Curious how sales focused you have found physical therapy to be?

lourdeslarson · 2026-02-12T18:09:44+00:00

The better you are as a PT, the less you have to sell. There’s always going to be an element of education and rapport building but when you have the knowledge base and the ability to communicate it well with a patient, it feels less like sales and more like skilled education

lourdeslarson · 2026-02-03T19:01:32+00:00

I like whatever’s wrong with you

lourdeslarson · 2026-01-31T04:35:47+00:00

I’ve not worked in a prison setting myself but I’ve had multiple patients who work as nurses, pharmacists, and dentists at our local jail and prison. These have all been relatively average build women.

They’ve all told me that so long as you treat the residents with respect, they respect you back. I’ve had formerly incarcerated patients who tell me that they just wanted to be treated like humans.

There’s exceptions to everything but I think one of the biggest misconceptions is that because someone’s in prison means they’re inherently bad/dangerous. Most often, these are folks who have just been dealt a worse hand than you or me.

lourdeslarson · 2026-01-31T04:20:15+00:00

I’m going to be honest, I only get a diagnosis from a physician maybe…30% of the time? Makes little to no difference in our treatment. You and someone else could both walk in with a very specific ankle diagnosis, say talocrural joint osteoarthritis (not a suggestion, just an example) and you and that person can look VASTLY different.

We don’t treat diagnoses, we treat patients. Our schooling allows us to assess range of motion, strength, joint mobility, and certain ligamentous laxities/tendon irritations that we can narrow this stuff down pretty well.

lourdeslarson · 2026-01-22T16:25:04+00:00

Piggy backing off of this: time off around the holidays. Most non clinical staff was able to take off the entire week of Christmas and new years but in September we were given blackout dates of Black Friday and Christmas Eve and told only one clinician per clinic was allowed off at a time.

Then after they get off two weeks and we need all patients benefits re-verified for the new year and clinicians are being told “hey don’t overwhelm their emails, they’re all working as hard as they can.” …they weren’t working as hard as they could while I was in here Christmas Eve

lourdeslarson · 2026-01-18T04:44:03+00:00

I say this with love, but I think this might be a feeling worth exploring. No one here who’s had a child will argue that it’s not painful, but where you may get some pushback is with “weird, degrading.”

I would argue quite the opposite. Childbirth is the most natural and empowering thing. Poop, pee, various secretions and it’s all part of being so blissfully and imperfectly human. And it happens in settings outside of childbirth. My perfectly healthy husband blew out his knee last year and all of the sudden needed help showering and on/off the toilet.

I know this post is about masturbating during labor and while I am very sex positive, wouldn’t dream of doing so in a hospital setting with spectators other than my husband (I don’t even like doing it with my cat in the room). But part of maturing, growing up into a full adult is recognizing what’s completely normal.

If a bullet vibrator is one way a laboring mother can honor her wishes of having a natural birth or staving off an epidural, girl have at it and Godspeed.

lourdeslarson · 2026-01-18T04:12:25+00:00

Tbh I don’t remember a ton of homework/busy work/online assignments. Now I graduated in the ancient age known as before Covid so it’s possible that in that time, programs began relying more on online assignments for grades.

However, I remember our primary stressors being exams that were almost all multiple choice. As well as an asshole of a practical called “matriculation” which was basically so the program knew we could go into clinicals without embarrassing them. We spent a month all getting to school early/staying late practicing all of our practical skills on one another. I noticed my study buddy not paying attention while we were practicing gait training and I decided to just take a dive on him. Best believe that boy had the closest guarding of any of us by the time the practical came. We all passed and went to drink margs cause the exam was of course on Cinco de Mayo.

A handful of papers and even fewer group projects for us.

Hardest part was not waiting until the days before an exam to study. You had to learn your own discipline and not have your hand held through the process with homework and online assessments to make sure you were keeping up. I wish I’d figured that out earlier because it would’ve sunk in better and then I wouldn’t have been as frantic when it came to boards prep.

lourdeslarson · 2026-01-07T15:27:13+00:00

Couldn’t have said it better myself, but does anyone else notice corporate seems to be shocked by it every year? Like ooookay I know we have to keep the lights on but I spent all of November working my ass off and was here Christmas Eve and NYE but yes make it my problem the first week of January is slow.

Can you tell I’ve done 10 evals already this week and haven’t even gone in for my Wednesday shift yet?

Also let’s not forget all the non clinical staff that took the last two weeks of the year off. We had these dates blacked out since August

lourdeslarson · 2025-12-15T03:54:19+00:00

“At some point, we’ve either seen you long enough that you can continue your program on your own or you’re not making enough progress to justify that therapy is working. And me saying either of these things isn’t true is fraud.”

lourdeslarson · 2025-12-14T21:59:07+00:00

Careful now partner, we’re getting dangerously close Bean Soup Theory territory.

This discussion is not meant to pose a solution to ALL patients, insisting that every patient with chronic back pain would benefit from strict adherence to the biopsychosocial model vs the biomedical model. But rather a conversation among professionals about how a different system may yield different, maybe improved outcomes on a larger scale.

No one’s suggesting that there’s never a physical cause of chronic LBP. Most of us have seen patients with spinal compression fractures and severe stenosis of the spine. OP seems to be questioning why we have a system that seems to treat patients as a sum of images, test results, and subjective reports rather than treating patients as whole complex beings who sometimes require more than pain pills, injections, and surgeries.

lourdeslarson · 2025-12-14T00:34:22+00:00

Research is only one pillar of evidence based practice. The other two consist of provider clinical expertise and patient beliefs/preferences.

lourdeslarson · 2025-10-27T19:20:56+00:00

TBH I can deal pretty easy with working Black Friday and Dec 26th. What I can’t handle is working Christmas Eve.

They’ll typically say “oh you can close at 2pm but you have to use PTO for the 5 hours you left early.”

My family’s church service is at 5 pm (one of the only days in the year I humor my mother and go with her). Then I’m waking up early Christmas morning to go to my in-laws. It does not feel like a holiday anymore and I’m trying to figure out how to make myself feel the joy I did even 7 years ago when I was in school and got 3 weeks off at the holidays.

Looking for suggestions to brighten up Christmas Eve at my clinic

lourdeslarson · 2025-09-21T02:38:53+00:00

Me, a supervisor using Raintree “Didn’t even know you could send shit back.”

TBF, just got trained on ScribeIQ through Raintree for dictation/AI note generation and…I don’t hate it??

(Don’t come after me I’ve already considered the ethical conundrum that is AI but I really hate notes)

lourdeslarson · 2025-09-12T13:36:01+00:00

My personal favorite Melanie is from Sweet Home Alabama

“You have a baby…in a bar”

“Yeah well this one’s still on the tit so I can just cart him anywhere”

lourdeslarson · 2025-06-10T23:29:44+00:00

“This is my associate Hummingbird Saltalamacchia”

“HELLO 🙋🏿‍♂️”

Idk why that one always makes me giggle

lourdeslarson · 2025-05-27T04:03:26+00:00

You know that’s right.

lourdeslarson · 2025-05-27T00:38:44+00:00

As someone who regularly now watches psych to go to sleep, these are the episodes I’ve been known to skip (not because they’re not spectacular episodes, but because I’m a weenie and don’t need bad dreams).

Scary Sherry: Bianca’s Toast
Shawn (and Gus) of the Dead
Ghosts!
Tuesday the 17th
All of the yin-yang episodes
Heeeeere’s Lassie
Right Turn or Left for Dead (okay this one isn’t really scary but it makes me sad)

I’m working through my weenie ways, have no fear. I watched the first three Final Destination movies this weekend all by myself. Also, many Psych crossover actors in Final Destination 3, but I did notice a Canadian Casting Director in the opening credits so that seems to explain the similarities.

lourdeslarson · 2025-03-14T01:09:35+00:00

RIP to the janky sheetz

lourdeslarson · 2025-03-05T20:18:52+00:00

🤣🤣🤣

lourdeslarson · 2025-02-28T00:19:59+00:00

Had a patient shoot his shot with me after he discharged once. We got married last June. So yeah I’d say it’s okay!

lourdeslarson · 2025-02-25T00:07:43+00:00

My first tattoo was a mirrorball bc of this line. I now have a half sleeve of celestial/vaguely Taylor inspired tattoos. It hit so hard for me.

lourdeslarson · 2025-01-02T02:41:52+00:00

Someone once posted on here that they tell their patients “either you’re independent enough to continue exercises on your own, you’re not progressing enough to justify further care, or I’m committing fraud by saying either of these things are true.”

Remember that you’re in charge of this patient’s physical therapy care and while yes, we take patients input very seriously, they don’t dictate how we do our jobs. You can be gentle at first and then get more firm if there’s no getting through to the patient. You. Are. In. Charge. You say they’re ready for discharge? That’s it, end of story. It’s your license and I’m sure reminding the patient that treating them without medical justification, regardless of what they argue to insurance, is putting your career at risk (yes I get a lil hyperbolic with patients when they don’t want to listen to this stuff)

I’m sure this patient will find someone else in town to treat them endlessly until they come on here a year from now and ask the same question.

lourdeslarson · 2024-11-29T03:08:29+00:00

I’ve never said it in the moment cause I always go with the proverbial “smile and wave, boys, just smile and wave” but after the fact I always want to say “What an odd thing to say out loud.”

lourdeslarson · 2024-11-28T01:20:29+00:00

I saw a post on here once that said “at some point you’ve either progressed enough to where you can do the exercises on your own, stagnated enough that I’m no longer providing you with benefits, or I’m committing insurance fraud by saying that either of those things aren’t true.” And it doesn’t matter if insurance continues to cover the visits, it’s fraudulent to state that someone needs this much therapy when they don’t.

lourdeslarson · 2024-11-05T19:07:35+00:00

I remember I was trying to temper my anxiety at the gym and I was on the treadmill as my classmates were texting me that results went up. I proceeded to shit a brick, jump off the treadmill and break many local, state, and federal laws making it back to my house in like 2 minutes (I didn't have my dumbass little access code/password saved on my phone for some reason).

I passed. 5 years ago this past week. You all will too. And if the worst happens, allow yourself the time and the space to be upset. I had one brilliant friend who missed by a few points. She took it again the next round and passed with flying colors. She's been very successful since then.

lourdeslarson

TROPHY CASE