Why Being a Clinical Specialist is Worth the Investment

Young clinicians often ask me, "how were you able to start your own cash based practice within 3 years of graduating?" While hard work and passion are at the center of this answer, properly positioning myself around the best mentors and educators early in my career was equally important. These mentors largely came from my Orthopedic residency program, the Harris Health System. My residency program taught me pain science education, manual therapy treatments, improved clinical reasoning, differential diagnosis, and improved patient education/ communication. If you combine all of these components into a patient interaction, you hopefully get an efficient and effective Orthopedic clinician. 

Following my residency, I worked for a large outpatient PT company. Since I was confident, capable, and efficient in the clinic, I was quickly promoted to clinic director, and learned about operating a physical therapy business. Fast forward 1.5 years and I opened Heafner Health Physical Therapy in Boulder, CO. The foundation of my practice is built on clinical excellence and patient communication, both of which were developed through my residency training.

From opening a cash practice to finding fulfillment, in this post I discuss the need to pursue specialization!

---

OPTIM OCS PREP COURSE CURRICULUM

• Online lectures covering each body region
• Practice examination with 200+ questions
• Weekly newsletters with pertinent tips and advice
• Online Q&A sessions with OCS clinicians
• Access to 100+ OCS study sheets and infographics

LEARN MORE!

---

Specializing is Worth It: Your Outcomes Will Improve

Since the majority of physical therapists are caring and compassionate individuals, it is safe to assume that most people who become Doctors of Physical Therapy have a primarily goal of helping others. Furthering this assumption, I would guess that getting patients healthier as fast as possible is even better! For me personally, I know that this is my primarily goal. Going through a residency program and preparing for the Orthopedic Clinical Specialty examination taught me how to  quickly improve my patient's pain and function. Additionally, I learned how to become a direct access practitioner. As the entry-point diagnostician, it has always been important for me to know when to treat, but more important to know when NOT to treat. As I studied the clinical practice guidelines and APTA monographs, I learned how to incorporate this evidence into my patient interactions. Instead of passively guessing a patient's prognosis, I learned to actively create a plan of care with a predictable prognosis. As my knowledge improved, my outcomes continued to get better!

Specializing is Worth It: You Will Be More Fulfilled

Professional burnout is a serious problem in physical therapy. Each day most therapists have demanding productivity standards, rigorous documentation guidelines, and a wide array of diverse human interactions. It is both mentally and physically stressful. In order to complete their work in a timely fashion, some therapists resort to the same plan of care and exercises for most patients with a specific diagnosis. This approach often becomes under-stimulating and less skilled rather quickly.

While I am always developing my practice, my training as an Orthopedic Specialist allows me to view each patient from a different viewpoint. I credit my OCS preparation and residency training for providing me with a deeper understanding of pain science, tissue pathology, and biomechanics. This deeper understanding allows me to provide specific education to each patient based on their individual needs. ​

---

Want to develop a more efficient examination?

• A 64 page step-by-step clinical guide to performing an evaluation of the lumbar spine, shoulder, cervical spine, and knee
• Clinical pearls regarding physical therapy examination and movement based pathology
• Deeper understanding of regional interdependence and differential diagnosis
• 'Monday-morning' applicable clinical information