Show notes
On this episode of the Healthy, Wealthy and Smart Podcast, I welcome Dr. Gina Kim, PT, DPT to talk about making the move from a physical therapist assistant to a physical therapist. Dr. Gina Kim is the owner of Maitri Physiotherapy, LLC in Central Ohio, the producer and host of The Medical Necessity Podcast, is certified in Integrative Dry Needling, is pursuing certification in MDT, and also uses her 10-year background in Tibetan Buddhism to educate her clients in mindfulness meditation. In this episode, we discuss: How to transition from a PTA to a PT What is a bridge program for PTAs The benefits of being a non-traditional physical therapy student The ups and downs of physical therapy school while juggling work and life commitments. And much more! Resources: Maitri Physiotherapy, LLC Dr. Gina on LinkedIn Dr. Gina on Instagram Dr. Gina on Facebook A big thank you to Net Health for sponsoring this episode! Learn more about the Redoc Patient Portal here. More about Dr. Gina Kim: Dr. Gina originally wanted to play the trumpet when she grew up. Performance anxiety in high school changed her mind. But what was more worrying was the low back pain that began around that time. She endured that pain for years, but X-rays and muscle relaxers didn't help. She was fortunate to work with a physical therapist. Being free from back pain was so dramatic that she decided that's what she wanted to do with her life: Help people change their lives by treating pain, especially back pain, without drugs or surgery. She stated at the bottom as a rehab aide. Next, she earned her license as a Physical Therapist Assistant and worked for years in settings ranging from outpatient orthopedics to acute care to home health. While working as a PTA, she completed her Doctorate through the University of Findlay Weekend College Bridge Program. Dr. Gina is certified in Integrative Dry Needling, is pursuing certification in MDT, and also uses her 10-year background in Tibetan Buddhism to educate her clients in mindfulness meditation. She is also the producer and host of The Medical Necessity Podcast. Read the Full Transcript below: Speaker 1 (00:01): Hello, Gina. And welcome to the podcast. I'm so happy to have you on, Speaker 2 (00:06): Well, I'm happy to be here, Karen. Speaker 1 (00:08): So you've got two podcast hosts here. So now you're on the other side of the mic. Speaker 2 (00:15): Oh goodness. It's great to be. Speaker 1 (00:20): So today we're going to talk about sort of your non-traditional route to becoming a physical therapist. So as, as a lot of people know, or maybe some listeners don't know the physical therapy profession, we're now a doctoring profession. So people are going to school for an undergraduate degree and then usually going right into physical therapy school as their graduate school of choice. But Gina made a definite detour from college through to where she is now as a physical therapist. So I will throw it over to you, Gina, and just kind of tell us your story, because I'm sure it will resonate with a lot of people. Speaker 2 (01:04): Oh my goodness. So my bachelor's is in computer science and I won't say how long ago, but let's say windows 95 was the hot new thing. Everybody was getting a computer science degree. I was even, I was even a company's webmaster for a time. So here's the thing, here's the thing. I have zero patience for technology longstanding low back issues. Okay. And especially sitting at a desk job, you know, we all, you know, PTs, you know, now I, now I know well when I was working one particular job, you know, and couldn't take the back pain anymore. And what do I do? I go to see my, go, to see my family doctor and it's x-rays and muscle relaxers, and guess what? Didn't help shocker shocker. And I can't tell you how many years passed between then. And finally, someone I remember I had hired a personal trainer who was himself, a physical therapist, and he said, Oh, you need to see someone who really specializes more in the low back, you know, cause so sky was kind of more on the equipment sales end of things. Speaker 2 (02:38): So I found I found my PT and he it's it's so trite, you know, saying he did his magic on me. It's like, I know what he did on me now. But I went from unable to touch my toes. You know, being in pain, you doing, doing that shuffle walk too. Hey, I don't hurt anymore. Yeah. And his reaction was right. And I'm like, wow. And I kind of went away and being kind of in the transitional phase that I was in with a kind of not loving, you know, computer, you know, computer science, you know, that kind of field and also being kind of a gym rat myself. So I was hanging, I was hanging out with with my PT and kind of, you know, kind of doing my own observation hours and doing my due diligence and asking about the education and everything. Speaker 2 (03:46): And he said, well, you know, because I was already I think at that point out of my twenties, right. He S he said, well, you should think about getting, becoming a PT assistant. So I looked into that, it's like, okay, I've got my bachelor's let me go to community college now, which, which involved you know, of course there was like a well years waiting period. And, you know, so I'm taking my anatomy and this, that, and the other completed that in 2013 and then worked as a PTA and all the time thinking, you know, I, I just want to go ahead and be able to practice on my own. So then that led to well basically looking at my, looking at my options for grad school and especially being someone by this time, let's see, what was I doing? Speaker 2 (04:57): I, I was, I w I'm trying to think about my day as a, as a like during my PT assistant time, I was going to school and then going to work as a rehab aid. And that at night I was going to skate with the Ohio roller girls. It's like, I don't know how I did it. So then I'm thinking if I go into a graduate program in, you know, physical therapy, I there's going to be this age difference at age and experience difference. And I remember I interviewed with one school and the she was, she was the admission secretary. And I won't say which school, but she said, you know, people are working later in life. Speaker 3 (05:55): Yeah. Yeah. Speaker 1 (05:58): So I, Speaker 2 (05:59): I had heard about the bridge program up at university of Findlay. We can college bridge program. So that required preparation, as far as retaking physics taking, you know, my chemistry series, you know, thank goodness I had already taken exercise fits, but doing, you know, doing the thing so I could apply. And then that I got in, and at the same time, I was still required to work as a PTA as we went up to Finley every other weekend. And when I say we, I say, I met with my cohort from who came in from all across the country. So I had a two hour drive. There were people flying in from Seattle. Speaker 1 (06:51): And where is, so is Findlay college in Ohio Speaker 2 (06:55): And like colleges in North West. Speaker 1 (06:59): Okay. And can you explain a little bit more about what a bridge program is, should that people kind of understand what that means from like a PTA to a PT? Speaker 2 (07:10): Sure. So it's a bridge in the sense of you're a PTA and you want to become a PT, here's the thing. You will need your bachelor's degree. Okay. So I had that check you know, plus prerequisites, you know, check. And then since part of the requirement for working was to help with assignments that we would have, you know, and we would be given so we could focus more on the evaluation part of because we were all over the treatment part, you know, and there were people in my class who were already directors of rehab. So I, I was in a very very well-experienced and pretty, pretty smart class. It was, it was pretty intimidating. But also you get that benefit from, you know, all this co-mingling. So then it's basically like any other DPT program. It was three years, you know, with clinicals at the end, and then you take your boards and your, then I became dr. Dr. Gina. Speaker 1 (08:38): Right. And so within that, those bridge programs, how many of those programs exist in the United States? Speaker 2 (08:46): My understanding is only two, this one and one in Texas whose name is escaping me. Right. But but yeah, and here's the thing too because I always always kind of had in the back of my mind, well, I can always apply to the bridge program. It was, it was kind of like in my, in my back pocket, right. University of Findlay is a private school. So you also have to keep in mind the two wishes that goes with it, right. Plus travel accommodations, and also time off work when you need to, you know, do certain things, you know, such as your, your research and projects and, and all that. Right. Speaker 1 (09:38): And when it comes to then your clinical affiliations. So at that point, do you have to leave your PTA job in order to do your clinical evaluation or your clinical placements? Speaker 2 (09:50): Yes. And I would say it was a little messy because we were, we were pretty much we work, we were kind of responsible for finding our placements. Right. so yeah, so then you are going off, you know, working someplace now you don't have the income. Okay. So you have, you have that to deal with. And there were Oh, I don't even know how many people in my class had children, some had young children but you know, somehow they managed, you know we got a big heads-up from the class before us, you know, like in our orientation, spoke to us and said, you guys are gonna need a team to help you get through this. You have to rely on each other. You have to rely on your spouses, your partners, your friends, you know, some things as basic as have a food plan. And I'm not even kidding because, you know, between, between working, coming home and studying, you're done, you're done. You know, so my, my husband, you know, I, I started out, you know, like with the food prepping and the making the healthy food and every, by the end, we're eating pizza. Speaker 1 (11:26): Yeah. I was going to say, are you going to be, yeah, Speaker 2 (11:30): Can you, can you please, you know, pick up, pick up something? Yeah, Speaker 1 (11:34): Yeah. It's it's pizza and take out at the end. So I think that brings up a lot of really important considerations for people. So if you are a physical therapist assistant and you are looking to become a physical therapist, we know there are maybe just two bridge programs in the United States. And that there are a lot of considerations that you have to think about before you go into that program. Like when did you do your clinical placements? You kind of can't work at your job as a PTA anymore. Right? Absolutely. And what did you do? What would be your best tips for time management? We know, obviously you just gave away that by the end you're it's pizza and take out now I'm just joking, but what, what are some good tips on, on time management, as you said, you have to study, do research, and you're still working as a PTA. Speaker 1 (12:33): My, my time management, I think number one you know, God love him. I, you know, I have cats, I don't have children, you know, on it, honestly, I didn't know how the parents did it. And I think they were even better time managers than I was. So for them, it was, you know, working around, okay, the kids, the kids are in bed or it's before the kids are up. And for me, it was kind of the same thing. Like if I wanted to, you know, spend time with my, with my husband, you know, occasionally it would be up, you know, first thing in the morning because I'm more I'm and it also depends, you know, if you're morning person, evening person, you know, cause I'm like out like a light, you know, if I've got something to do, I'm up at 5:00 AM, no problem. Speaker 1 (13:32): And I guess the thing that I'm taking away here, and this, this might be my like naive T here, but I thought like a bridge program going from a PTA to a PT would be, I don't want to say easier than your traditional program, but that, because you're already in the field, that it would be easier. Do you know what I mean? And that's clearly not the case. Like I didn't realize it was three years. I thought, Oh, maybe it's like two years and most of it's clinical. So I think this is really painting a clearer picture for people of like, no, this is still a three-year commitment, three years of financial commitments, perhaps loans, everything else that goes along with it. Was there anything about the bridge program that surprised you? Because I'm surprised number one, that it's three years and that it's, you know, I don't, I don't know what I was thinking, but this was not it. So I'm glad that you're bringing all this up. So is there anything about the program that really surprised you? Speaker 4 (14:35): And on that note, we'll take a quick break to hear from our sponsor and be right back with Gina's answer. This episode is brought to you by net health, helping you maintain strong relationships with your patients. The redox patient portal provides secure line of communication between you and your patients conduct virtual visits and have follow-up conversations with your patients via secure messaging. When it's convenient for you, patients have 24 seven secure on-demand access to their therapy, health information without phone calls and voice messages, video conferencing for tele-health secure messaging, shared documents and photos and view health information, and appointments to learn more, contact them@redocatnethealth.com. Speaker 2 (15:23): Biggest surprise for me was for a program that had been a browned, as long as it had been that we still had to work around a university and kind of the cap, the system that I think really, really wanted us to be a traditional program, you know in the sense of, for example, I know after us clinicals were starting to be changed to, I think, get people into the field earlier, which was, which was, you know, once again kinda messing with people's employment. So they were, they were serving us, you know, would you prefer, you know, to do like two weeks at the beginning and we're thinking, well, how, how are we going to do that? If you know, our, you know, our clinic, our staff, you know, wherever we're working needs us. Yeah. Not that, not, not, not what you would have expected. Speaker 2 (16:32): And yeah, I guess the next question is and you sort of alluded to this when you said you were looking at other physical therapy programs and the woman said, Oh, well, you know, people are working later in life, but let me ask you, which is kind of an interesting thing to say, but what, what do you feel like, or would you feel that you're kind of coming into the doctorate of physical therapy, not coming straight out of high school or straight out of college? What advantage did that give to you? Coming into the field as a newly-minted DPT? I think it gave us a huge boost of confidence because I know that in, in my career, as a PTA, I worked for probably a dozen different PTs seeing how they worked you know, what what they could have done better, you know, what they did great how patients responded, you know, and plus you know, I've, I've got all my treating already, they're already in place. Okay. so I even, I even find it a little hard to imagine. Wow. If I were, if I were coming out of a traditional program and I've heard this spoken about a little bit of, you know, just trying to bui…
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