I'm a peer reviewer for the Texas continuing education program. I review submissions for neuro, geriatric, acute and general so I get to see a lot what is being proposed for continuing education. Texas has a specific form that must be completed for each course submitted for review. It includes speaker qualifications, specific goals, a statement of ...

Recently I took on another challenge, writing a CEU module. When I agreed to do it, I thought no problem. This is what I teach. I already have an outline and references. I can just fill in the words. After I started writing, I realized something. When I teach, I have lots of material to cover so spend little time on any one thing. The CEU module ...

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 ...

I believe I've mentioned being a certified McKenzie therapist in my former (pre-neuro) life. I still use those skills, particularly when one of my horses needs some work. However, I generally don't talk about it. I like to avoid those ''why aren't you doing that?'' questions. Nor do I want to spend my lunch time fixing someone's back or ...

Reading Jason Marketti's blog last week reminded me of a discussion we're having here in Texas. It's called RC-3 and is an amendment to the Texas Physical Therapy Practice Act. It proposes unlicensed individuals such as athletic trainers and massage therapists be used as PT extenders. These extenders are to provide care as directed by the physical ...

This week I found myself at an outpatient orthopedic clinic treating work-related injuries. The clinic was one of several in the area. They have agreements with many local industries to provide medical and therapy services to injured employees. The injured worker sees the doctor at the clinic, is given a script for therapy and starts as soon as ...

Last Friday a former student of mine called. She is doing an outpatient affiliation now and is stressing out. She is having trouble keeping up. She has four patients every hour and is staying late to complete her notes. I told her not to worry. She knows her stuff. She should concentrate on learning what she needs to know and never has to do it ...

This morning, one of the OTs I work with came in on crutches. She'd hurt her foot over the weekend and wasn't able to bear weight through it. She said she thought she would be OK because she could do most of her work sitting down. Occupational Health didn't agree with her. They sent her home. That is one of my biggest fears. I'm afraid I'll be ...

Throughout my career, the focus has always been on the positive. How the patient will improve. Identifying what goals can be achieved. Negatives were discussed only as barriers to positive outcomes. Death is only discussed in terms of someone having died, not having the potential to die. I've heard death discussed as a possible outcome when ...

The annual Houston Marathon was a hot topic at last week's district TPTA meeting. Our leadership came under fire for providing free massages to the runners after completing the course. This practice has been going for several years and I have never supported it. I don't understand how on one hand we fight to separate ourselves from massage ...