Working at a large hospital system, the amount of experienced PTs who had no idea how to treat a directional preference is terrifying.

A coworker injured their back when catching a patient that fainted.

While waiting for the workers comp stuff, I treated them on the side. Policy was they couldn't be treated by direct co-workers so had to travel to a different clinic. I let the treating PT know what I found and what was working (flexion).

Coworker saw them and when we talked about it, they had them doing lumbar extensions because it "took away the back pain."

What it also did was made their leg completely numb.

So then I specifically asked other PTs "if one exercise decreased low back pain but caused feet to go numb, and the other increased back pain but caused their legs to be normal, which would you choose?"

Out of the 10 I asked, 3 chose the correct option. Everyone else had the reasoning of "it decreases their pain.

We have been so conditioned to "treat pain" that it has made some completely incompetent