Not for the Faint of Heart
Do you have time for fun or self care?
Not much, mostly due to other obligations in my life. While most of my classmates are going to the gym before class and hanging out at breweries after class, I'm running errands and doing chores. I do at least take a few minutes in the morning to make sure my hair isn’t a complete disaster and I sleep more on the weekend but it would be nice to have a slightly less demanding schedule. The good news is that the people in my program are very pro-healthy lifestyle. They're all excited for healthy food and I can usually find someone willing to go on a brief walk during class breaks. Plus I can spontaneously start stretching anywhere and no one gives me a funny look or interrogates me about what I'm doing. It's a nice change from the office environments I worked in where frequent move & stretch breaks are very much needed but, strangely, culturally discouraged.
I’m smack dab in the middle of midterms and this picture I got of a crow one day was all my half-fried brain could think of to add to today’s post!
How hard are the classes?
For me, it varies on the class and teaching methods of the professor. My Anatomy, Professional Development, and Evidence Informed Practice (research) classes just require time investment because the objectives are clear and the material is straight forward but it's a lot of material. They’re difficult in that there’s so much to remember but the applications are simple. Movement Systems Examination and Intro to Clinical Care are extremely hands on, which is really in line with my learning style but there’s a lot of small pieces to remember while doing the hands on parts. And these small pieces can have big consequences for real patients because if you're helping your patient move and you don't see them turning their foot inwards after they've had a posterior approach hip replacement, they can seriously injure themselves. Or if you don't have your foot and knee in exactly the right place, someone can fall and get hurt. Movement Science is just a hard class. It covers a lot of very detailed material and the questions on quizzes and exams involve putting together information from a lot of different places and applying it to a specific scenario. Last, but not least, Integrated Clinical Education is exciting because I get to go out and work with real patients who need help and integrate all of the knowledge and skills I've gained. It's also very nerve wracking because I'm working with real patients who need help and I don't want to let them down.
One more random photo I took recently, just to break up all the text on this post.
Is PT school exhausting?
Absolutely, but not exactly in the same way as other doctorate programs. For graduate students, the minimum full time course load is 9 credit hours. This semester, I have 17 credit hours on my schedule. What I do from week to week fluctuates quite a bit, but I’m typically in class for about 24 hours a week and have had days where I’m on campus for 12 hours. I expected the mental exhaustion. What I did not account for was how physically exhausting PT school can be. My clinical care class is the main culprit at the moment, since that’s a 4 hour long class where I’m learning (and practicing!) how to help patients move in a hospital setting. This means helping people move, whether they are fully dependent or just need direction, even if there’s a substantial difference in our sizes. When I get home after an afternoon in Clinical Care, I really just want to flop on the couch and call it a day. But despite how tiring school is, I’m enjoying this journey and feel like I’m where I need to be right now.
