Job Shadowing In Physical Therapy

I chose to do my job shadowing at a physical therapy office called Northern Therapy and Rehabilitation in Stillwater, OK. While I was there I closely observed the physical therapist and the therapy technicians. They did not let me do much more than watch. While I observed, I tried to ask the therapist important questions about school, her everyday schedule, obstacles she faced, and why she wanted to go into this field. Although I tried my best to get a feel for the occupation and get to know the therapist, she was not very engaging. Her responses to my questions were very vague and she sounded annoyed with my every time I tried to ask about something. As my time at the office went on, I asked less and less questions because I felt as if I was being a burden. Even though this made my job shadowing experience tough, I kept going back and started asking the physical therapy technician questions because she was much nicer and more informative. …show more content…
I felt as if the technicians did most of the work with the active rehabilitation of the patients and then the actual physical therapist did the hands on rehabilitation. After patients were done with their workouts they would almost always lay on a table and let the physical therapist stretch them and check their progress. After the therapist was done, the technician would hook them up to stimulation and put ice or heat on their injured area. I did not realize that the physical therapist had to be so hands on with the patients and I did not realize that the physical therapy technicians did most of the exercise demonstrations with the