The Job is Changing
When I first started with the team I work on, the bulk of the patients needed chest physiotherapy for COPD or asthma exacerbations. It was a nice review of things I hadn't spent a lot of time on since PT school, but it wasn't fascinating. It seems that now other providers have realized we can provide a variety of physio services as well.
I'm now working with people with MS, Parkinson's, hip fractures, ORIFs, multiple complicated frail elderly, and offering consulting on long-term cases managed by community nurses. It is starting to get more interesting again. Unfortunately some of the nurses on my team don't seem to know how to handle it.
They have been counting on my helping out with chest evaluations and treatments. I still do that, but I triage my PT cases and sometimes the chronic chest case is not as pressing as a new fracture or recent fall. That means the patient gets bounced back to the nurses to handle. They don't like that. It upsets the planning of their day. Some do want to understand why I give someone else a higher priority and engage in useful discussion. Some want to dictate my day to me and ignore my triage process. Still others will press their case, ever so politely, and will not listen to a physio's point of view.
I press on and stick to my assessment of who needs me more on any given day. It has taken two years to find my own footing on this team, but it is finally happening.