School of Rock, Grades, and Job Recommendations

I was watching School of Rock with my kids the other day. What a great movie! Jack Black plays a character, Dewey, who becomes a substitute teacher in order to pay his rent. There is a character in the movie named, Summer (she is the one in the picture above showing her rock and roll horns). Early on in the movie, Summer consistently tries to get gold stars which correspond to good grades, she is only motivated by good grades. Dewey, point blank, tells her to stop being a grade grubber.

It is the time of year when I start getting phone calls from potential employers asking for recommendations about students. I try to impress upon my students that potential employers never ask about grades...they never have, they never will. What they want to know is "how does the student behave?" It is about professionalism. They want to know whether or not they will have to babysit or worry about how the student will speak to a patient or what the student will wear...At Rockhurst we stress the importance of professionalism. The students have often complained about the amount of classes and time spent on professionalism, however, after the students have graduated and worked for a while they start to understand how important the time spent on professionalism really was and is.


I just got off the phone with a potential employer. Some of the questions asked were: Will this student take initiative, Am I going to have to motivate the student, How will the student interact with physicians, How does the student respond to criticism. Not once did the employer ask about grades. So what is the take home message from my blog today? I think Austin Powers said it best (remember to use your best Austin Powers accent..."Oh, behave." Work hard, actually make an effort to learn, practice the golden rule, respect others, and forget about the grade. But guess what? If you do all those things...you will probably get an A anyway.

Soft Tissue Mobilization and Massage Snobbery

My co-workers in the Physical Therapy Clinic in which I work every Friday like to tease me about being a "Food Snob." I like to call myself a food connoisseur it sounds so much nicer but food snob is ok and a lot easier to spell. Mirriam-Webster defines connoisseur as:

1. Expert; especially: one who understands the details, technique, or principles of an are and is competent to act as a critical judge
2. one who enjoys with discrimination and appreciation of subtleties.

I am not a picky eater. I will eat just about anything and I like most things, however, for me to really say that something is great...well let's just say it takes a lot to impress me enough to say that.

I had a massage yesterday and I realized that I am a massage snob/connoisseur too. I love getting a massage but it takes a lot for me to say when one is great. Today in lab we practiced massage. I tried to impress upon the students what makes a great massage. Two things that are very important to me are 1) confidence and 2) being mentally in the massage. Yes, good hands are important and touch and speed and pressure but you can have all of those things and without having confidence or thinking about the tissue then all those other things really lose their punch. Think about it... someone might have a really good touch but if you notice that they are thinking about other things, it just ruins an otherwise really good massage.

I believe those two attributes are important to the success of most things we do. What do you think? Are you a connoisseur? Let me know....

Perceptions: Time and Pain

I can't believe another week has passed by. I am sure you have probably already realized this in your own life but since I am often "Master of the Obvious" MOTO...the older you get the faster time seems to pass. I remember as a kid waiting for something like my birthday. The anticipated event could be only a day away yet seemed like several weeks. Now, several weeks seems like a day. I am curious as to why we perceive things in this manner. Perhaps it has something to do with our current knowledge. As we grow into adulthood things are less and less new and become much more mundane and redundant. Or perhaps we are able to focus better on tasks at hand and therefore time gets lost in the background. What are your ideas?

Speaking of perception. Perception is very important in physical therapy. First perceptions of our patients sets the stage for how treatment might go. If we go into an evaluation and the patient perceives us as a therapist lacking confidence and competence our job is generally much harder. Now not only do we have to evaluate and determine a diagnosis and treatment but we have to work harder to gain the patient's trust that we can be effective at doing so because of those first perceptions that we did not have confidence or competence. Or what if the patient perceives his/her pain to be something much more than it is? I think about the Fear-Avoidance Beliefs Questionnaire or the FABQ. It is a survey given to patients to determine the perception of patient's back pain and how it influences their fear and/or avoidance of work. The FABQ has been shown to be predictive of outcomes. So in other words, the patient's perception of his/her pain can influence how well they will do...interesting, right? So part of our job is to help the patient with perceptions. We must educate and dial down fears to change perceptions, a task that is not always very easy. Until next time......