Interview a Physical Therapist

My last step for my research for this trimester is to interview a physical therapist personally. I was able to interview a colleague of mine from Accelerated Physical Therapy, Brian Vetterkind. Having a relationship with Brian already helped the interview to be more casual. Before we had the interview I wanted to ask him formally through an email:

 

Hi Brian!

 

I am a senior at The Prairie School in Racine, Wisconsin. For our senior year English class, we have been given a great opportunity to research a certain field of study that we want to pursue during and after college. For this project I’ve chosen to take a closer look at physical therapy. I was wondering if you could take some time to answer some questions I have about the physical therapy program, and other general questions about physical therapy.

 

Some of my questions are:

 

1. I recently found out that Physical Therapy school is a total of 3-4

years after college. I was wondering if 3-4 years of school is rewarding

in the end.

 

2. With PT school being very competitive, do you have any advice that

can help an applicant set themselves apart from the rest of the

potential students?

 

3. How was your personal experience in PT school? Any stories?

 

Sincerely,

Olivia Karegeannes

 

Why did you become a Physical Therapist?

 

“I have known I wanted to be a Physical Therapist since I was a sophomore in high school. Therefore, my personal opinion on if the schooling is rewarding is that it is very rewarding. All aspects of my job I enjoy very much; from not being stuck in an office all day long, to getting to meet different and interesting people, and most of all making differences in peoples lives every single day.”

 

How do you set yourself apart?

 

“The best way to set your part away from the pack is accruing A LOT of hours of shadowing or job experience in the field of physical therapy. PT schools want to see a pre-dedication to the field to make sure that applicants do not drop out after being accepted. Also, they want to see a good working knowledge of the PT job demands, techniques, practices, etc. The best setting to be a part of for this is a hospital system because the variety of things observed is the greatest, but any experience will still be beneficial.”

 

 

How was your personal experience in PT school?

 

“My personal experience in PT school was a very unique one.  I was on the "wait list", which meant that I was not immediately accepted, but also I was qualified enough not to be automatically be ruled out.  This happened for me at three different schools.  I ended up being accepted at all three schools, but UW-Milwaukee was the first school to call and accept me.  So, that's where I went!   However, I did not receive the call to inform me of acceptance until after the first day of classes already ended.  I received the call at approximately 3pm, and I packed up everything I could in a span of 2 hours and left/moved to Milwaukee at 5pm that same day. I got a very eye opening experience because the first class I was exposed to when I arrived on campus was a human cadaver lab where we dissected and learned the anatomy of the human body.  It was a very exciting, but stressful time.  One good thing about moving to a completely new city and not knowing anyone or anything today, is that I had A LOT of time to study.  This helped get PT school off to a good start.”