Happy World Physical Therapy Day!

September 8 is World Physical Therapy/ Physiotherapy Day

I just want to build awareness about my profession. Here in the Philippines, whenever you mention Physical Therapy to a person most of them would think that we are "Masahistas"(Masseurs in English). I've encountered that a lot especially with my inpatients and their watchers. Here are examples of what they would say. "Therapist ka diba? Pwede bang magpahilot ng likod"(Aren't you a therapist? Can you massage my back?) and "Nagwhowhole body massage ba kayo, Magkano per hour?"(Do you do whole body massages? How much per hour?) Sometimes, this words provoke us as PT's because we didn't study for 5 years and pass the licensure exams just to be called "masahista's(Masseurs). So I just educate them in a calm manner what is a PT.

What is a Physical Therapist?

Physical Therapists are health care professionals who can diagnose and treat patients with certain health conditions. PT's are movement experts that improve quality of life by using patient education and prescribed exercise. A PT's goal is to restore patient's function to the same level prior to his illness or injury.

What do PT's do?

We thoroughly assess patients and develop a treatment plan to restore function, reduce or manage pain and prevent disability. An example is helping a stroke patient progress from sitting to standing, standing to walking wherein our goal is to make them near normal functional. We use different kinds of modalities like heat and cold modalities, electrical stimulation, Manual therapy, stretching, hydrotherapy and exercise to bring back the function of a person or prolong their longevity.

My Thoughts
As a PT, It's really fulfilling to see my patients get better. The best feeling is when you get to see how they're progressing. I'm currently treating people who are confined in the hospital, so I was able to experience some cases where our patients were bed ridden and then after some treatment sessions they were able to go back to walking again. This is how we usually progress them, from Back rest elevation to long sitting to short sitting to short sitting on chair outside of bed to wheelchair rides to standing in between an assistive device(Parallel Bar or Walkers) while doing balance and tolerance exercises to walking then adjusting the assistive device(Quad Cane or a Cane) to stair climbing then Community ambulation. With the help of our Rehab Doctor, we do our best to make them progress before leaving the hospital and continuing PT as an Out Patient. Though, their progression would always depend on the extent of their injury.

With my years of practice I noticed that Patient Education plays a big role so they would understand what happened to them and telling them the do's and dont's. Next is motivating them during the treatment session, I usually tell my patients that they should also help themselves because we are not always there for them, In fact we just see them more or less than an hour for a session. I also teach them some exercises that they can do while we are away. I really think that exercise is a very important modality when it comes to restoring to near normal function.

Currently I'm trying my best to learn new techniques to help me and my colleagues become better PT's so that we would be able to give optimal care to our patients. I'm just glad that God has given me the opportunity to make my hands as extension of his healing hands. I just love this profession!

I also want to add Happy Birthday Mama Mary!