Einstein is famous for his formula to the right. It quite literally changed everything.
He's also widely attributed as having said,
"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome."
A little searching suggests he probably didn't say that….but the formula sure rings true in most instances.
How does this relate to P(hysical) T(herapy) education?
If I understand it correctly, the schools search for educators "qualified" to teach what will be on the test about topics that will be tested.
What gets tested is what has been vetted for many years through countless committees.
A surprisingly small number of the people creating the questions have recently been in the clinics delivering a product and if they were, they were doing what they'd been taught and working for pennies through the tired reimbursement system, only now doing even more paperwork to "support" their efforts. (Hence the over and over again).
Meanwhile, we fiddle with facets or expensive balance equipment, wondering why our clients won't pony up cash to consume the same old products dressed in ties called "Doctor" or new technology???
Over and over again, except now we're going to show them, at least in NY, and not provide services for one day just to shake things up!
Really??? Seriously???
That's the best response we have to a systemic craziness of doing the same thing….
Over and over again?
I'm sorry but that is nuts.
Overhaul our education system where the students not only learn science, but more importantly learn how to utilize the latest incredible findings in practical, caring ways with patients from a full biopsychosocial perspective (yes, the science says movement is affected by technique and relationships far beyond the over and over again mantra of research evidence creating a one best practice and the need for CPR for CPR's.) .
This of course would be new, different and confusing without the purity of wholesome, white-bread sliced services. We might even find some novel ways that would get our patients excited AND results so good they'd actually pay us a full doctor's fee for the service no matter what their insurance covered….really! (They all do at my clinic)
So am I crazy to be thinking crazy like this,
or do you agree we're in some sort of vicious systems loop where
we're trapped in generating dated, boring and unvalued service?
I have more details on what this vision my look like pending publications in the APTA's PT in Motion and Private Practice section….stay tuned, we're just getting started!
