My pathway in high school is Spanish. In order to continue being in this pathway I must complete 3 years of spanish classes. I was able to take AP classes which allowed me to increase my knowledge in a foreign language.
Job Shadow:
What qualities does a person need to possess to be in this type of position?
To possess this type of position an individual needs to have good clinical reasoning skills, be able to be compassionate for the people, and also be able to multitask.
How much flexibility do you have in terms of dress, hours of work, vacation, etc?
For dress, you have to be dressed in professional attire, the hours of work for this job are 40 hours a week, and for vacations you have 30-60 days but you need to ask in advance.
What are the basic prerequisites for jobs in this field?
The prerequisites for this job are a doctorate in Physical Therapy (PT), a certification in CPR, and you must be able to move more than 50 pounds.
How well did your college experience prepare you for this job?
It prepared me very well it provided me with the necessary tools that helped me accomplish my career.
What inspired you to choose your career?
I always wanted to do something in the medical field; I didn’t really want to be a doctor or a nurse due to the trauma they have to deal with. I liked the area of sports and health, so that led me to picking this career, but what most influenced me to pick this type of job was how physical therapy helped my mom greatly after she had surgery, I saw the benefit it was to people so I wanted to help people in that way as well.
What school (s) did you attend? Are there any schools you recommend?
I attended Fresno for my clinical and then transferred to UC San Francisco which is a school that is known for its research, and I did my specialty in sports medicine somewhere down south. The school you go to may depend on the specialty that you want to do.
What advice do you have for a person aspiring to enter your career field?
I would recommend continuing to do more job shadows so that they know for sure they are in the right field.
Do you take work home?
Once in a while, maybe about once a week or so, but mainly what I take home to do is documentation of the patients.
What is the most rewarding part of your job?
The most rewarding part of my job is being able to help people gain the confidence and ability they once had. They get so happy to see what they are able to do now after a surgery or an accident.
What is the most challenging part of your job?
Most of the time since some patients will come for several months to therapy, you get attached to the patients and when you hear that one of them passes away it is hard but you need to learn to keep the day going no matter the circumstances.
Narrative: For my job shadow I went to the Pro-PT offices in Lindsay, CA, a place where people come to get therapy after they have been in an accident or had a type of surgery. The person that I choose to job shadow was Martha Torres a doctor in physical therapy, who has been working at the office in Lindsay for roughly two years, she prior worked in the Pro-PT clinics of Tulare. I job shadowed her on July 26, 2016. I choose to job shadow her because I am strongly considering becoming a Physical Therapist myself and I wanted to know exactly what a PT does at work, and what their day might consist of. Choosing Martha was good because she is a female like me and she is also a Doctor, and that is what my plan is for a career. I arrived at the Wellness Center in Lindsay, where they have the Pro-PT offices and clinic, at exactly 9 in the morning. I walked in and checked in with the receptionist, letting her know what I was there for and she quickly told me to go ahead into the doors. I walked into a not very large room, it had walkers, weight balls, medicine balls, stretchy workout bands, tables to lie on, and several other equipment used to improve the physical situation of patients. I met the two physical therapist that were there at the moment, one of them was a Physical Therapist Assistant (PTA) and the other was an aide, she was going to go back to school to finish her doctors in PT. They were very friendly and showed me around the room and they introduced me to some patients that were already there receiving their treatment. The workers encouraged me to interact with the patients, and so I did, had a couple interesting conversations with people that were there receiving their treatment. I saw several people with shoulder problems, which I believe is quite popular in our day now. The exercises for them were very similar, they would first begin by warming up their arms with an exercise where you have to rotate your arms as if you were pedaling a bicycle, next they would get a stretchy band and do a few exercises that will help them strengthen their shoulders or arms. Each patient come to the clinic and receives treatment for about 30-45 minutes. At the end of each session they will proceed to ask the patient if he desires a cold or hot bag for the area that they are strengthening. This type of activity continued for several hours, patients would go; patients would come do their treatment and go home. At the very end, just before my job shadow was going to finish, I had the opportunity of seeing Martha evaluate a patient, a new patient who they were going to begin treatment on, so she needed to evaluate him to then decide what kind of exercises were needed for his condition. I observed her way of handling things and what questions to ask and so forth. After the evaluation I got to interview Martha personally, and after that I headed home, satisfied with what I had experienced on those 4 hours at the clinic. What I liked about the job is that it you get to interact with the people personally, you see them sometimes twice a week so you begin to form a bond with the patients, which is nice since I am a social person. Even though having a doctorate may put more work on me I believe that I will enjoy it. The only thing I did not like is that the place is too small so there is little going on, I would like to see how a more busy physical therapy place feels like. I am still interested in this job, doing this job shadow gave me confidence in what I could be doing for the rest of my life. The work does not seem very hard and tiring, which means that work will not be very stressful. I really enjoy things in the medical field but just like Martha mentioned she was never too keen about having to deal with all the trauma the doctors and nurses have to deal with, so I believe this is a great job for me.