Work, finally!

I finally finished my clinical on July 22nd. Never again will I be forced to work for free! It was such a relief to be done with this stage and continue to move on, but I still had one major thing to accomplish...pass my board exam. This is a 5 hour national licensure exam that I have to pass before I can work as a physical therapist. I felt a lot of pressure for this test, it covered anything and everything I learned (or should have learned) during my 3 years of PT school. This means that I could have both a bachelors and doctorate degree and it still mean nothing if I didn't pass this test. Yikes!

The test is only offered 5x/year and my date was Sept. 7th.  I spent 6 weeks of nothing but studying. BORING. This also turned out to be more of a challenge since this was during my 1st trimester of pregnancy and I felt pretty crummy most of the time. But I made it through, took the test, waited a very long week for results and found out the good news that I was now Lacy Beth Coltharp, PT, DPT! Talk about such an incredible feeling of relief! It's been a LONG 8 years that I have been working for this.

Since my test I have stayed fairly busy catching up on some house cleaning, making a budget, organizing paperwork, talking with my loan providers and insurance providers…blah blah blah. The nasty stomach bug ran though my family so I also spent some time recovering and taking care of a very sick husband and baby. I did find some lazy time, too.

I definitely chose the right profession. Not only do I love what I do, but I had no trouble finding a job. I always thought as a PT, I would go in the neurological rehab direction, working with spinal cord injuries, traumatic brain injuries, etc. I kept an open mind during my clinicals and I enjoyed every setting that I came across (except for acute care and that’s only because I can’t handle vomit and I don’t particularly enjoy helping them with toileting tasks). I enjoyed elderly and pediatrics, I loved the challenge of neuro and vestibular patients, I even enjoyed the experience of the niche market in women’s health (pelvic exams aren’t exactly pleasant but this can be SO rewarding to see such a change in someone’s quality of life).

The truth is, I used to think that once I got through PT school I would know EXACTLY what I wanted, and that perfect job would exist with perfect hours, co-workers, etc.  Of course that’s not how it was… I have always lived by shades of grey, so why I thought this would be black and white is beyond me. I had several job offers, all of which I think I would have been content with but there was one in particular that really stuck out to me.


While still doing my clinical, one of my instructors at my inpatient setting gave me some advice. He knew about this other job offer that I had and told me that if I thought I had an interest in orthopedics and manual therapy, then I should take advantage of it while I’m fresh out of school. He said it would be beneficial for me to go out and really get comfortable with these skills, especially while I have the opportunity for others to mentor me. His thoughts were that if I ever changed my mind I could easily transition back to doing acute/long term care, but that it would be a lot harder to go from acute/long term care to specializing in ortho/manual therapy skills.

I went with the outpatient orthopedic setting, in particular one that specializes in sports therapy. Funny thing is that this is one of the settings I least saw myself in. My ortho classes were more challenging to me and I was intimidated by this kind of manual therapy. As it turns out, I loved the fast pace of outpatient ortho (I thrive under pressure) and I liked that you can actually see quick improvements and the patients tend to be more motivated (and less likely to cry)!

I took the job with the lowest salary offer (just by nature of the setting), and with the worst hours but I couldn’t be more excited about it! This place is sort of like a ‘Ma and Pa’ clinic that truly cares about their employees. They are understanding with my kids and I will have a flexible schedule when needed. I believe in what they stand for and how they run things. They strive to have nicest facility and the best therapists. I will have an unlimited budget for continuing education courses so I can really develop my ortho and manual skills. Plus, I’ll have 5 other amazing PT’s and some incredible AT’s to learn from. I’m lucky to have such a great opportunity to learn so much more!

So as of October 3, 2011 (also happens to be my and Cody’s 2nd anniversary) I will be starting my career here!!!