheapest yet most effective way to learn various treatment approaches. Just be mindful of whom you are learning from! 

If you are working at a clinic/ hospital, you and your peers can gather to discuss any particular patient case. We used to do this at one of the clinics I worked at. Every Monday evening we used to sit together for half an hour and have a case discussion. This doesn’t have to be a formal case presentation. Y’all can just sit and start discussing. Every time we did this, I learned something new that made me look at my patients from a fresh perspective. 

#3 Learn at your own pace but commit to learning regularly

Life gets busy especially when you start working. It is so hard to find time between your college work, home visit, and job. Weekends become sacred and you want to use that time to run personal errands. So attending in-person weekend workshops feels cumbersome. Thankfully we now have several online learning platforms designed for physiotherapists. 

One such platform I know is MedBridge. Medbridge is a huge online library of physiotherapy webinars (Including live ones). With their yearly subscription, you get access to evidence-based courses covering a variety of topics and specialties for the entire year! 

MedBridge has:

• 50+ new courses added monthly to keep you up to date on current techniques and strategies
• Case-based quizzes with clinical reasoning behind every answer to ensure knowledge retention
• Patient demos and case studies in every course reinforce the practical application of evidence-based skills

You can learn from experienced international industry leaders from the comfort of your home. Online courses can be completed at your own pace while with live webinars you get to interact and ask questions to your instructors. 

With their educational plan you will get access to:

• Online education courses 
• Live webinars 
• Medbridge certificate courses 
• And a lot more! 

I am super excited to tell you that I partnered with Medbridge to get my readers an exclusive discount of $150 on their yearly subscription. Just use my affiliate code ‘PTCAREERPATHS’ at the checkout to get $150 off! Check this link out to avail the discount. 

#4 Hone your soft skills

Soft skills are the personal characteristics that influence your ability to work well with others. Linkedin 2019 global talent report trends report mentioned that 92% of talent professionals and hiring managers agree that candidates with strong soft skills are increasingly important. So please do not ignore soft skills when working on your professional development as a PT.

Some of the soft skills for physiotherapists include Communication skills, time management skills, and leadership skills. To develop the soft skills you will need to learn more about them first. Online learning platforms such as Skillshare, Coursera, and Udemy are flooded with courses on soft skills. You can check any of those out. 

The next step is to introspect. See how you have been operating so far and what needs to change. The last and final step is the most powerful one. It is putting everything you learned to practice. It takes time and patience to nurture each of the soft skills. But eventually, over time it becomes easier and easier. 

#5 Embark on the entrepreneurial journey 

It is one of the rollercoaster rides for sure! It is exciting and scary at the same time. Building something of your own is exhilarating but the uncertainty can make you feel scared. You may be thinking of starting your own clinic, a telehealth company, blog, youtube channel, or anything else that is on your mind. 

One of the things that I tell my physiotherapy entrepreneurs is to start building their online presence as a Physiotherapist before starting to build their business. Having a strong online presence helped PT entrepreneurs such as Meghana Dave to grow her company, HealthQ. 

Being an entrepreneur leads to your professional development as a PT. You are accountable for the growth of your business. That pushes many entrepreneurs to go learn new things not just for their business but also for themselves. 

Summary 

In the end, I would like to mention that our professional development as a PT is our own responsibility. The organization that you are working for may or may not offer that opportunity but it shouldn’t stop you. 

The first step is to start early, remember, an early bird catches a fish! If you are already a working professional you can facilitate case discussions at your workplace and learn from your colleagues. 

If you do not have time and energy to attend in-person workshops, I recommend you check out Medbridge.  It is a platform that covers different PT topics in a variety of online and live webinars. You can learn from the comfort of your home at the time that works the best for you. 

Finally, you can push yourself to take on an entrepreneurial journey. Start small and grow from there. Just remember to be in the game for the long haul. 

If you need more guidance with your PT Career, feel free to sign up for my one-on-one consultation session. Here we will discuss what is the best suitable solution for you based on your unique needs.