by Mitch Hauschildt, MA, ATC, CSCS
Over the past few years I have traveled all over this great country of ours lecturing and working with all kinds of great professionals. I have worked with Athletic trainers, Physical Therapists, Chiropractors, Massage Therapists, Strength & Conditioning Coaches, Occupational Therapists, Physical Therapy Assistants, Physicians, Occupational Therapy Assistants, Personal Trainers, Acupuncturists, Physician Assistants, Group Fitness Instructors, College Students, Nurse Practitioners, Athletes, Fitness Enthusiasts, Estheticians, Registered Dietitians, Yogis and the list can go on and on. Virtually every field who works with the human body has found their way into a course that I have instructed.
When you do this for very long, you see a lot of things. I have been in beautiful hotels and not-so-nice ones. I have attempted to keep an audience’s attention while standing in front of a wall of windows that looks out into the beautiful blue ocean and I have spoken in a room that appeared to be an old oversized closet. I have presented to large groups of close to 500 people and small groups of only 2 or 3. Every time a speak, it is a bit of an adventure.
It truly has been an honor and a privilege to work with the diverse crowd that I have over the years and to be honest, it has been a ton of fun for me! It is also a challenge in a lot of ways. Taking a diverse group of people from different backgrounds and educations can be tricky to say the least. Everyone has different ways of looking at the body and different levels of experience and expertise. I have found that that this type of environment can either be a great blessing or a really long and arduous day. Rarely is in the middle.
On those long days, what I often find challenging is the balancing the egos and turf battles that some people bring into the room. Oftentimes people feel that their background and training brings a special skill set to the table that is unique and more highly qualified than some of the others in the room for the task at had that day. While in some cases this may be true, most of the time there is a lot to be learned from everyone present.
For example, a Physical Therapist may be very skilled at understanding the details of early post operative rehab, but when it comes time for more progressive, integrated movement skills, they often have a lot to learn from someone with a fitness background as to how to properly perform and teach movements and progress an individual properly. But, the fitness professional doesn’t have the background to know how to regress the movement in most situations, nor do they typically have the skill set to know how to handle complex medical conditions. Both parties bring a ton of knowledge to the table during the conversation of taking a post operative patient through their entire rehab process.
The debate is highly contested right now with specific skills such as dry needling and joint manipulations. Should any of those belong to one specific field of study, or should anyone who does the extra work and research be allowed to do them regardless of their degree or state licensure? I would suggest that there obviously has to be some level of professionalism and specialized training to perform either of those skills, but if someone is prepared to do their due diligence to get trained by a reputable party and can demonstrate a high level of competence, then they should be allowed to perform the skill in a safe and prudent manner. We have all seen really good clinicians in any field, but we have also seen go knuckleheads in each as well that I wouldn’t trust to treat my dog. Both exist everywhere, so I’m not always sure it makes sense to allow specific college degrees to essentially “own” certain skills or tasks in the health care marketplace.
It is truly unfortunate that we end up fighting for our space in this complex world of treating the human body (or at least our perception of what our space should be). Recently, I was reminded as to why I love the Rocktape family of instructors so much. A few weeks ago, we had our yearly instructor summit where we gather in the same room for 3 days to learn from each other and prepare for the next year’s courses. This group of people is incredibly diverse and dynamic. Not only do we have Chiropractors, but we have horse Chiropractors. We have Athletic Trainers, Physical Therapists, Massage Therapists, and even a world class competitive cowboy. But the great thing is that despite all of our differences in patient population, work settings and education, for the time we are together, we actually celebrate our differences and seek to learn as much as we can from each other. It is magical and inspiring.
So one of my challenges for every class of students that take one of my courses is this…at least for the time they are in my class, forget about what initials follow your name and understand and accept that everyone in the room has valuable insight and something to offer to the conversation. Ultimately, it is a lack of education, understanding and fear that drives turf battles in our industry and the sooner we can all get over that, the sooner we can get to the business of taking care of people. Be good at what you do and understand that while some on else’s methods may not match yours, that doesn’t mean that it is worse. And, oftentimes their method is better. After the class, make sure you carry that thought process into your everyday practice.
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I totally agree Mitch. I’m tired of being looked down upon just because I’m a massage therapist, just because a Dr. or a PT will throw in my face that they have a hire education then I do. But when I explain to them about RNT they have no idea what I’m talking about. In often times they will tell me that I’m out side of my scope of practice. But I have my certifications to prove that I have taken the class to obtain the education.