Summary-Response+Paper

= Summary  = From working at Children’s Hospital for many years, it was quickly clear to me how both Terri Carry and Nanci Ricks love their jobs as Physical Therapists for special needs kids. Mrs. Carry has been a PT for 32 years, and she acts as currently the supervisor of inpatients at Children’s. Mrs. Ricks was a PT for 25 years, where she the supervised rehabilitation and burns. Both women love almost every aspect of their careers, however, some setbacks still occur. In the case of both Mrs. Ricks and Mrs. Carry however, their grievances came in the form of insurance policy paperwork. Mrs. Carry stated how it, “ often takes as much time as the actual hands on patient time” already a full days work. Both women thoroughly enjoy working with special needs children however, and they find so many fulfillments in helping the patients improve their lives while positively impacting their families as well. Both therapists believe so much can be drawn from special populations, and clearly, because of their great attitudes they have as much to teach us, as we have to teach them. Though these two women had many similarities to share, they also discussed different topics with me. For example, while Mrs. Ricks continued to discuss the problems with the insurance system, Mrs. Carry brought to my attention the pain these children go through. Many of the physical therapy patients experience great deals of pain when it comes to recovery or any sort of physical exercise, and occasionally, some of the patients die. Both women were overall very helpful, giving me the advice and information they deemed important. It was, and still is clear that these women love what they do!

Response
I really enjoyed learning from both of these women, and about their professions, through their interviews. When learning from Mrs. Carry, I to clearly saw how the profession of Physical Therapy constantly changes. In her 32 years, she has gone back to school for more training at least once. Medicine always changes and improves through technology, and every program is different. Mrs. Carry told me how “some programs start as an undergraduate and continue as graduate programs… others are strictly post-graduate and take longer to finish.” This proves how things become much more rigorous in this field than when she took it as a major during her undergraduate years. I agree with Terri when she said that many of her classes were “hard and require a lot of study/memorization”, because I have a Biology class this year, and I took Medicine last semester. Both were very difficult courses, where I had to memorize tons of information, and I sill have to work very hard to learn all the necessary material. I have also dissected an actual body like Terri had to do at one point! One thing I did not consider however was how children often die during treatment. I find it difficult dealing with a situation like this, and I will need a very strong spiritual background to help me cope. Though this got me thinking, I am still positive I want to be a PT, and Mrs. Carry’s answers only helped to reassure my desires. When reading Mrs. Rick’s answers, I learned more about the difficulties of paperwork and insurance agencies in Physical Therapy. Mrs. Ricks told me tough it got “trying to get reimbursed for services that you know are important, but the third party payers may not understand”, in regards to insurance companies. She also stated how she wished the paperwork could be changed or eliminated, calling it “tedious”. I agree that paperwork should be made easier, because it is often a hassle filling out paperwork when those hours should be spent with patients instead. Mrs. Ricks made the difficulties of insurance policies very real to me, and it too got me thinking about whether or not I wanted to practice Physical Therapy. Of course however, nothing could keep me from striving to achieve my dreams, and Mrs. Ricks only encouraged me further towards it. Though I am nervous for setbacks and many years in school, I am very excited to begin my journey to a road of hopeful success in Physical Therapy, and thanks to Terri Carry and Nanci Ricks, I have a lot more answers guiding me there. __ Works Cited __ :
 * 1)  Carry, Terri. "Career Interview." E-mail interview. 22 Jan. 2009.
 * 2)  Ricks, Nanci. "Career Interview." E-mail interview. 35 Jan. 2009.