Crazy! First Megan and Ciera and now you! I've been watching for over a year now and your videos have both taught me about a field I never previously cared about and helped me stay motivated to get my own work done

Following this journey has been amazing. Congratulations! Can't wait to see how things continue to unfold

awww kristen!! i’m so proud of all the work you’ve put in throughout this journey. i can only imagine how tough it feels to be given such challenging evals on day 1 of being a physical therapist!! thank you for sharing those moments because i think that’s so normal in new grads of all different careers. you inspire me ☺️☺️☺️

Welcome to the Ortho PT grind. Been working in this niche for 18 years and dabbled a little bit in Women’s Health/pelvic floor. Ortho can be tough right out of school mostly because many clinics don’t give you much time for evals and paperwork. But it is probably the most straight forward evals you will ever have. It sounds like you have a good game plan for helping you prioritize what you need to assess in your objective portion of your eval. If it’s helps, on ortho I find that 90% of what I need to know to develop my LTG and STG and POC I get from the patient’s subjective report and just watching them walk to the treatment room and sit, stand, gent on and off the plinth without them knowing I am already evaluating them. As a new grad, if my eval didn’t really show significant deficits in my objective data, sometimes it was hard to make my interventions challenging enough to get the patient to fully buy into committing to the rehab process. I would rely on different functional assessments when that would happen and develop interventions that were ADL or functional based instead of very specific exercises. For example, like with shoulder AROM and decreased mid back posture awareness and strength, you might use wall walks with lift offs for mid back strength. Instead, try moving a light weight box off a high shelf using that same motion. This helps with patient compliance with their HEP when they can see how it will improve upon their current level of function. Patient compliance is key in ortho. Also, try not to rely too much on modalities unless clearly indicated,especially with some of the chronic and repeat LBP patients. You will live to regret it and have a hard time getting them to exercise, IYKYK. Not sure what equipment you have available, but my older ortho folks, especially with LE issues, love obstacle courses and modified HIIT workouts. Once they realize there is a safe way to continue their HEP after DC, I see many of them join Silver Sneakers programs because of the new found confidence and realizing just much better they feel when they stay physically active. That makes every PT feel like they made a difference. If you have access to a pool. Use it! Some of the best results with my LBP patients have started in the pool and transitioned to land as they grew in strength without all the pain weight bearing land based exercise may cause initially. Also a great way to keep runners in shape without aggravating some of the door and ankle issues they come in with. Your speed and skill for knowing what needs assessment and what doesn’t will improve with time. You’ve for this and will be a pro with ortho evals in no time! Every new grad goes through the extra hours at the clinic to keep up and feel like they through. Just remember if you don’t get to something in the eval, you can always take a look at the next visit. No shame in admitting that you need to look some things up before committing to a permanent MR. Anyway, just a few things I can remember from my first few months as a new grad! Use those mentors as much as you can. It make a huge difference when you can talk through difficult cases. I still talk to my co-workers to exchange ideas and opinions on patients. That will never go away and on my mind should be a part of all clinic schedules. We are trying out a journal club as a time in all our schedules to meet every other week to review tough cases or new evidence based techniques. Best of luck as you begin your new career! 🍀 💪 👩🏻‍⚕️ 🩼🦽

I am soooo happy to see you reach your goal of becoming a PT!

Morning Kristen happy Tuesday morning and I loved your vlogs and you are amazing

Hi!!! Congratulations!! Ive been watching you from the start and now I’m in my last year of DPT school!! I plan on taking the NPTE next July. What’s your advice for when’s the earliest to start studying for it?

Congrats Kristen!! I was wondering if you have any tips for clinical 1 and how you prepared for that

Love ❤

How much debt are you in after undergrad and doctorate school?

Hey, what’s your weekly work schedule ?