A job with a twist: Physical therapist

Down the hall in treatment room No. 3, physical therapist Kerry Petsinger is doing what she loves. Ask her what is her favorite part of being a physical therapist and she takes more than a moment to answer.Kerry Petsinger, right, works on stretching Dalton Kohler’s heels for his Achilles tendonitis. She said she enjoys the hands-on portion of her job best. (Pippi Mayfield/Tribune)

Down the hall in treatment room No. 3, physical therapist Kerry Petsinger is doing what she loves.

Ask her what is her favorite part of being a physical therapist and she takes more than a moment to answer. It’s a difficult question — she likes it all. Ask her what her least favorite thing is and it takes less than a second to answer. It’s an easy question and answer — paperwork.

“I’d rather be working with people,” she said. “I always knew I wanted to go into the health care field.”

In college, she job-shadowed several professionals in health care and knew physical therapy was the career she was most interested in. Then there was the career decision of working in the acute care, private setting, nursing homes, school, and hospital, or even being a teacher.

After earning her doctor of physical therapy degree from the University of North Dakota, she got a job per diem at MeritCare (now Sanford Health) in Fargo in 2003, and knew that was the setting she wanted. She said she likes working with people of various ages, and she couldn’t get that in another setting.

Case in point — Tuesday morning, Petsinger treated a teenager at 9 a.m., and immediately afterward worked with an elderly woman in a wheelchair.

“I like the variety of ages of patients we see in a private practice, from pediatrics to geriatrics.”

Petsinger and her husband moved to Detroit Lakes and she was able to get in full-time with Sanford Health at this location.

“We like the lakes area, and it’s a good health care organization,” she said.

Not to mention her hours. Petsinger works 36 hours a week, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. during the week and only until noon on Wednesdays. Weekends, of course, are free.

She sees between 10 and 14 patients a day and has half an hour a day for paperwork. She usually sees two new patients a day, and those appointments take an hour because she has to get a full history and work-up of the patient. Her re-checks usually take half an hour.

During the initial appointment, Petsinger asks her patients questions, noting if there are any red flags.

For example, a pain that won’t go away no matter what position the person sleeps in, and sudden weight loss are possible signs of cancer, not something physical therapy can cure.

“We have a good amount of time to spend with each patient,” she said.

Like the case of Dalton Kohler, 15. Kohler was back for his seventh visit for Achilles tendonitis in both heels and an ankle sprain.

“He’s getting much better, so he’s almost ready to be done,” she said.

Kohler, who is a football player at Lake Park-Audubon, has to “sadly” miss out right now because of his injury. He also participates in golf and basketball.

Tuesday, Petsinger does some stretches with Kohler, ultrasounds his ankle for the sprain — which is a heat treatment to help get the blood flowing better — and works on his balance.

At the start of his session with Petsinger, Kohler said his heels are 100 percent better and his ankle is about 60 percent. At the end, as she puts an ice pack on his ankle, Petsinger reminds him to stretch before practice and games, and it will help for the upcoming basketball season.

Kohler is just one example of the many patients, many injuries and many treatments a physical therapist will see in one day.

“We tend to do everything,” Petsinger said.

“Every patient has a different goal,” she said, which makes it more interesting too. While an athlete is just trying to get back in the next game, the next patient may be trying to get enough mobility back to live independently. “We tailor to needs, which is important.”

On any given day, she sees multiple problems with multiple joints. One day, for example, she saw patients with low-back pain, headaches, ankle strain, knee surgery, shoulder surgery and a burn patient who needed help getting motion back from a skin graft.

She said she doesn’t necessarily have a favorite treatment to perform on patients, but she enjoys manual therapy techniques, helping mobilize joints.

“The same joint may be treated completely different in a different person,” she said. “It’s not a cookie-cutter treatment.”

And sometimes treatment isn’t as easy as it seems, especially when the problem area isn’t necessarily where it hurts. Patient education is important, she added.

“They need to trust you,” she said. “The key is building relationships with patients.”

Early treatment is better for everyone. If by the time the person comes to the physical therapist for treatment, they’ve already been in pain for years, it makes it harder to diagnose and treat.

“We want to be the first treatment, not the last,” she said. “It’s easier to treat if it’s a new thing rather than if it’s been an issue for 30 years.”

The average treatment time is four to six weeks.

“It’s a fun profession. I get to help people every day be in less pain.”

Along with the only tedious part, the paperwork, comes the billing portion, too. After Petsinger enters into the computer what she did for a patient — ultrasound, time in the gym, etc. — coders working for the hospital take care of the billing of patients accordingly.

For even more variety in her career, Petsinger has had Stott Pilates training, which she uses a lot with patients who have back pain, and she is a strength and conditioning specialist, which means she can write speed and strength programs for patients.

With the expansion project at Sanford Health, the physical therapy area will be expanded.

“We will have larger gym space and more treatment rooms in order to accommodate more patients,” she said.

By: Pippi Mayfield, DL-Online

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 7th, 2010 at 10:39 am and is filed under Physical Therapist General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.