This weekend I taught a continuing education course with three other therapists. It took well over a year for us to organize the content, create the handouts and visual displays and market the course to get as many participants as possible. It was a fun process to figure out the best way to engage the participants and relay the most important ...

Anyone who reads my blog with regularity knows the last year has been a struggle for me. I lost my beloved job. I was fired for being ethical. I encountered more than my share of unethical and self-serving people. During all of that, I hung on and kept going to work. Every so often I made a difference to someone, which kept me going. For the ...

Once again, I was searching the state board websites and came across some applications that asked whether the prospective licensee had a disease or condition that interfered with the ability to perform the essential functions of the profession. If so, the PT or PTA was expected to give supporting documentation about this condition. I guess this ...

I've been noticing a disturbing trend lately. More and more facilities are considering the need for supervision as a need for skilled therapy. Back in the day, patients referred to SNFs and outpatient had an obvious need. They had trouble walking. They couldn't transfer. They'd recently undergone total joint replacement. The knowledge and skill of ...

During my first clinical rotation as a student (which was a short, four-week orientation), my clinical instructor often gave me the task of finding research articles or handouts to give our patients. I distinctly remember working with one patient who had Parkinson's disease. After one of our sessions, we went over an article on Parkinson's ...

Now that I'm home from CSM, I've had an opportunity to process all of the information. Most of the presentations were excellent. Those that weren't purely theoretical had a common theme. We have to maximize what we do because we're spending less and less time with patients. We have less time to spend because there isn't money to pay for our ...

The following post was written by ADVANCE guest blogger Brian Knutsen, OTR/L, CHT, president of Buzzards Bay Hand Therapy LLC, located in Marion and Lexington, MA. SAN DIEGO -- In the CSM session, ''Emerging Technologies for Enhancing Post-Stroke Arm Rehabilitation,'' speakers Mindy Levin, PT, PhD, and Michelle Harris-Love PT, PhD, discussed two ...

The following post was written by ADVANCE guest blogger Brian Knutsen, OTR/L, CHT, president of Buzzards Bay Hand Therapy LLC, located in Marion and Lexington, MA. SAN DIEGO -- In the ''Assessment of Upper Extremity Impairment, Function, and Activity Following Stroke'' session at CSM, Catherine E. Lang, PT, PhD, shared the foundations for ...

SAN DIEGO -- Just like my fellow ADVANCE blogger Lauren, I'll be attending the APTA Combined Sections Meeting in San Diego. CSM happens this week so I'm already in my hotel. I've registered and picked up my materials. I attended my pre-conference workshop on item writing. I'm ready for things to begin. Unlike most of my fellow therapists, the ...

As a member of the neurological section, I receive a monthly electronic newsletter. A few months ago, it included a request for volunteers to work on developing an acute stroke care course. Obviously that caught my attention. I completed the application and included a cover letter explaining the holes in the application and expanding on my ...