Ashley Boehm Intro to Exercise Science

10-23-16 Interview Assignment

For our Interview part of the assignment, we were to ask the professional of our choice

eight questions, one of which we came up with ourselves. These questions revolved mainly about

the day to day life of the professional and the education it takes to get where they are in their

field. I had interviewed a physical therapist from back where I live and had gotten a lot of good

answers.

To start, the first question asked what the typical day was for him. He has patients every

half hour, with 10-15 patients per day. Usually their times overlap, which he seemed to have no

problem with dealing with more than one person at a time. First time patients get an hour

treatment time since they need to learn the ways of the clinic and how their stretches go, etc.

After they come once, they are expected to know everything they are supposed to know the most

of what they need to do. When asked what he enjoys most and least about his job, he said he

loves seeing the people improving and getting better, or going from pain to healthiness. The

assignments that he doesn't enjoy the most about his job are things such as dealing with

insurance, paperwork, compliance issues and justification. The typical work hours at Air

Physical Therapy are 7 a.m to 4 or 5 p.m. He works for eight to ten hours a day, with 40-55 per

week. Also, he sometimes works for more time than this if students after school or adults after

work need extended times. For an entry level worker, they can make up to $50-60 thousand as

they get going into the profession. This also depends on the area and the economic status of it.

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 Opportunities for career advancement could be continuing your education to specialize in

certain areas of the body. Ryan Beer, the Physical Therapist I had observed, said that he takes

yearly classes to continue to see things better. This can bring in more patients, bring the company

more money, and himself more money. The educational background that he had was a seven

year program, one four year program and another three year grad program at the University of

Pittsburgh. He has obtained a Doctor of Physical Therapy degree, Bachelor of Science in

Rehabilitation Degree, and a certification in Pathokinesiology. Stated by Dr. Beer, he said that

you do not have to have all the extra degrees that he does, just a masters in Physical Therapy.

Although, it does help to have all the extra skills because this could bring in more patients and

therefore benefit everyone. The most usual age group or diversity group that he deals with on a

day to day basis are older patients, usually 60-70 years old. Not many students are said to go to

their clinic. Also, the usual problems he helps patients with are back, neck, shoulder and balance

problems or disabilities. There is not a lot of diversity where I am from, so there is not many

ethnicities or races that he would deal with. But, he did state that if I was to work in a big city or

area in the future, there would be a lot of diversity, for example in Oakland or Pittsburgh.

For my last question, I had asked him what made him come up with the idea that he

wanted to go into physical therapy. He had stated that he always wanted to go into the health

field, and worked in a hospital his junior year in the rehab room, which had the physical therapy

department which interested him a lot. Also, there is so much more to the profession than people

think. You can be a physical therapist in rehab, an offsetting, or a home setting. He had also used

the word “detective” to describe it. People come to you with their problems and he can decide

what it is that will help it and who can help them. There is never a boring moment in physical

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therapy, and this definitely interests me a lot. After getting my questions answered, I think that

physical therapy would be a great fit for me.