I think Henry is onto something here.
An autonomous professional is not dependent on earning a title.
A higher degree will not make more patients walk into your door or improve
the efficacy of treatment.
What will improve our standing in the community is public awareness. It has
nothing to do with inferiority complexes. Unless, you believe that not
"tooting your horn" enough is due to that.
Look at how hard it was to make Goodyear pull all those tires. Many people
had to die and the public outcry forced them to do it. We as PT's are never
going to be in such similar demand, but we can command more demand for our
services.
Listen, we already do a great job. Look at your patients and the patients
of your colleauges. Are they getting better? Sure they are. Do you have a
research study that backs up everything you and your colleauge does? Of
course not. (You probably even use different techniques.(Don't tell the
evidence based people that.))
Do you get eval and treat referrals? Can you go out and open a private
practice if you wish? This sounds like a profession that has a unique body
of knowledge that has people in it who can make independent decisions
without the guide of supervisor.
Of course we still want to create that demand and perhaps we can go on to
that discussion.
Thanks for the discussion to this point. I'd love to hear what you have to
say.
Sincerely,
Patrick Zerr
www.apluspt.com
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