Jenna:  Phil there's a lot of new grad PTs out there right now. So give me if you can think back, give me a big win you remember from early on in your career and give me a big learning item that's from the beginning of your career.

Phil:  Wow! That might take a minute to think about. I'll tell you a story on my first patient, though. I bring back my first patient. I literally call back my first patient as a new grad, and he walks up and he's like "So how long have you been doing this?" And I'm like, let's see here. It took you about 10 seconds to walk from the chair to here, so that's about how long. But I played it off as, "Well, if you consider all the training and things like that, it's been about three years, but it's my first day on today's job."
But gosh, big win?

Jenna:  And not necessarily like you changed a life, the first one, but where you either felt, okay, this is right.

Phil:  I think I need to ask you this question.

Jenna: I'm sorry. I don't know...

Jenna:  Okay Phil, so a lot of physical therapists are about to start their very first job as a physical therapist.  And I want you to tell them one thing you wish you had known starting your very first job.

Phil:  The one thing I wish I would have known is that you you aren't going to feel confident, and that's okay.  And you will be able to help a lot of people. But even though you may not feel like you have the ability or skills or anything, you know so much to be able to help people, and you will get better. So use both that lack of confidence to drive yourself to be better, but don't disparage yourself, don't get down on yourself, and don't think that other people can do it better than you. Because actually what we find is that new graduates can impact people's lives more than seasoned clinicians because they care so much, they're so much more detailed, they don't go on previous biases nearly as much. How about you?

Jenna:  I would say that it's going...

Phil: One of the big problems that new grads and actually people who are seasoned clinicians have is that they struggle because they can't get everybody better or they just aren't sure of themselves.  Is there a time in your career where it kind of shifted for you, where you kind of went, maybe I don't have to be perfect?

Jenna:  Yes! I have an answer for this. And I have an answer for this because it's something that even when I get stuck today, I still think about. It still comes to mind.  This was really early in my career, actually, and I was still trying to kind of figure out what I need to do and how I should treat patients.  And I was still nervous every single day that I went into the clinic.  And I remember getting a referral from a doctor, and it said, "Request to see Jenna Gourlay."  And it was a patient with ankle pain, a young dancer.  And one of the doctors had referred her specifically to me.  And I was so excited because I was...