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What is the most challenging part of your job as physical therapist?
I already know is hard sometimes, but I want to know the most challenging part of this career. #physical-therapist
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Marla’s Answer
The most difficult parts of the job vary widely depending on the setting you go into. For most settings, dealing with the restrictions of insurance is one of the necessary evils. It is so frustrating when you are trying to provide the highest-quality of care to your patient, but insurance prevents you from seeing that person as long as they need, or prevents you from getting them the medical equipment they need. I work in a skilled nursing facility (inpatient geriatrics), and have a lot of other difficulties. I frequently work with patients with dementia, stroke, or other disorders that cause behavioral disturbances. This can mean working with agitated, combative, verbally or physically abusive patients. It is a physically demanding job with frequent heavy lifting of patients. In addition, though family members are frequently an integral part of patient's care and recovery, a select number can impede or harm their treatment. We get unrealistic families who make unreasonable demands or treat us badly for no reason. All that being said, any job or any setting will have pros and cons. It can be so rewarding to see someone who couldn't walk a month before, go home walking with cane. You just have to see what setting speaks to you!
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Morgan’s Answer
On a day to day basis, insurance regulations and restrictions are the most challenging things to work around. Sometimes a therapist isn’t able to choose what they think is best for a patient (be it a visit limit, certain interventions that aren’t covered, or denials for therapy altogether or equipment requests) and adapting to those regulations while still providing the best possible care can be really hard!
Another challenging aspect is the ever changing landscape of health care. There are frequent updates to regulations and rules that require our attention. It can be hard to keep everything straight.
Another challenging aspect is the ever changing landscape of health care. There are frequent updates to regulations and rules that require our attention. It can be hard to keep everything straight.
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Robin’s Answer
I think the most challenging aspect of physical therapy is the amount of patients you are asked to see (which often leads to clinician burn-out) along with amount of time spent documenting your care. Sometimes it feels as if you spend more time documenting then you do with actual patient care. This is likely due to the insurance regulations of our healthcare system along with healthcare being a for-profit enterprise.