APTA Nebraska Podcast
The APTA Nebraska Podcast dives into the stories, challenges, and innovations shaping physical therapy in our state. We’re here to advance, promote, and protect the practice of physical therapy, build our community, and optimize the health and quality of life for all Nebraskans.
APTA Nebraska Podcast
E3 - EPSIG: Early Professional Special Interest Group and Navigating the First Years of PT Practice
Three early-career physical therapists share their journeys navigating the first years of practice, discussing both the rewards and challenges they've encountered along the way. We explore how APTA Nebraska's Early Professional Special Interest Group (EPSIG) provides mentorship and community support for PTs and PTAs in their crucial first five years.
• Kirsten, Joel, and Cole reveal what attracted them to physical therapy, highlighting the biopsychosocial aspects of the profession
• Early-career therapists experience excitement seeing patients improve while also feeling challenged by the knowledge gap between school and practice
• Professional development strategies include seeking mentorship, utilizing clinical practice guidelines, and consuming targeted educational content via podcasts and social media
• EPSIG connects early-career professionals with experienced mentors beyond their workplace to provide fresh perspectives
• The group hosts networking events, educational opportunities, and creates community among practitioners facing similar challenges
• Early-career professionals bring valuable fresh perspectives while still developing their clinical expertise
• EPSIG welcomes any PT or PTA in their first five years of practice, with mentorship opportunities for any APTA member beyond five years of experience
If you're interested in connecting with EPSIG, visit the APTA Nebraska website or email the EPSIG team to join their mailing list for upcoming events and mentorship opportunities.
NE APTA EPSIG page:
https://aptanebraska.org/Early_Professional_SIG [aptanebraska.org]
Membership Form:
https://forms.gle/qYqX7YyaLMsFyKSi8 [forms.gle]
Mentor Form:
https://forms.gle/zvjoQbcpd6mtm8c48 [forms.gle]
Email:
Welcome to the APTA Nebraska podcast, where we dive into the stories, challenges and innovations shaping physical therapy in our state. We're here to advance, promote and protect the practice of physical therapy, optimizing the health and quality of life for all Nebraskans. Join us as we connect with experts, share insights and build community throughout our profession. With experts, share insights and build communities throughout our profession. Hey, welcome back to the APTA Nebraska podcast. My name is Brad Dexter, I'm the host of the podcast and I'm excited to sit down with this group and have a conversation. Today we are talking with our members of the Early Professional Special Interest Group with APTA Nebraska, and I'm really kind of eager to hear some of their experiences and what they're trying to accomplish with EPSIG right now. So, guys, I'm going to turn the floor over to you and let you introduce yourselves, joel. Maybe we can start with you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm Joel Schroeder. I live in Gretna, nebraska, and I practice currently in Lincoln, nebraska, at CHI Health Physical Therapy, powered by Go Physical Therapy is our parent company. But I will be transitioning, actually in June, to Nebraska Methodist Outpatient Clinic. You know, life happens a couple years into practice. I'm getting married in June, so life changes and that's okay. But that's where I practice.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm Kirsten Wagner. I am practicing here in Omaha, nebraska, with Bellevue Physical Therapy at our Papillion location. So yeah, I've been there about a year. I did just complete the orthopedic residency at UNMC this past year as well.
Speaker 1:Congrats and Cole, we'll kick it over to you.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I'm Cole Meadows. I'm a physical therapist at Rock Valley Physical Therapy here in Omaha as well. So I've been practicing for about two years at our 108th and Maple location, but I'm also starting to move down slowly transition to our clinic down in the Midtown area to potentially start taking over and running the clinic here before too long no-transcript job and it sounds like even locationally it's a little bit better fit drive time for you right, absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 2:I know this would be, you know, good for family too and, like I said, understanding that you know life changes and I love where I'm at. I don't want to leave and but you know, moving forward.
Speaker 1:I built good patient rapport, but I'm excited to start the new chapter, so Absolutely, and, and Cole, you've been at the same place for the last couple of years, right?
Speaker 4:Yes, I've been there for two years and absolutely loved it.
Speaker 1:Awesome. All right, so you guys got this question. What, like five years ago when you were interviewing for physical therapy school? Crazy that it was that long ago already. But what led you into PT? Why do you want to be a PT?
Speaker 3:I can jump in with this one first. So I was exposed to PT pretty early. My mom went back to school when I was in elementary school to be a PT assistant. So seeing her go through school and then getting to hang around at work and a few very mild sports injuries. Thankfully I got to do some PT. But yeah, I was like, wow, this is pretty cool. They get to talk to people all day, take them through exercises, you meet cool people, they do better, they feel better, they get to do things that they enjoy in life. And from then on I wanted to do PT. And here we are.
Speaker 1:So it was about, like the connections with people for you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, connections with people and just the human body is amazing, so that's centerpiece so connections with people and then just kind of fascination with human body.
Speaker 2:Okay, joel, how about you? Um for me, you know I ever since I was little I always wanted to do something in health care, um, but I never could quite put my finger on what it was. You know, I thought pediatric, being a pediatrician, at one point. But then I really stopped and, like, looked at my personality and kind of interests I had and went and shadowed a bunch and found that, you know, pt was the best fit, just because it allowed you know, allowed and now does allow you to be part of people's success, helping to maximize their function and meet people where they are, to help get back to their good quality of life. And just seeing that in practice when I would shadow really stood out to me and again, kind of like Kirsten said, the human body is just fascinating in how it works and that drew me into pt all right, so I'm I'm gonna try to give like a one word summary of that, like, so restoration is kind of like your thing, like seeing seeing people, uh, being restored in some way.
Speaker 1:Okay, all right, cole, how about you?
Speaker 4:yeah. So in my case it started, like many, you know, I was exposed through a sports injury myself and ended up going to pt um which, I'll be honest, at the time, I I loathed that. You know, I really had a, you know, a hating relationship with my physical therapist and not because, you know, there was anything to do with with him honestly had more to do with myself. You know, I was taken away from a sport I loved you. I was forced to be on the sidelines and felt very isolated from it.
Speaker 4:Um, so when I talked to a lot of people about why I got into it, it was more about what my physical therapist did for me, um, mentally more than physically.
Speaker 4:I mean, I went through a pretty rough six months of physical therapy, pretty rigorous, and it got me back to the sport I love, but more mentally, what it did, um, my therapist was very uplifting, willing to carry me through the highs and lows of every day, um, you know, and that takes a lot of grace and a lot of patience. And so, walking out of that, you know, my final day, getting back to the sport I love, I realized how important it was for me to be in a career where I could develop relationships, I could uplift others, um and contribute towards their success and just overall quality of life. Um, and going forward from that, I was able to see a physical therapist work with my grandfather when he had had Parkinson's and dementia and see how many years that really bought him, and then from there, the same thing. I just fell in love with how unique, how amazing the human body is and how transformative it really can be in such a short duration to be in this field.
Speaker 1:Well, well said, without even prompting you guys, you basically hit the biopsychosocial model right, hit all of those aspects of it in your answers and I resonate with everything that you guys said. I feel very similarly got into it to help people in some capacity, right. And then when you get through school and you're actually practicing on the other side like, you start to understand the depth to which you're actually helping people, right. It's not just the physical component and it's not just a physical, mental component. There's a community aspect to that as well and the social aspect to that as well. So I appreciate everything that you guys just said. So early on first couple of years of your career here, what have you guys found has been the most exciting so far and what's been challenging to you guys?
Speaker 2:I would say for me you know, I'll take a stab at this first One of the most exciting things is is really seeing the um, the reactions or the changes that people go through and and like, especially, you know if it's a easier fix. You know the sudden changes that you can have with people and just seeing them like, oh, you know, there is hope for me and in my. You know, I'm not going to have chronic pain or whatever because we took care of xyz issue, um, but just helping. You know I'm not going to have chronic pain or whatever because we took care of XYZ issue, but just helping them, you know, be part of that success kind of as I mentioned earlier really just seeing that transform their outlook on their everyday life too and then they're able to do more out in the community, at home with their families, anything like that.
Speaker 4:I thought really early on what excited me. Getting on the field was like, wow, you know we've really touched, you know, the tip of the iceberg with school, with what we've learned. There's so much more out there and I think that ties into really what's been challenging too. But you know, the most exciting part to me has been the opportunity to grow, to learn. I feel like I walk out of the clinic every day and I've learned something new from patients. They teach me so much no-transcript. So I'd say you know, what's been exciting has just been the opportunity to grow both as a person, as a professional, through this career. But you know the draw side to that as well as just what that. You know what that takes, how much work, how much effort that can take and making sure that you're keeping that separate.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I have to echo both Joel and Cole with my exciting part, like getting into the clinic and having patients get better. The way you learn they will in school is always exciting. You see that in clinicals. But being in a place longer than that 10-week, 12-week, however many week longest clinical is is is really incredible. And to have patients come back to I mean hopefully not for the same injury, of course, but you develop that rapport and they're like oh, I got so much better here and got back to doing what I love, so they return is pretty, pretty exciting to see. As far as challenging, I would say, you know insurance is always going to be my biggest like challenge and finding the battling against insurance a little bit as well as just figuring out insurance is a challenge for me personally.
Speaker 2:So I kind of skipped out on the challenge part too and kind of, after hearing Cole, I had a similar thought in the sense of, you know, it's exciting to be able to grow and to know, okay, here's my limits, here's where I can continue to, to expand upon. But I feel like that's a challenge at times too, because I feel like, um, you know, people are coming to me because they trust me as a professional and I as a challenge. You know, sometimes it feel bad because, like, I have to know the answer, every answer, to every patient. But I think that's the importance of realizing your, your personal limits, and why mentorship is so important. Um, no matter where you're at, um, because you can, you're always learning. That's why they call it a practice. You're always learning and um, so kind of taking that too is making it as an excitement, is to grow. But it's a challenge to, you know, feel like you're, you know, being fulfilling to patients and not having every answer that they ask you, I guess is that.
Speaker 1:So so, just yeah, just just to be clear, you guys didn't graduate. Go on to the clinic and then have everything figured out right away.
Speaker 4:Not at all.
Speaker 1:Good, good. I'm Kind of eager to know, like you guys are two years in, what other types of like early career aspirations do you have? How are you trying to grow or develop right now and how have you been pursuing those things?
Speaker 3:little bit more mentorship, more didactic type work, but it also opened up the education piece to me as well. I thought teaching in lab was really fun and exciting, so that's something I'd like to continue doing, whether that's having students come to my clinic where I could be a CI, or maybe in the future continuing to help with labs and classes. That's something I'm looking forward to.
Speaker 4:I think for me, one of the things I knew coming out is that I really enjoyed working with athletes of all kinds and as I got out I realized that was true.
Speaker 4:But I've seen my horizons been brought in a little bit, so to speak. So, currently, doing through a lot of con ed, I've been able to pursue a couple different certifications and working with overhead athletes, and that's been something very enjoyable for me. I've had a lot of opportunities, a lot of support from where I work to pursue that heavily. So that's been wonderful. But I've also realized how much more I enjoy different aspects that in school we touched on and I maybe didn't understand the full realization or I didn't get that full exposure in clinical rotations. So it's been really nice for me to say that I maybe wasn't exposed to as much vestibular or TMD in clinical rotations in school. And now I'm out in practice and I get the opportunity to ask people hey, tell me more about this, how do I do this? You know, help me out with this patient, and that's been a phenomenal experience for me, you know. In addition, getting the opportunity to grow too and, you know, having aspirations towards clinical management and being on the administrative side of things.
Speaker 2:Um, that's been something that I'm really looking forward to growing into over the next couple of years as well I would say, for me personally it's been, um, you know, I'm kind of I don't want to say an outlier in there.
Speaker 2:I don't have like one specific area yet, um, in practice that I want to directly hit. Like you know, orthopedics has definitely become more of my strong suit, but I also think that I've taken a lot of those areas where I, you know, as I'm going through a patient case, I'm like, wow, this, I'm a little bit weaker in this area Like I've used that as a challenge to just strengthen my kind of like fill in the gaps with TMD. You know it's not super common that you see that, but I've kind of taken that as a challenge and done quite a few continuing education courses with that, another one being oncology rehab. You know, when I first started, I worked part-time at an oncology rehab clinic and just getting to learn more about the avenues that that can present itself on top of, obviously, orthopedic care. But I don't have one specific area where it's like and I want to pursue this yet. But that's part of learning and I'm just kind of still feeling my putting my feelers out there where I want to go.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So you guys, you guys mentioned, just like this, this sense of almost every day you're in the clinic and there's, there's so much more that you feel like you need to know or could know, just from the patients that you're working with. How do you guys go about pacing yourself for lack of better terms, right, how do you go about pacing yourself with some of your ongoing learning and even just getting used to that feeling of being uncomfortable at times.
Speaker 2:Honestly, one thing I can jump in on that that I've found that patients care about the most is they want someone who's honest, and so you know you want to give your best, you know, educated answer that you can to your patient. But I think it's important to just to say I don't know right now, but I will look that up. I know I'll try to find an answer out. Um, and I've had so many patients that have been like you know I appreciate your honesty of like you know, not trying to just give me some some podoc answer, you know giving them the best I can but say here you know I'll continue to research that and I think that that's important. Um, along with you know, working alongside your teammates just in your clinic. You know they're good mentors too. Just ask them kind of quick questions. That's on the spot, and then you can, you know, pace that finding continuing education classes to dive deeper.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I was going to jump in with kind of reaching out to my coworkers in that way. So I take it more as like what patients am I seeing now? And so I take off a little more like bite-sized pieces, like, oh, I have some questions about my Achilles tendinopathy patient or XYZ patient, and then I'll talk to my coworkers about that. And mentorship too which little caveat for EPSIG. There we do have mentorship. So if you don't have great mentorship at your clinic, maybe that's just because there's only two therapists there, maybe you don't have many people to go to there. It doesn't have to be bad mentorship, you maybe just don't have the access to it. We have those opportunities too. So shameless plug there for EPSIG.
Speaker 1:I'll let you plug that again in a little bit too All right, great Thanks, I mean great.
Speaker 4:I will say, brad, when you mentioned the word pacing, that is not in my vocabulary at all, especially in these first two years. I feel like I talk with my mentor a lot, who I also have utilized through EPSIG and that's how I got connected into that. I'm constantly texting back and forth so I almost feel a little bad for my mentor and the fact how much I contact them. But I think that's where I've gotten a lot of really great feedback from my mentor and say, hey, it is okay to pump the brakes on these things. You have, you know, many, many years in this career to unfold all these questions and answers. So take it one thing at a time. You know, when those patients pop up and you have questions, that's the best time to go and approach those questions that you may have, because it's going to have the most immediate benefit to them.
Speaker 1:So I've heard mentorship through EPSIG. I've certainly heard continuing education. Do you guys have any just like life hacks that you've used to get information in quickly? And I'm even thinking about, like are you using AI for anything right now? Do you have podcasts that you listen to? What, like? What do you like to do?
Speaker 4:I am a big podcast guy, um, so I had a lot of time when I been running more and starting to train, get, actually get ready for this half marathon that's coming up this weekend. Gosh, that's really. That's coming to attention, my attention now hopefully.
Speaker 1:Anyway, that's where you've built up the mileage that you need to have.
Speaker 4:Yes, thankfully, I've adhered to good progressive overload protocols, like any pt would recommend, and have not missed a single day and there's a lot of sarcasm in that, but, um no, in that time I found podcasts has been a great way for me to learn. I learned during school. I'm very much an auditory learner, so I've taken that into the clinic and out of the clinic as well. Um so, finding finding podcasts that I thoroughly enjoy but also can squeeze into my schedule and time, that works for me I like to read so the cpgs that that gets that get put out.
Speaker 3:I I like to look at those. I'm not so much a auditory learner but of course I will listen to all of the APTA podcasts, you know. But CPGs Instagram Reels oh, those are my go-to Instagram.
Speaker 1:Reels CPGs and Instagram Reels Okay.
Speaker 3:Maybe not for like real factual stuff, but exercise ideas. Of course you've got to really look through those and think what is this actually working? But some of them are good. Some of them are good.
Speaker 2:I would say for me, too, it's um podcasts, the same thing, but I I'm a big fan of the Mike Reynolds show. Um, learned a lot from them. Um, I have a two hours in the car every day to Lincoln, so I have lots of, lots of listening time, so that's been encouraging. And then, yeah, instagram listening time, so that's been encouraging. And then, yeah, instagram reels is another good one I agree with that Well, okay, we've gathered a lot of information about you guys.
Speaker 1:I really wanted to kind of like peel back what the first couple of years out of school been like for you. What's that experience been like? But I really want to kind of touch on why we're here, and that's because you're all involved with EPSIG. So can you start off with just telling our audience why are you involved with EPSIG, how long has it been around and what are you guys trying to accomplish with EPSIG?
Speaker 3:All right, so I'll jump in here. I wanted to join EPSIG because you know APTA advocacy, being involved, is just so important, especially in our field, as well as the community of it who you know. Those connections are going to really help you go far. And also you can refer people out to my classmates. I can reach out to my classmates. But even more than that, my classmates is 65 people. You know 66 of us graduating.
Speaker 3:So when you can connect to an even bigger network than that, you can get a lot done, not just in the clinic for our patients, but with advocacy and legislature as well.
Speaker 3:So that's really why I wanted to get involved, as well as to work on some of my leadership skills and just be able to progress that way a little bit and give back to the profession. So as far as oh, let's see what all did you list EPSIG's kind of goal here is to help get that community, especially as early clinicians. You know we learn a lot in school. So to be able to connect us with other newer PTs and PTAs will be really helpful as well as connecting to that mentorship piece that I kind of touched on earlier. So EPSIG is for PTs and PTAs in their first five years of practice. So that's actually a pretty large group of us, and so mentors can be anybody past that five years, and I think there's a lot of mentors that want to give back, too, to their early clinicians. So being able to bridge that together as well as just develop the community of early professionals is kind of our goal.
Speaker 1:I hear you saying, hey, we have mentors for F-CIG and the only requirement that I'm hearing is you need to be in practice for greater than five years. Is that accurate?
Speaker 3:And an APTA member.
Speaker 1:And an APTA member. Okay, if someone wants to be a mentor, maybe a little more formally through EPSIG, how would they get connected to do that?
Speaker 3:Yes, great question. We have an email that we'd have you reach out to. We also have a Google form. I don't know what can be linked or shared. Hopefully we can get that form shared.
Speaker 1:Kirsten, we'll get that into the show notes so that it's just easily accessible. Okay, Perfect, is there like a matching process, like how do you guys do that for early career folks that want a mentor? Joel, is there a sorting hat? That's what I should ask. Is there a sorting hat like in Harry Potter?
Speaker 2:No, no, so no, copy Coulton kind of. Our vision for the mentorship program is, kind of, you know, as people request that mentorship or need a mentor, one vision we have is you know, okay, you know, I have this, this specific patient with this diagnosis who I'm struggling with, this patient who, on the mentor list kind of, is someone who sees this population, who can I reach out to to say, hey, what else can I do for this patient? You know, oncology rehab being one of them, or neuro or any orthopedic condition, whatever that may be, having that as a resource to say, hey, I'm going to reach out to this person and then meeting up with that mentor, kind of as needed, or what you know, what they're able to communicate, whatever that looks like between their conversation, what they need at the time.
Speaker 3:And if that's something that we need to help facilitate, we sure can. But that new clinician will just reach out to us and we can help match them up with somebody, but that won't be the hard and fast rule necessarily.
Speaker 1:Got it. I appreciate what you said about the fact that, hey, you might have some great mentors around you and, I think, across the board, like you may end up in a location where you have some really fantastic coworkers that can be mentors right there, which is awesome. But I think another benefit to getting connected to someone outside of your organization as a mentor is just expanding that network a little bit more and getting outside input. I experienced that myself a little bit earlier in my career as well, and I had loads of knowledge around me and great mentoring and I wouldn't trade that for anything. But I also really appreciated a mentor that I had that was in a different state, that I got connected to through another organization right, and he helped me understand things from an entirely different perspective. That benefited the patients that I was working with. That benefited the company and the people that I was working with and for as well, and so I resonated with how you put that.
Speaker 2:I think a fresh set of eyes is really important too. Just saying you know, like you were saying, I have this group that I've talked with about, but someone who's kind of an outside party of. What other ideas could I do for interventions or things like that is always beneficial, or what am I missing?
Speaker 1:Okay, so beyond the mentorship piece within EPSIG, what else are you guys doing to try to connect early professionals?
Speaker 3:So we've hosted a few different activities over the last year, some of which include a pub night. We've done kind of a Zoom get-together. Cole actually gave us a presentation on some like shoulder return to baseball type activities. So we've just put together kind of these different meetups and activities, as well as the Zoom option too for those people that are not in the location. So pretty easy to just show up. We don't ask anything from you, you can just show up and hang out and talk with fellow other new PT and PTAs.
Speaker 2:And most of the time we have some fun handouts to some prizes that we usually give away.
Speaker 1:Or snacks fun handouts to some prizes that we usually give away, or snacks.
Speaker 3:Um, so how? How do people get connected into that? Yes, so we also have a form for this as well which we could link in the show notes, probably, uh, or or the okay, perfect, or the EPSIG email, um, also, you can find any of our emails on the EPSIG webpage through the APTA, and you could absolutely reach out to any of us here on this podcast as well. But the form would be the easiest way to get on our email list for those reminders and to let you know what events are coming up.
Speaker 1:Fantastic. Was there anything else, guys, that I'm missing, that you're dying to talk about?
Speaker 2:It's important in the first five years of practice just to understand that you're growing. You're growing as a professional and it's okay to make mistakes and it's okay to reach out to people. That's why we are here, as EPSIG is to provide you with those mentors to help you grow. Grow as a, a professional.
Speaker 3:That's what you're going to be doing your whole career, so that's why we're here yeah, and the community for like, not just what you can get from other people, but you might have some great insights to share with your fellow newer colleagues.
Speaker 4:So yeah, I think krista makes a great point, as as you get out into your practice and start, you're gonna have a lot, a lot to learn, a lot to catch up on, but at the same time you have a lot to offer to the people around you and to your patients. So just because you're getting started doesn't mean that you can't come in and have a new idea, try to go about things in a different way, in a different way. I think as we get out into practice, we kind of get stuck in our ways a little bit and sometimes having new ideas thrown around can just be that one thing that can really help our patients get that one step farther towards their goals.
Speaker 1:I also just really love the idea that when you're in PT school, you're all kind of going through the same thing at the same time, right, you're experiencing some of the same highs and the same lows, um, and and then you launch out, you go to different communities, you go to different jobs and, uh, you might be the only new person there, so you have people that are ahead of you that remember what that's like. But to have people that are going through the same, some of the same things that you're going through, and to be able to, like, talk about that, be transparent about it, understand how other people are, are handling some of those challenges, um, that's a unique opportunity for uh, for early career PTs to be a part of too. So, uh, I think that's a great offering that you guys have, just by trying to connect people together. Okay, guys, thank you for the conversation. I appreciate you and audience.
Speaker 1:If you have any follow up questions, we're going to have contact information for these three in the show notes. We'll also link to APTA Nebraska's website, to the EPSIG page, and we'll make sure that you can find ways to get connected, if you are a new grad into the EPSIG community, with us for more conversations that elevate our profession and improve the lives of Nebraskans. Don't forget to subscribe, share and join the discussion because together we're driving the future of physical therapy forward.
