This document summarizes an informational interview with Jenna Bartsokas, a physical therapist. Some key points include: - Important qualities for success in physical therapy include strong work ethic, willingness to learn, flexibility, humility, and interpersonal skills. - Physical therapy careers include staff clinician, director of therapy, or professor. - Hot issues are reimbursement rates and direct access to physical therapists without physician referrals. - Most challenging part is treating unmotivated patients; most rewarding is seeing pain-free or improved patients.

1. Informational Interview
WITH JENNA BARTSOKAS, PT, DPT

2. 1. What personal qualities or abilities are
important to being successful?
 The qualities that determine success in the field of Physical Therapy include a
strong work ethic, willingness to learn daily, flexibility, humility, and strong
interpersonal skills.

3. 2. What are your alternative career paths?
 Physical therapy allows one to enter a wide variety of career paths including
being: a staff clinician in an outpatient, home health, inpatient, or acute care
setting, a director of therapy (overseeing PT, OT, and Speech), or a professor
in a physical therapy program.

4. 3. What are the "hot issues" in physical
therapy?
 Reimbursement rates for PT services has been a "hot issue" recently. Direct
access, or being able to see a PT without a physician script, is another issue
that has come a long way in the past 5-10 years. Physical therapy is now a
Clinical Doctorate for many reasons, but direct access is a large reason.
Physical therapists need to be able to recognize when musculoskeletal
complaints may not be musculoskeletal in nature, and that is a huge part of
why it took a while for people to get on board with direct access. There
are still some insurance companies that do not cover direct access.

5. 4. What do you find most
challenging/satisfying about the physical
therapy profession?
 Most challenging: treating patients who are not motivated to improve or do
not have goals for therapy
 Most rewarding: seeing patients return to what they love pain-free, or less
impaired than when they started therapy

6. 5. What are the positive/negative aspects
of working in this field?
 Working in the medical field is tough. Documentation and working around
insurance restrictions is extremely tedious and can be frustrating; however,
the benefits of helping people who are in pain outweighs the negatives by
far! Many times, one of the frustrating parts of being a physical therapist is
how little the general public knows about what we do and how we can help
them. Many chronic illnesses can be prevented by good care in the acute
setting or by a strong rehab stent after a surgery; however, many patients
are not referred to PT by physicians or they think the primary
musculoskeletal providers are only physicians and chiropractors. Our
profession is in the process of growing and learning how to market ourselves
in order to help fight chronic pain illnesses.

7. 6. Please tell me more about your
organization and its purposes.
 I work for ATI Physical Therapy, which is one of the largest outpatient
orthopedic PT companies in the nation. I work in a clinic called the Spine
Center and am part of a team of 6 clinicians in our clinic. The purpose of our
company is to exceed customer expectations by providing the highest
quality of care in a friendly and encouraging environment.

8. 7. What is unique about your
organization?
 The clinic in which I practice is unique because we specialize in the treatment
of the spine and work closely with neurosurgeons, PM&R physicians, and
NPs/PAs who refer to us and are located in our same building.

9. 8. What special advice would you give a person
becoming a physical therapist?
 I would tell someone who is considering the field to shadow, volunteer, or
work in a physical therapy clinic and see multiple settings in order to know it
is a profession he/she would enjoy doing everyday. I would tell someone
who is about to begin PT school to study hard, get experience in multiple
settings, and become a member of your state and national physical therapy
organizations in order to develop more mentor-mentee relationships.

10. 9. What, if anything, do you wish you had known
before you entered this occupation?
 The rise in cost of physical therapy school far-outweighs the rise in salary for
our profession. I was told the average salary for a PT is about $80,000 when I
was entering school; however, salary is really dependent on the setting and
region of the country in which one practices. What I was told, has not held
true for me in my first 2 years of practice.

11. 10. What strategy would you suggest for a
person to break into this field?
 Truly love what the field is about: restoring function, decreasing pain, and
promoting exercise and a healthy lifestyle. The rest of it takes hard work and
a teach-able personality.

12. 11. How do people find out about job
openings in physical therapy?
 Job postings online and connections through professors and our
state/national organizations (SCAPTA and the APTA). Many times, students
learn about job openings and where they desire to go after school through
their clinical rotations.

13. 12. How did you get this position? What
are common career paths?
 I applied for an orthopedic residency after graduating from PT school and
was accepted to the program at Proaxis. After I completed the residency, I
applied for a full-time position at the Spine Center clinic and have been there
for over a year!

14. 13. What areas of knowledge are most important for
advancement in physical therapy? What degrees?
Certifications?
 The most important classes needed to have a solid foundation in prior to PT
school include Anatomy and Physiology and Exercise Physiology. After being
in the field for 2 years, I think a minor in Psychology or having taken several
Psychology classes would be extremely helpful. A major in Exercise Science
and a minor in Biology or Psychology is the best undergraduate routes to set
a student up for success in PT school. A certification in first aid and CPR is a
definite must to maintain in this field. Beyond the completion of a DPT
program and passing score on the National PT Board Exam, all other
certifications are optional. The certifications one will achieve after PT school
are completely dependent on which setting one practices.

15. 14. If you were starting out again, would
you do anything differently?
 I do not think I would have done anything differently at the beginning of my
career! I really loved my residency experience and am glad I casted a large
net initially in my career. Everyone has pain at some point in their life, and I
am glad I have learned valuable skills to treat pain.

16. 15. What types of training do companies offer
persons entering physical therapy?
 There are two types of training: the initial training a therapist receives during
the on-boarding process when beginning a job with a new company
(learning the documentation system, handbook, and clinic flow) and the
continuing education the therapist participates in yearly. When applying for
jobs, a good question to ask is how much continuing education money they
provide to employees yearly. As a PT, it is expected that you continue
learning throughout your career; therefore, jobs typically provide you with
funds in your contract to put towards continuing education experiences.