O Western Medicine…What Have We Done?

We’ve gone too long with this faulted and fragmented system. We’ve failed to listen to our patients because of a highly legislated, bureaucratized, and overly business’d system that has worn down our providers forcing submission to the system or withdrawal. We’ve failed to educate our health care providers correctly, teaching body systems as if there were only minimal connections between them leading to societal mis-conceptions of pain, aging, and the power of the mind and brain.

The 4th Pillar of Evidence Based Practice

We all know there is a 4th Pillar in clinical practice… in addition to the 3 Pillars emphasized by Sackett et al in 1996. We manage this pillar every day and it strongly influences the decisions we make when treating and advising your patients.  What is it?  3rd Party Payer Demands.

Interview with Travel Physical Therapist: Kristen Schwenk PT, DPT

Image Credit: Jaunted.com

Interview Post! I recently ran in to Kristen Schwenk PT, DPT in Philadelphia and we got to talking about PT (naturally).  Kristen was the person who got me into PT and literally introduced the field to me.  For reference, I was in San Diego, we met up on the advise from a mutual friend, and I first heard the words “physical therapist.” I was in my late 20’s at the time and had never even heard of PT. She described her job with such passion and enthusiasm… well, flash forward about 6 years and here we are. 

Besides being a totally cool person, Kristen is a Travel Physical Therapist and had some really nice insights into the setting, some tips/advise, some perspective and really what it’s all about.  So let’s see what she has to say:

Give me some background: What made you want to go to PT school? 

Myth#2: Physical Therapy is Painful

Buh-BAM! I really like the MoveForwardPT.com campaign for National PT Month on the 7 Myths About Physical Therapy. Nice work APTA! We do combat many-a-stereotype out there in the field, so this is a nice push.

Let’s look at Myth #2: Physical Therapy is Painful. This one really stands out to me. There are others who write about this more (Diane Jacobs, KeithP, Jason Silvernail, Harrison Vaughan, Barret Dorko, … and others, I don’t intend to leave anyone out) about how adding pain to the treatment equation is detrimental to patient experience and outcomes.  But does everyone hold this patient centered view?

Therapy vs. Therapeutic

If you are grappling with concepts of treatment effects and how a technique works or if something is effective and what role it plays in your patient’s recovery… then this post is for you!

A few classmates and I recently attended a lecture on Music Therapy from Tracy Bowdish, MM, NMT Fellow, MT-BC.  We discussed some fascinating music therapy concepts in treating movement disorders, but  while discussing research paradigms she posed the question about Therapy vs. Therapeutic and I have been thinking about it since. Many answers lie in answering the question: Is this therapy, or is this therapeutic?