Any one here a physical therapist, doctor or nurse?

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Hello all,

I'm new to this site and I feel at home just reading the boards.

Anyway, after college I got a job as a home inspector for the government. I got fired because I couldn't handle going to strangers' homes or answering the phones doing customer service. My people skills are so-so, but dealing with people that don't want you to be there gave me severe anxiety and I just couldn't handle it.

I took this as an opportunity to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. I am actually really interested in doing physical therapy. I like the idea of helping people recover from injury and I am immensely interested in how the body works and how to fix imbalances within the body.

My only fear is physical therapy is a very interactive occupation. I have a hard time making chit chat but I seem to do okay with people when I am doing something I enjoy or I am in a situation where I am instructing them or aiding them in some way.

I was wondering if there were any other aspies here with a similar career.

Thanks.

I've been in a similar career, (physical therapy) and I desperately want to go back into it!
I think it's important to have a passion for something before you start thinking of making a go for it; sounds like you have that!

From my experience, it has it's negatives. But, the positives far outweigh those and it's incredibly rewarding when you are able to help someone get back to their 'normal life' when they've been in pain for weeks, months, sometimes years.

Some of the difficulties I had, I was able to 'deal' with and the training your given helps you learn ways and means of communicating; others, not so much, which is why I'm not doing it right now. But, I think those were largely due to the fact that I was self employed. Aspects of self employment made it far too stressful for me at the time.

I'd be happy to elaborate if you like, but I don't want to bore you either!

Like I said, it's very rewarding and you learn from it every day

please elaborate! i would love to hear more

I'll get back to you on this tomorrow; need to go to bed! Early start in the morning.
I'm in the UK by the way, so there may be differences in how things work (job wise) depending on where you are.

So, BigE, thought I'd get back to you! I'm guessing you want an idea of what difficulties you might face and of course, what makes it all worth it!
I can only comment on the positives and negatives I had of the experience in relation to the things that affect me. (This is also from my experience of being self employed; which you may not need, nor choose to be).
Also, I'd like to point out that I've only recently been diagnosed with AS (just over a month ago!). So, when I was working as a physical therapist I didn't have the foresight that certain situations would prove to be as difficult to deal with as I had imagined; I had never come across AS and just thought I was quiet and a bit different!

These things you may already be aware of, so I'm sorry if this is useless info! (plus I'm a really bad 'waffler'!)
I think I said the positives far outweigh the negatives; this is true as far as I'm concerned, but it may not seem so from the following. The negatives are things which mostly, you can work around, as long as you focus on the idea that this might be your 'dream job'.

My difficulties when I got out and actually did the job:
1. The staff I worked with, (nothing to do with them); but the 'socializing' element with colleagues, I'm awful at! I generally felt uncomfortable going in and coming out of work because I knew there was going to be the mandatory 'Hi and Goodbye conversations'.

2. Promotion of YOU. You have to 'drum up' business somehow (we all have to earn a wage!); and that means promoting yourself and taking part in any promotional activities with the company/clinic you work with. Basically, it means you have to be prepared to approach people or businesses (like golf clubs, rugby clubs, gyms etc); do a lot of talking about what you do and at the same time coming across as professional, competent and likeable; (I don't know about you, but I fumble and stumble over my words most of the time and it doesn't come across very well!) I also had to take part in 'health fairs', (excessive noise and big crowds, I don't cope with very well at all); which could 'crop up' every couple of months or so.

3. Chit chat with clients. I 'learned' (to a degree), to do this by just doing it over and over and to some extent making the right noises when needed, I'm still not very good at it, but I try. You do get to know what people prefer; some people don't stop talking and are there for a bit of a 'venting' session as well as the therapy itself. Others WANT a therapist who doesn't say much; but you can also lay boundaries yourself by being the 'silent' therapist, I found that some background 'zen' music tended to help people relax and switch off from needing to chat just for the sake of filling up silences. I can do chit chat up to a point, providing the other person is talking about themselves mostly, which, in a therapy environment, I've found they almost always do!

4. This is probably a bit crude, but I suppose I should mention it. You will be seeing people at various times of the day when they are freshly clean from the shower in the morning to when they have just come from an 8 hour shift at work......enough said I think!

6. I only did a couple of house calls when I was working and to be honest I would never, ever, ever do it again!

7. Variations in routine. One month you might have a full list of clients every week with no time to breathe, the next month you might have a few appointments booked over 2 or 3 weeks etc. This is where the promotional side has to kick in. Doing it part time with a second job is probably how I'd do it again. But this also depends on your locality, who you're associated with and probably how specialised your training is.

8. Energy. It can be quite 'draining' listening to some people, (some like to offload their problems onto you). Plus, you give them all your focus for 1hr, 45mins, 30mins however long the session is. But, these incidents can be far and few between.

The positives:
1. The training and education. You learn so much. (And then you learn some more when you get out and work). You also HAVE to keep learning/training as new approaches to the work advance/change.

2. Like I said before, It's an incredibly rewarding occupation. Someone can come in limping, complaining about how they can't do this or that because of their pain, but they can walk out and say, "I feel a bit/lot better"; either way just being able to make some sort of difference, however small, is amazing and you can't wait to try and do the same for someone else. (This won't always be the outcome.)

3. Having an occupation you're passionate about. I've had various jobs, (none of them I could call careers as such), but having a career in something you're interested in and you could see yourself doing for a long time makes a big difference.

4. You learn on the job. You learn more about the discipline (how to treat an injury in different people with different needs) and you also learn more about people.

5. One to one. I cope much better on a one to one level than in any other situation (apart from when I'm alone!). There are no distractions, you are there to focus on that person only

6. If you end up or decide to be self employed, you can decide which days you want to work or how many days you can cope with.

7. Calm environment. No crowds, no desks (apart from your own, possibly!), no noise, no phones ringing.....bliss!

8. This one's in relation to your first post. The people who come for an appointment, WANT you to be there!

If you're interested in physical therapy I'd recommend booking an appointment to have the experience of being treated (you get a sense of what it involves and what the environment would be like to work in) and also to 'pick their brains'!

I hope something here is of help. Like I said, this is from my own experience and what affects me, so may not be relevant to the things that affect you.
I would highly recommend it despite of the negatives; but there are negatives to every job/career.

Sorry I haven't spell-checked any of this!

Wow, I can't thank you enough! This is the type of insight I was looking for!

The negatives you listed are pretty much the ones I am concerned with, especially being social and making small talk, both of which I am terrible at. But I do feel I would be better at it in an environment I enjoy with people who want to be there (as you mentioned).

Do you have any tips on getting a job as a therapy aide? I've been trying for almost a year as PT schools here require volunteer or paid experience in a clinical setting. Most places seem to want someone who is really upbeat and friendly and I just can't get myself to act like that in an interview setting.

Thanks again.

PS. I totally know what you mean about being quiet and different. I didn't know about AS until relatively recently. I just thought I was shy and quiet. Now those pictures of me as a toddler hiding behind my grandmother because I was afraid of crowds of strangers makes a lot more sense now!

Oh yeah, and what is a waffler?? haha

Yep, I've had a few of those, "so that's why I was like that or did that" moments recently after the diagnosis; it's actually been really comforting!

I can sympathise with you in regards to it being difficult to get 'your foot in the door'; it isn't easy by any means in any occupation.

Before I did my degree, I did about 6 months unpaid, 'work experience' in an NHS hospital under a physiotherapist. I contacted him directly rather than go through the hospital and it just happened that he needed someone to help with menial tasks that he found difficult to do because he had a disability. At the end of the six months he did ask me if I would accept a sort of 'apprenticeship'; I'd gain experience in a physiotherapy department whilst studying and he would have me as an aide. By then, I'd applied and been accepted onto a physical therapy course with a different approach to physiotherapy; so, I didn't accept his offer (regretably!) Anyway, my point from all this waffling (see below!) is, you never know what can come of something.

So, I'd recommend writing letters to any and every company or individual in your area which have anything to do with physical therapy, or even any 'care' orientated places, asking them if you could do some volunteer work or work experience. It's probably not what you want to do right now, but it's good experience, gives you an idea of whether that's what you definitely want to do and it looks great on your CV when you apply for courses and jobs in the future. Even just writing to people within the field to ask their advice about what you'd need to do, how you go about getting your 'foot in the door'; there's no harm in it and most people, I'd imagine, love talking about what they do if they enjoy their work.........I think I'm guilty of that here!

You could also start doing online courses related to physical therapy; like human anatomy, physiology etc. So you learn the basics and again it looks good on your CV. There may also be 'access courses' that you could do; I think they last about 1 year but they give you 'access' (funnily enough!) to get onto the course you want to apply for. (You may already have looked into this; I don't know!)

It might be worth asking your family if they know of anyone who is a friend of the family or a relative who works within the medical field, you might get some good contacts and an offer of work experience; it helps if someone knows you or knows of you and your family, because they are less likely to draw/judge on those dreaded 'first impressions', if you know what I mean?!

I don't think being upbeat is going to make anyone a better therapist than someone who is a bit more demure; so, if they say that to you, ignore them or point out your strengths in relation to that type of work.
I tend to tell people in interviews before it starts that I get nervous in such situations; but, I don't know if that's the right or wrong thing to do to be honest. I can't really give any advice on interviews, I dread them, and probably don't come across very well!

Other than that, I'm afraid I've run out of suggestions! Basically, (and maybe unfortunately), as you said, you need to be able to show on paper that you've made an effort to show an interest in the subject and gone out of your way to seek out experience.

Don't give up on the idea if you're really keen on it; stick with it!
Therapy is about helping people in pain and not necessarily about making them laugh or making it a 'social event', they go to a pub or a restaurant for that! So, anyone who says you HAVE to be upbeat (or whatever) to do the job, is talking rubbish!

Good luck!

Waffler or waffling:
1. A repetitive response to a question
2. To ramble on without a point; to argue a point without substantial evidence or a clear opinion.

(I tend to waffle a lot when I'm writing!)

Thanks for taking the time to write all that out! You don't know how reassuring your advice has been.

I'm already in the midst of doing my pre-requisites for PT school. I'm taking anatomy right now. Part of the application is a certain number of hours of paid or volunteer experience in a clinical setting. Being that I'm currently unemployed, I would really love to get a job as an aide so I can fulfill my hours and get paid but it looks like I'm just going to have to try to get a job doing something else and volunteer in my spare time.


Don't we all tend to 'waffle' a bit? I know if I'm talking about something I find interesting, I'll go on and on....