Happy Physical Therapy and Breast Cancer Awareness Month!

It's just by chance that Tom and I are both in professions that happen to celebrate the same month. October is both National Physical Therapy Month and Breast Cancer Awareness month.

The APTA has actually just started a new promotional brand of physical therapy "Move Forward" and CNN money ranked Physical Therapy as the 7th best job in America!

You all know I work in pediatrics, and I'm sure many of you have been to see an outpatient orthopedic physical therapist or know someone who has. In fact, when people think about physical therapy, they often think of someone working on your knee or your shoulder, or perhaps working with an individual after a stroke. While these are common, I want to make you aware of the many, many different areas that physical therapists are involved in.

Did you know that within the APTA, there are 18 subspecialty sections** which therapists can become a member of if they work or are interested in that specific area? And within each section, there are usually 2-4 "SIG's" (special interest groups) that focus on even more specific areas. And even with all of the sections and SIG's, there are still even more specific areas out there that PTs work in but aren't popular enough to have a national focus group. For example, I work primarily in pediatric oncology. I'm members of both the Pediatric Section and the Oncology Section but there is no SIG for pediatric oncology. Also, I've become a lot more involved in the PICU (pediatric intensive care unit). While the adult literature is just starting to boom in this area, there is no research on early mobility in the ICU related to pediatrics.

To sum things up, (sorry - I can easily go off on several tangents on this topic!) there are so many options within physical therapy. In fact, if you think of any health related problem, there is a good chance that a physical therapist could help with it (from diabetes to lymphedema to solid organ and bone marrow transplants to broken bones to cancer to wounds to anoxic or traumatic brain injuries to spinal cord injuries to high risk pregnancy to developmental disabilities to autoimmune diseases to COPD to asthma to obesity to CF to cardiac-related problems to surgeries to incontinence to sprains and strains to PAIN to amputations to burns to premature babies to mitochondrial and genetic disorders to arthritis to osteoporosis to stroke to sports related injuries to okay, you get my point :) Go see a PT today!!




**The sections include: Acute Care, Aquatic Physical Therapy, Cardiovascular & Pulmonary, Clinical Electrophysiology and Wound Management, Education, Federal Physical Therapy, Geriatrics, Hand Rehabilitation, Health Policy & Administration, Home Health, Neurology, Oncology, Orthopaedic, Pediatrics, Private Practice, Research, Sports Physical Therapy, and Women's Health.