Sunday, February 8, 2015

APTA CSM 2015 #FOMO


More accurately, I missed out physically. However, thanks to all you wonderful people on social media, I was able to follow the American Physical Therapy Associations Combined Sections Meeting 2015 (#APTACSM) with live play by plays, selfies, videos, snapshots, and more.

It was almost like I was really there!

So what did I hear most about as an observer from afar?

I heard things like:
  • Advocacy
  • Passion
  • Value
  • #CashPT
  • Physical Therapists in the Emergency Department
  • Transforming Society
  • Getting real about "evidence"
  • A need for a change in teaching paradigms
  • Leadership
  • The social aspect of CSM (which I feel I missed out most on)
  • The many students who wish they could have gone
  • Fellow PTs SHAMED for NOT taking the stairs.....
  • #PelvicMafia
  • Empowering Women!
  • And generally, colleagues having WAY too much fun without me!
This was up through Friday night. All in all, I hoped to see more about marketing, branding our profession, consumer focus, disruptive innovation, and data strategies -- I was happy to see some mention of a collaborative data registry. This could be interesting if not powerful if leveraged correctly. Most importantly, if the data was cultivated into smart data, meaningful to both end-user and payer.

 And then, on Saturday morning, a veritable storm of #CashPT tweets came through along with management and organizational change content! ...I smiled.

And so, having watched CSM 2015 as a distant observer, I have three lofty, pipe dream goals for CSM in 2016:

After some thought, the idea of sponsoring a student really got me going. Doing something like this invests in the professional (not to mention colleague) of the future. When they get a glimpse into where the passion is, where the possibilities are, and where the profession could actually be. We can protect them from the common burn out at risk when getting into a local workplace which couldn't value them less for being "new grads" and offer them every opportunity at success!

By the way, if you want strategies on new grad career paths and approaching student loans, check these posts out HERE (new grad) and HERE (student debt).


So where do we go from here?

The challenge with anything like CSM is  that mountain top experience. The high we get typically means we have to revert back to the low -- the regression toward the mean is something that no one can escape. The solution? CHANGE THE MEAN.

I exhort all who brought the passion of CSM back home with them to do three things:
  1. Share it in an official capacity (ie. in-service, class report, staff meeting). When you share, recruit. Get someone to join the ranks, officially!
  2. Get one colleague, just one! To sign up for and use Twitter as a mode of connecting with each other and advocating for both our profession and our consumers. Oh, and have them tweet me so I can welcome them!
  3. Commit yourself to checking your passion levels one month, three months, and six months from today. Re-commit yourself to the ideals and the hope you came home with. If you're experiencing discouragement, burn out, or barriers to pushing toward the future, let me know! I'll be happy to help in any way I can.

What's coming down the line from my side?
  • I'm expecting my very first collaborative post to be published here on this very website! I'm quite excited about this as I've decided to slowly introduce some outside content directly promoted here on this blog.
  • I'm almost done putting together all the elements of a branding webinar for the Private Practice Section of the APTA. It is titled: "Advanced Branding Concepts for Physical Therapy."
  • Unless there's some random event to bar me from doing so, I'm planning on launching my book about achieving success in mid-late Spring / early Summer 2015. Keep your eyes peeled!

Until next time, I remain humbly yours,
-Ben
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