FOXcast OT: How A Culture Of Autonomy Can Maximize Your Career Potential

Welcome to FOXcast occupational therapy. A podcast for clinicians made by clinicians. It’s brought to you by FOX Rehabilitation. Find out more at FOXRehab.org.

Jimmy McKay, PT, DPT: On the program today when my colleagues at FOX Rehabilitation. Cassandra Hill Cassandra Welcome back to the show.

Cassandra Hill, PT, DPT: Thank you. Thank you. Yes it’s been it’s been a little while.

Jimmy: Yeah. You were on an episode two years ago not long after you started with the practice. So it’s good to have you back on the show and still treating with FOX Rehabilitation. And you recently wrote an article for us. We’ve got articles online about the profession of Physical Therapy as well as Occupational and Speech language pathology. At FOXRehab.org and you can find that under fresh FOX content. On top of being a physical therapist. Now you’re also a published author. Congratulations.

Cassandra: Well well thank you thank you. The article was another foray into the writing world that I’m kind of already a member of I also write poetry and things like that as I’ve already published a couple of books. But my first article on the website.

Jimmy: All right. So what did you what did you get into the article. The topic was how a culture of autonomy and professionalism can maximize PT’s and OT’s career potential. First let’s get behind let’s get behind the author here. Why do you decided to write something about this particular topic?

Cassandra: I think something that was always important to me in terms of just being able to pursue just the whole nature of the concept of autonomy. Like I remember when I was an undergrad my my professor for my intro to PT course was one of the advisors of the prephysical therapy students. But she was also a faculty member and Howard’s PT department. And she would always say physical therapy is an autonomous practice. We’re autonomous practitioners were not ancillary practitioners. We’re autonomous practitioners. And she was ride home about that every single lecture. And we would get called on randomly in class to say what the definition of physical therapy was and if he didn’t say that physical therapist were autonomous practitioners you would get points docked from your overall grade in the class. Yeah. Was that like serious about it. It was always something that was kind of echoing in my consciousness like this whole idea of autonomy and really what that meant for me and my career. And what that means for the profession as a whole. So it was definitely a topic that I enjoyed writing about and was always interested and to develop into what an autonomous practitioner is.

Jimmy: You better insert that word in there she’s going to come back to haunt you. You better make sure you say autonomous practitioner. Her back what you gonna tell her. What was the professor’s name?

Cassandra: Her name was Dr. Simpson. Dr. Simpson.

Jimmy: Yeah that was the topic a culture of autonomy professional can really maximize a PT career potential. Let’s start with our first takeaway point today emerging professionals mentor program. What’s your experience with that? The value you got out about to talk about that.

Cassandra: The Mentor program was very helpful in helping me you know just really start to develop the confidence in my individual clinical decision making skills when it came to working with clients in the home for the first time at like buy on my own and by myself. So I mean this is my first job out of PT school I’m a new grad. I obviously don’t feel like I know everything and you know oftentimes I feel like students and new grads don’t feel like they know anything at all. We’re responsible for the livelihood of other people now. It’s like wow I’m given this much responsibility. Let me make sure I really don’t mess this up but if I have questions, who can I turn to in order to get some more insight or to just make sure I’m on the right path? In terms of what I’m thinking. From a clinical standpoint. PT school you’re going to get all of that solid like didactic knowledge and all of that. You’re going to get all that. We know how to assess, we know how to diagnose, we know how to managed disease processes. But when you get out and start working in the home they are working in assisted living facilities or senior living communities and with partners out in the community there are certain things that you have to navigate that might require some assistance. Having the mentor program right out of school was helpful that I can you know call somebody directly who had been with the practice or had you know a lot of clinical experience working with the geriatric population. I could call them and say hey I’m seeing this client and did this in my assessment but I’m kind of struggling with which way to go about doing that. Do you think I’m on the right path with everything. To just have a space to have that open discussion with another colleague. It’s something that I found was super invaluable at the start of my career. I had a great mentor experience. I’ll shout out my mentor her name is Minerva. She’s out in Maryland. She was very very good at helping me get acclimated to the professional space. I’m very grateful for her.

Jimmy: Cassandra you bring up really really cool dichotomy really. You’re talking about autonomy which really means you’re you’re a practitioner you make decisions on your own. And as you mentioned to other people’s care is in your hands and at the same time you can still be autonomous 100 percent autonomous and have a mentor. Someone guiding you because that mentor is not telling you what to do. You’re not under their direction but you’re definitely under their wing. If you wanted to be. So it’s really cool how you can’t you’re focusing on that autonomy with a mentor.

Cassandra: Yeah. Yeah. And the thing is even with the mentorship experience that you have you can make it your own. Essentially like if you feel like you’re kind of one of the type of people who might need maybe more check ins more calls or you know if you need. If you feel like you might need more of that fully up to you like you have 100 percent control over like how or what type of capacity that mentor is going to kind of play and the thing that’s great about that is that they can give you insight into kind of like how you want to kind of manage and create your own schedule. That you’re ultimately setting it on your own like there. They’re not telling you what to do and I’m telling you when you need to see XYZ client they’re not telling you that oh a patient with that has this diagnosis. This is the exact FOM that you have to do, this is the exact intervention you have to do. It’s nothing like that at all which is very encouraging especially for new grads who want to start to develop and make some of those decisions really on their own and kind of get their toes wet into thinking. Yeah I can manage disease in cases by myself I have the confidence to do it I have somebody in my corner if I need to touch base with them but it’s really it’s a really good program.

Jimmy: I like how you really drew that out is it lets you being control. But if you need any help it’s there when and how you need it. Yeah changing topics a little bit. Autonomous caseload management. You touched on that a little bit in terms of you working on your own schedule and planning that out. But talk more about that. What you wrote in that article about caseload management and how you were able to navigate that.

Cassandra: Yes ultimately we start to create a full caseload. Especially in the mentor program. There is something what’s called a ramp up time where you don’t have 100 percent of your caseload kind of in front of you upfront where you’re seeing. You know nothing but evals, evals evals. It gets gradually ramped up. That’s something that’s very steady and kind of really starts to fill in your schedule as it comes together much like a puzzle. I kind of think of scheduling that very much like a puzzle. There’s not. You’re seeing this client at 8 o’clock or you’re seeing this client at 9 o’clock. Once you get the assignment e-mail for say a new case at that point in time you can take a look and say OK well maybe it would make sense to see this person in the middle of the day as opposed to earlier in the day because I can see you know these people back to back. But no one’s creating your schedule for you you’re kind of making it that what works best for you. Which is really nice. While we are clinicians we also are full time human beings. We have to make sure that we’re taking care of ourselves and you know some people you know have families that they have other social obligations outside of work. And the thing is being able to create your own schedule exactly how you want to create the opportunity for you to have the work life integration that I feel like all clinicians deserve. I don’t really like work life balance because I feel like it like that phrase kind of lets me think that work life balance are on two ends of the spectrum like there are like quote like they’re polar opposites or something. Where I feel like they should very much be the integrated. When I wake up in the morning I kind of feel like as if my work experience is part of my daily human experience. So it’s like an integration of the two things that make me feel like I am fulfilled in the world and fulfilled in the day.

Jimmy: I love that what you just said I wrote it down you’re a full time human being that’s that’s a great way to look at it. Yeah. Let’s get to the third topic that you wrote on it again if someone wants to take a read this article can be found at FOXRehab.org under fresh FOX content. Continuing education and clinical leadership opportunities. You’ve been with the practice just two years. But you’re already looking into hey how do I advance myself? How do I continue learning? Talk about that.

Cassandra: Yes I think one of the things that I was definitely looking for as I was seeking you know employment as a physical therapist was something that could allow some upward or work trajectory. Something that I could look forward to whether it was different certifications or different clinical leadership opportunities and the culture of FOX kind of allows a very nice opportunity to advance your clinical skills in that way. With the Medbridge subscription that you are given upon hire and you have access to basically like unlimited CEU’s. It also includes certification prep for the GCSE and different study and learning materials. That was something that was very important to me to have access to those types of resources as I wanted to advance my skills in my clinical career. But there’s also other different opportunities within the practice where there’s a professional academic and clinical excellence program, the PACE program. Which I just participated in for the first time last year. It’s basically putting together a portfolio of some of the professional and academic and clinical experience that you’re kind of already doing but just making them you know a little more organized from them in a package. It’s an opportunity for you to be rewarded for some of that which is which is nice. But this is a growth practice high level practice that can provide so many opportunities for leadership expanding your skillset expanding your knowledge. You know opportunities to share your story whether that’s been a FOXcast like this or writing articles. I mean that the opportunities are really endless.

Jimmy: I love how you’ve experienced and kind of tasted all those different things too. You started off as a mentee and now you’re pointing out that you’re autonomous in your caseload management and you’re autonomous in your in your life really managing not that work life balance but managing your life and you’re able to do that. And then looking toward the future things like the PACE program in terms of professional development. You’ve got Medbridge to keep you up to date on CEU’s that you can do on your time with that is also included in terms of prep courses for other certifications something like the GCSE or things like that. As well as now you being able to transform yourself from a mentee into a mentor for new grads and new hires.

Cassandra: Exactly, so I am a mentor for four new hires. All right I’m actually I’m getting my first student in September. I’m super excited about it because I’ve always appreciated the value of mentorship so much and I feel like without the good mentors that I’ve had in my life I don’t know if I would necessarily be in the position that I am right now. But you know just being a mentor or being able to pay it forward to other folks that are coming in behind it is just the way that we can then just keep expanding and of the culture and the clinical excellence that we want to see in the practice within the profession as a whole.

Jimmy: Available for read now is Cassandra’s article on the culture of autonomy and professionalism take a read there and again it’s at FOXRehab.org under fresh FOX content. Cassandra I have a feeling this isn’t getting the last time we have you on the show. So I appreciate your time right now. But the last thing we do in every episode is your FOXtale. Why did you choose older adults to work with? What about those people those individuals really captivated you and made you want to dedicate your career to them.

Cassandra: Oh wow. I was very much loved deeply by my own grandmother and she had a very very big role in my upbringing. She was picking up from school take me to practices you know sports practices he was at every game that I played would take that. I mean she just was I mean she continues to be the light in my life. She’s one of my favorite people on the planet. Don’t tell my parents that they know of being in her presence and spending a lot of time with her. Growing up I think probably plays a really big role into why I love working with the geriatric population so much because I know what impact she’s had in my life. I look at other older adults that are in the world and the impact that they’ve had in their family’s lives knowing that their families love them and they’re loved by so many different people and thinking that there is a certain part of the world unfortunately that has given up on their own life but let them be. Leave them alone where I feel like FOXRehab.org completely like abolish this idea of ageism in life not giving up on the folks that took care of it. I know how hard they work in terms of wanting to get a little emotional about it. But in terms of wanting to maximize their independence and maximize their quality of life and being able to do that with them so they can share more moments with their families and their loved ones is pretty much why I do what I do. That’s the that’s the FOXtale.

Jimmy: Love to hear that. Appreciate you sharing that story and that emotion with us and and glad to have you as part of this practice.

Cassandra: Thank you for having me on the show. Appreciate it.

Jimmy: Thanks for listening to FOXcast OT. It’s brought to you by FOX Rehabilitation. FOX clinicians work hard love their work and get the respect they deserve. Sound good? Then you’ll love the autonomy to work in your own style and the support you get to achieve excellence. Plus freedom and flexibility to have a personal life. Whether it’s your first day or you’ve been around for a while. Your contribution is acknowledged and rewarded. That’s what makes FOX a success. Happy well-trained clinicians make great health care. Are you a fit for FOX? Find out now at FOXRehab.org.