Show notes
In this episode, Owner of Access Physical Therapy, Clarence Holmes, Jr, talks about generational differences in physical therapy. Today, Clarence talks about burnout, the idea of value, and the different ideas of pay structure. Why is the measurement of productivity problematic? Hear about the promise of mentorship for lower pay, the problem of toxic positivity, and finding the better way in each new generation, all on today's episode of The Healthy, Wealthy & Smart Podcast. Key Takeaways "The reason why things are fluid and changing with every generation is because there's always a better way." "We have to be open to that better way." "No one loves PTs as much as PTs love PTs." "It is so heathy to have a full well-rounded conversation that points out the bad and the good, and you don't have to finish with a positive statement in a conversation." "Get comfortable with being uncomfortable." "It's become an expectation in this country to overwork." More about Clarence Holmes, Jr Dr Clarence Holmes, Jr is a native of Cleveland MS. He attended Mississippi State University for his undergraduate studies and received his Doctor of Physical Therapy degree from the University of Mississippi Medical Center in 2014. Dr Holmes then completed an orthopedic residency with Mercer university in Atlanta GA in 2015. He has worked in various settings to include sports/outpatient orthopedics, acute care, and the state jail system. Now, he owns and operates Access Physical Therapy, a concierge cash based physical therapy practice in the Atlanta metropolitan area. He also works as a staff physical therapist with Kindred At Home. Dr Holmes has been involved with APTA at various levels to include 2 terms on the Student Assembly Board of Directors, delegate for the state of Georgia to the House of Delegates, and currently serves as a board member for the Georgia Foundation for Physical Therapy. In his free time, he also owns and operates The Travel Doctor, a full service travel agency as well as tackling small woodworking projects. He also scuba dives and enjoys traveling the world with his beautiful wife, Turquoise and their golden retriever and chihuahua/terrier mix puppies. Suggested Keywords Healthy, Wealthy, Smart, Healthcare, Physiotherapy, Burnout, Generational Differences, Productivity, Mentorship, Improvement, To learn more, follow Clarence at: Website: https://www.accessptatl.com Twitter: @matterundrmined Instagram: @caholmes6 Facebook: @clarenceh3 Subscribe to Healthy, Wealthy & Smart: Website: https://podcast.healthywealthysmart.com Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/healthy-wealthy-smart/id532717264 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6ELmKwE4mSZXBB8TiQvp73 SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/healthywealthysmart Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/healthy-wealthy-smart iHeart Radio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/263-healthy-wealthy-smart-27628927 Read the Full Transcript Here: Hello, this is Jenna Cantor with healthy, wealthy and smart. I'm really excited. I am interviewing Dr. Clarence a Holmes Jr. Just wrote on Zoom, or we're doing the interview. And Dr. Clarence who said, just call me clearance. I'm like, Okay, hi, Clarence, said that he works with home health and is the owner of a concierge cash based practice, which everybody who listens knows I'm cash based. I'm like, Yeah, hello, Conrad. I love that so much. Let's serve our people, our patients. We are coming on because we met at a conference. And there was a discussion on generational differences in physical therapy. And Clarence had some real interesting thoughts on this. And I was like, this is a podcast in the making. So I approached him right away. And I said, Can we do this topic and a podcast? And fortunately enough, he said, Yes. Like a proposal. It was beautiful. So here we are talking about generational differences in physical therapy. I think this is a really, really important topic. Now. I just let's just start diving in to one we're saying general racial differences, everyone, please don't refrain from getting offended with how we, how we try to describe this, because this is one we're differentiating between ages. And I saw I saw individuals struggling with that trying to be appropriate. So if we do say anything in our descriptions, inappropriate, feel free, please absolutely correct us. But be nice, because we're doing the best we can. But this is a very important conversation. So we'd rather take the risk in in really diving into the topic. So yeah, just let's all be nice. Okay. So regarding generational differences, I'm assuming that we're talking about the more seasoned crowd, people who have been around for a long period of time, compared to newer people in the physical therapy. Oh, right. Correct. Am I missing anything? Or is there any other way we need to define it? 02:39 No, I mean, and honestly, you're talking about me when you said if you recognize people being uncomfortable, trying to differentiate between these these generations, in conversation without trying to fin that was me at our conference. I didn't want to say the boomer generation, I didn't want to say the millennials simply because a lot of people tie a lot of negative connotations to those. And we're 03:03 also missing Gen X, because Gen X is actually the y'all are the youngest practitioners right now. Not millennials. Yeah. 03:09 Yeah. And I think there's a lot of similar Z 03:12 is Z. Oh, my God, ie, Z. Oh, my gosh, I missed the letter in the alphabet. Yeah. It might 03:17 be x. I don't don't hold me to it. But But, but yeah, so that was one. But But no, you captured it perfectly. I do think there is a a riff between the older generation and the younger generation to just put it put it lightly. Yeah. Just simply because and I mentioned it in the conferences that the older generation are the ones who are owning these practices, traditional practices. And the younger generation, our generation are the ones who tend to be more of the employees. And that's natural. But what's what's unnatural? Well, this is also natural to have some generational difference was unnatural is the riff, the, the battle that kind of comes along with it, and how we respond to it. So 04:03 yeah, so let's, yeah, I love that. Let's do what we're aware. I was very interested. Let's go back and and just do one general generational difference at a time and then if we okay, I feel like that's what pops in our head for now. And that's it. That's great. So one, just named one at the top of your head one Gen. Gen. Oh, my gosh, why is this? So? General? generational difference, let's start with one. 04:29 So I mean, there's two big ones that stick out to me. One is just this idea of pay structure. And specifically in the PT realm of, of how long has someone been here? versus what is this person doing for my company? And the best example I can give is me personally, of working in a job my first job post residency. I'm an ortho I'm a lover, or I will consider myself an ortho PT, even though I work in the home health arena, and the concierge cash base, I will consider myself an orthopedic physical therapist. My first job post residency was at a private practice in Atlanta, and I was paid the least amount of all the therapists across the entire company, which was four practices in Atlanta. But I was the second highest producing therapists in the company. And so, you know, generational differences comes down to the old way of doing things was, who has the most experience, they get paid the most? My personal opinion is, that's not logical, we're, I'm a logical being and a lot of my generation are, if it doesn't make sense to us, we're going to be vocal about it. And it didn't make sense to me that I was producing one paper, more money, better outcomes than the majority of the therapists and I was paid the least, that's one major win. And it kind of feeds into the second you asked for one, but this kind of feeds into it. Younger generations, older generations value loyalty. You know, they expect somebody to come in and work for them for 10 to 1520, almost 30 their entire careers. And my generation just, we're not happy, we're going to move on. And so that puts a lot of responsibility on the employer to find out what makes us happy. And sometimes that just doesn't, that doesn't translate well. 06:39 Yeah, I see where these connect, let's focus on the first one, because that is a really good, interesting point, I have definitely mentored some dance PTS who are burnt out, and they are in a situation where, Oh, Gosh, darn it, what is it productivity, productivity is measured. And that has been very problematic for them, because they'll come in, and they see that they are, they know, they're getting paid less. But they're not more because in your case, you actually saw the data, but they're seeing the, they are seeing the exact number of patients as a seasoned professional, there, and they're just they don't understand why they're getting paid less, if they're seeing the same amount, then they were there, they would imagine, I would be seeing less patients, then that would make more sense, you know, but no, that's not the case. And therefore, that income would still be it is assumed that income would still be made. So it's almost like they're being profit, they're more of a profit is being made off of them. They're exhausted, you know, but they're not getting a lighter load to feed that exhaustion, that adjustment, they're getting treated just the same. And so they don't understand that pay difference when they come in. And I'm going to bounce off this a little bit more because of what the reasoning so it's going to get a slightly off topic, but I'm always okay with that is the promise of mentorship as a reason for why they are paying less that can be a reasoning behind it, which still, there are some clinics that actually provide mentorship, but the majority of them do not actually provide that mentorship, so it's more verbage. Or they have some sort of automated system, that's there maybe videos or something. So there, it's not really an extra effort. It's something that's already there that can help streamline what's going on. Especially if you're in a place that measures the productivity. You can promise it as a as a somebody owns a clinic, however, who's the physical therapist, and how much time do they actually have to really mentor? So if there really, it doesn't make sense, right? This reasoning of oh, why, you know, and these are generational, different thoughts, but for I think that's what you're hitting is that the younger generation will speak their minds and say, hey, you know, they're not getting that mentorship, they're not getting that value for them to go. Oh, that's why then because they get oh, you know what, I'm getting great mentorship, kind of like where people think residencies, getting great mentorship that get one in paying less I get it. I totally get it. That's not the case. No, no, in a lot of circumstances. 09:33 Seven years, I think I've been out seven and a half years for a PT school. And I've never been in an environment outside of residency that that had any type of formal mentorship. But you're correct in that I've have had several interviews with several companies that have promised mentorship because that was important to me. I kind of did less the reason I worked at the job that I did that I'm mentioning in this in this interview. This conversation. The reason I took that job, and I knew I was getting paid less than I was worth. Um, the reason I took it was because my clinical manager and the only person who was more productive than I was a personal mentor, who was my was one of my direct mentors in residency. And so I saw it as an opportunity to continue getting mentored. And so I'm getting an exchange of additional mentorship. I will take less pay. 10:32 Okay, yes. And your, your through your apps, you're like, Oh, yes, yes. 10:36 Correct. But there was no formal mentorship. Now, I did continue work with this guy. I did learn a lot from him. But there was no formal. 10:45 That's a big, that's a big deal. It's not exactly, 10:48 exactly. And there's no when is the end point? I mean, when is the point where I say, Okay, I've received enough mentorship now I'm ready to get paid. Okay. Right. There has to be some kind of trade off there. So. But you're absolutely correct that that is there is a common promise of these employers to employees, younger, generational PTS, of mentorship, in exchange for, you know, lower, less than ideal pay, but is delivered upon. 11:20 Right, right. And I think that's the thing, because there's different ways to work around depending on the clinic, and everything that can happen in these rooms for negotiation. So when these different mindsets come into the room, for it to work out, but you got to follow through on both sides. One is providing the mentorship and the other side is accepting, that's what you accepted, and knowing that owning that. So, but it can be I mean, you know, what I was about to go into different things you can negotiate, but this is not a lesson on negotiation. So I'm going to skip over that. So yeah, when you when you are going into a clinic, I feel like that is a way to potentially solve the problem, but it's just not being solved right now. It's it's still, these gentlemen are the we have people who own these businesses who are getting annoyed about the the younger generation talking about money, but then they're not looking at, they're not really listening and taking in what is being said, because it's it's a block that we can get our own bias on how we lived our lives. And, and we need to get out of ourselves. I say that, as a practice owner, myself, we have to always work to get out of ourselves all the time, in order to better listen, to be with the changes of the world. And the reason why there are changes, but the reason why things are fluid, and it's always changing with every generation and so on, is because there's always a better way. Right? And we may not answer to it. But But there's always a better way. And and you got to figure out, you know, what's what's going to if you really care so much about keeping them around for a long time. And that's, that's a big deal for you. And absolutely, totally get that it's great to have somebody there for a long time, then what is it that they care about? What is it that they care about? You know, and how do you and then if you want to do something that is not financial? Because your your clinic can only afford so much? What are those intangibles that you can bring to the table? Or even the physical therapist coming into work for them? What are those intangibles, and that's where you can really come to the table for a better exchange with those generational differences. I think, you know, and, 13:36 you know, and one of the things that you kind of touched on is that we have to be, there's always a better way, and we have to be open to that better way. And I think that's where we run into an issue of when a younger generational PT says, well, this doesn't make sense to me, I want this amount of money. That's not us complaining. And I think that can be perceive…
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