I am a Physical Therapy Aide. I assist the Physical Therapists by working with the patients and help them do certain exercises depending on their condition. Not only do I help them with performing the exercises but I also help them learn new exercises that can help with their injuries The patients that come into our clinic are patients recovering from cancer and athletes with injuries. Other than working with the patients, I also do daily operational tasks, such as administration duties and maintain the presentation of the clinic.

EDUCATION | I did my general education at DeAnza Community College and received my BA in Kinesiology with emphasis on Neuromuscular Science at San Francisco State University.

HOW TO GET STARTED | I suggest you to try to get as much experience as you can with internships which will help you deal with the different types of people who come into the clinics. Also, brush up on your Physiology and Anatomy studies because you will have to use a lot of it during this type of work. There are patients who will ask you questions on body parts and you would have to tell them. This is the experience that you need to become a physical therapist. Be comfortable with the human body because you will have to touch them to adjust their movements. Sometimes you have to do it in areas that may be a little too personal. Just be comfortable in your own skin and don't be scared.

MUST HAVE TRAITS | People-person, be flexible, be patient, be opened to different types of people, have a good sense of humor.

how I got started | I majored in Nursing in the beginning and then switched to Kinesiology. The nursing classes were always filled and impacted, which prevented me from taking my prerequisites for two whole years. I also didn't like how competitive it was amongst the other students. During that time, I did volunteer work at UCSF hospital for six months; I worked on the Onocology floor and realized I didn't like the environment of that field. As I continued working there, it encouraged my lack of interest in nursing. I still wanted to do something that would have me work with people and help them at the same time. My friend was doing Kinesiology and told me about it. Kinesiology was something that was close to Nursing where I didn't have to start all over again. When you start your core Kinesiology courses, the important ones are Physiology and Anatomy because you have to focus a lot of your time on since it is a lot of information to take in. In my department, those two are the prerequisites before you can take any other classes. There is also Anatomical Kinesiology and Exercise Physiology, which are a part of the program but it also depends on your emphasis. There are five emphases at SFSU. I chose Neuromuscular Science because the other emphases didn't focus on the directions that I wanted to take. The others were related to sports medicine and athletic training, whereas my emphasis focused more on teaching people. Some of classes relating to my focus were about motor learning and motor development. I did a semester long internship for one of my classes at a recreational center for senior citizens and the developmentally disabled students ages from 9 to 17 years old. This experience and the prior volunteer work at the hospital both helped me get the job that I am in now. If I still studied Nursing, I would still be in school. It took me three and a half years with Kinesiology after transferring from my local community college. How much longer would it take me for Nursing?

why this job?| I wanted to work with people. I wanted to do a paraprofessional jobs. I wanted to do a teaching position to become an aide for developmentally disabled students but it wasn't in my field and I didn't have the experience that the places were looking for. It's more of a teaching role and I would be in a classroom setting. I wanted something that was actually related to my major and start from there. I can be an exercise therapist, gym teacher, physical therapist, psychologist, branch out to marketing, become a sociologist and work with diff demographics regarding to sports. Exercise therapist is like you're teaching them specific exercises to help them recover. Physical therapy is more manual labor to loosen up certain joints/body parts. You do a lot more hands-on work to as.

why I love this job!| I like working with the people; it makes my job go by faster. We see up to 35 patients throughout the day and that is a lot of patients if you're also considering that I am the only Physical Therapy Aide here. I don't really talk to my coworkers or the physical therapists; I talk more to the patients. The patients and I talk about random things and I try to get to know them and joke around with them. There are a lot of women with post mastectomy surgeries who undergo chemotherapy and radiation treatments that seem really down in mood. They're going through rough times with their conditions so I try to liven the mood up by making their experience with me interesting. For example, there is this patient who wears different styles of wigs whenever she comes in for her appointment. I asked her if she knew who Lil'Kim was since that music artist is known for her many different hair styles. I also asked her if she names her wigs and said that I wanted to try on her "Beyonce" wig the next time she comes in. It makes me feel good to be able to help the patients in different ways. Seeing them get better over time is what I like because I have some part in that happening. Kinesiology isn't all about physical therapy, it's about rehabilitation.

my typical day| I work five days a week. Three out of the five days, I work ten hour shifts. The other days, I work half days. On a typical day, I do regular opening clinic duties and set everything up for the day, which also means turning on the water for laundry to wash our towels, look at the list of people that will be coming in during the day for their therapy sessions and pull out their sheets where it gives me information on which exercises that they have to do. When the first patient comes in, they will work either work with me or the physical therapist first. If they work with me first, I work on exercises with them and give them their modality treatments, which is a part of the physical therapy. Sometimes we get new patients and I would work with them more to teach them the new exercises. The sessions usually last for 45 minutes to one hour with the physical therapists; sometime it can go longer, depending on their injury. In between session, I also do administration work and file papers. I will see patient after patient until the end of the work day where I do the normal closing duties of a clinic.

what they are | I would say that a main challenge is getting to know the people and talking to the patients even though it is the most enjoyable for me. I deal with with people who just went through chemotherapy and they don't want to talk to me, or someone who had a bad injury and they might not be in the best mood while I am teaching them the exercises. I have to try to understand them and read their body language to figure out how they're feeling so I can find the right timing to talk to them. Sometimes it's a slow process for therapy, so I try to slowly get to know them and try to make them comfortable instead of just rushing it. Another main challenge for some people is touching the patients and adjusting their body movements. You have to be comfortable with the human body and touch them. I was uncomfortable at first, but I just got over it. I was actually more scared of hurting them.

all about growth | From my position as an Aide, it is great experience for me to move up to become a Physical Therapist. In order to do that, I must go back to school and get my Masters. In order to be accepted into Graduate school, it is highly recommended to have at least two years of experience.

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