Physical therapy is a healthcare profession that evaluates and develops a care plan that fits your needs for therapy. It can be a rewarding field but, it also can be very draining. PTs can face emotional and physical stress, burnout, and ethical issues. Job stress is one of the reasons why physical therapists get burnout. The field is physically demanding on your body and as you age it can be harder for you to give your clients your full potential because your body is becoming older. It is important to learn how to take care of yourself as a PT even though you are taking care of patients daily. Ethical issues play a role in problems that Pts often face, for example doing what is best for your patient may be going against your rules and regulations. …show more content…
These titles led me to what I needed to write my report. When I searched “Problems physical therapist face” I found a letter about burnout by Stephanie Weyrauch, DPT. This explains her personal experience and how she influences preventing burnout for other Pts. By searching ethical issues Robert Richardson wrote about how Pts face ethical issues.
Searching “Job Strain” helped me find a method for participants who were randomly selected that were a part of the American Physical Therapy Association to be questioned about their job strain. The main outcome of the individuals included work-related pain. The purpose of the study was to find out levels of psychological job demands and job control. As a result of this method, 16% of therapists reported changing jobs because of job strain and
…show more content…
Dr. Ellen Zambo Anderson, PT, PhD, surveyed 1366 APTA members on burnout in their careers. The characteristics of this study describe emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment. In the results she found that 13% were experiencing burnout, 34% experienced high emotional exhaustion, 30% with high depersonalization, and 32% felt low personal accomplishment. “Those at high emotional exhaustion were at increased risk for developing burnout”. (Anderson) Physical stress can affect individuals' well-being. Lifting patients of all sizes can be physical wear and tear on your body. If you have multiple patients in one day and they are all heavier sets, your body is going to get tired. PTs work long hours a day which can be exhausting. Emotionally PT can be draining because you may have a client that you see, and you feel like you never get anything resolved because they always have something wrong with them. You are predicted to work with patients who have multiple fractures and severe trauma. Patients come in that depend on wheelchairs and have no mobility and cannot walk. You may see these patients for a few weeks, maybe even years, and during these sessions, you could be taking on the depression and trauma that the patient feels from feeling insecure about
Research article examining at least one of the key words were selected for review and discussion in this chapter. Almost the entire study variables will be discussed in this chapter through reviewing relevant literature. Burnout Burnout is defined as a psychological syndrome which characterized by three concepts: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and diminished personal accomplishment. Emotional exhaustion refers to lack of energy and feeling that one’s emotion is used up to increase psychological demands. Depersonalization refers to treat other as objects rather than people through uncaring attitudes and behaviors.
Physical therapists are healthcare professionals who help individuals maintain, restore, and improve movement, activity, and function in order to optimize performance and enhance health, and quality of life Clinical application for restoration, maintenance, and promotion of optimal physical function PT’s domain Conditions of the musculoskeletal, neuromuscular,
Physical Therapy Therapists work with people all day, they must have stamina to move people or machines as well as being on their feet all day. They must be organized and detail oriented when it comes to charting and assessing patients based on their needs. Working and getting along with the patients is a big factor of being happy with the job. One of the biggest skills needed is compassion or the drive to help others become better. (Outlook, 2015)
Introduction: In the growing field of occupational therapy, there are many issues that come about that are of ethical concern. Occupational therapists work to help patients achieve a self-sufficient and satisfying life through the use of assessment and treatment. They help patients who may be suffering from a physical, mental, or cognitive disorder and work to help develop, recover, and maintain skills of daily living. Since this field is very hands on and patient oriented, there are ethical concerns that are brought about in almost all areas of practice.
Throughout this process, I inevitably fostered a deep sense of care and empathy for the patients I was helping. Furthermore, my duties trained me to work collectively with others in order to best serve the needs of the patient. From this experience, I discovered the bliss that comes from helping patients and the desire to continue to serve them alongside peers. The insights from my time at South Coast Physical Therapy taught me to continually strive to serve patients with selflessness and responsibility. If D.P.T students are expected to learn the essentials of becoming a PT, it becomes important for the students to adopt a selfless and caring attitude to experience the joy of serving their
“PTs do a lot of heavy lifting—moving patients, manipulating multiple body parts, bending, stooping, squatting, standing. A PT 's constant physical activity is extremely taxing and heightens the risk that they themselves will get injured. And a patient could give in to frustration during an inversion on a machine and kick you in the head by mistake (mistake, yeah).” (Shmoop: Physical Danger). I hope a patient does not get to that point of frustration, but bending and stooping to adjust equipment and even lifting a patient are definitely strenuous activities, and they could cause me to need a physical therapist of my
The statistics don’t lie. Physician burnout is a real problem that exists, and without any type of intervention, can become a personal problem that can ultimately end very badly. No matter if it means that you’ve taken that step to leave the career you’ve been studying for and practicing almost half of your life or falling into an emotional pit so deep that you start filling your life with addictions. In some circumstances, you may be dealing with the beginning of physician burnout without really having a name for what you’re going through. The question that your patients come to you for is how do I deal with their condition, and in this case, you’ve got to answer this very question for yourself.
The main reason is physical therapists help rehabilitate people which helps improve their quality of life. Helping people through rehabilitation not only improves physical ability but can also decrease pain and improve injuries to make surgery unnecessary. When it comes to rehab the individual is important but the outcome is the focal point of the profession. Within this profession, positive outcomes are one of the ways you can measure your success. The process is very important because without it you will not have a great product.
The ethical principles involved in this dilemma are beneficence, social justice, veracity and fidelity. The duties of the physical therapist assistant is to carry out the plan of care that is established by the physical therapist, and follow the physical therapist’s plan of care. Furthermore, as a therapist, it is the PTA’s ethical duty to treat each patient equally, be truthful with each patient and allow all patients to participate equally in their treatment. My responsibility as a rehab aide and her colleagues is to report this misconduct to the physical therapist that I am working under and to my direct manager, the outpatient rehabilitation coordinator while keeping the confidentiality of the situation.
It is a job that will always be needed, there will always be people that need help regaining their physical health to be able to walk again or maybe just be able to move their thumb again. Physical therapists have to run tests when a patient comes to the office. This is to make sure where and what about the type of injury. After the patients’ assessment, the physical therapist will setup a patient treatment plan in accordance with the written and signed prescription of the referring physician. Create PT treatment plans to improve or restore a patient’s mobility and reduce pain.
Normal working hours for physical therapist are consisting of eight hour days with breaks and lunches. She said she loves her job and it’s a great career to have but there are some hazards. The hazards that she told me that many therapist face are getting questions that they can’t answer, improper technique of the exercises, or injuries that they may cause, or lastly causing more pain then the patient already had.
Physical Therapist Physical therapists portray a crucial role in today’s world. Physical therapists are seen by people who have experienced an injury; whether it is from working on the job, caused while participating in a sport, or an accident, people will attend physical therapy. Physical therapy can be life-altering to people of all ages. It will improve the quality of life for patients. Physical therapists have a high-paying job.
Physical Therapy Physical Therapists provide rehabilitation for injuries and help maintain stability. “Some history of Physical Therapist formed their first professional association in 1921 called the American Women’s physical therapeutic association. In the late 1940s, the association had changed its name to the American Physical Therapy Association. Physical Therapy was developed when the association’s membership swelled to 8,000 and the number of physical therapy education programs across the US increased from 16 to 39”(“APTA History”). Although many people may think being a physical therapist is hard because of the qualifications needed, the daily work, salary, and needs of the service have drawn my attention to the field.
Burnout is one of the factors that may affect employees’ efficiency, a group connections, motivation and general emotional wellbeing of workers in the working environment. The idea of burnout was separately presented by Herbert Freudenberger in 1974 and Christina Maslach in 1976. The term was used to portray the mental condition of health care volunteers who were indicating such side effects as emotional depletion and loss of inspiration (Freudenberger, 1974, 1975; Maslach, 1976). Burnout is characterized as a psychological syndrome of an emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and a decreased level of individual accomplishment (Schaufeli, Maslach, and Marek 1993).
One responsibility PTs deal with during the day is creating treatment plans for their patients (Gardner). This is very important for physical therapists, because they are in charge of their patients physical health and they need to be able to smoothly plan out the best course of action for them. Another responsibility physical therapists have throughout the day is being able to run an examination. This is vital to a physical therapists day to day life, because they are constantly treating patients so it is important for them to be able to run an examination correctly (Gardner).