Tuola Testimonial
===
[00:00:00] What's going on. I'm good. How are you? I'm great. So how do you, how do you feel now that you've taken the exam? Like, I don't know what to do with myself. My kids are even like, mom, we're so used to sitting, you're sitting there studying all the time. And so now I'm like, Ooh, now you have to catch up on this stuff.
[00:00:21] I've kind of neglected over the last year, but yeah, studying became a little addicting kind of enjoyed it secretly. No, it's, it's good. It you know, I just did a talk about burnout. And I think that sometimes people get burnt out because they they don't see like a path or a progress or it's become almost like too easy, but there's no challenges.
[00:00:47] And so you can get burnt out from that, but you can also get burnt out from like it being too hard. So that might explain a little bit about how you enjoyed some of that studying. If you can really say it like that, you enjoyed it. But I think part of use enjoying it or what is because you're done.
[00:01:06] Yeah. All right. Right, right. And the program too, it was stuff that was just reading out of a book that would have been like not, so, so tell me a little bit about your your, your path, because you're in the program essentially for six months. But you did some things before coming into the program. So tell me a little bit about what you did before, like [00:01:30] as first studying.
[00:01:31] Yeah. You know, just to prepare like everyone has a, like they do something to get started. Like what did you do to get started? I mean, overall, I've been a therapist for 20 years in OT and I did, you know, I've been in outpatient, my whole life, neuro and outpatient hands trauma ortho. And I did a little bit of a leadership route for quite some time and then got back into full patient care and.
[00:01:55] This was one of my goals for years, I always kind of made excuses like, oh, you know, kids are, you know, old leadership and it just I'm like, no, this is my time to get it done. So I started about last July. And I started with like some courses like med bridge, you know, so we have some access to free courses through them.
[00:02:12] I did the Ash T course the virtual hand therapy courses. So I kind of did it on my own time or when I had time, you know, I would, I would do it and I set a goal to do the ASA, HT, virtual course, and to finish it by December 31st. So I met that personal goal. And then after that, I was like, what, what next?
[00:02:32] And then I, I like listening to things on my way to work like podcasts and that sort of thing. And I just, I, I searched for like hand therapy related stuff and found you on. Oh, on, on YouTube. You found me on YouTube. Oh, thank you. So that's how, that's how I found you period. And I started listening to you on my way to work and I just, you know, of course I'm driving, not watching, but I'm listening.
[00:02:56] And I just felt like for me, learning with multiple senses, just not [00:03:00] only reading, but hearing, and then like three peat, it all helped it. And I liked the way you presented it. So I clicked on the length and researched it further and then set up the call and. Here we are today. So let me ask you, you were studying with all these other resources.
[00:03:16] Give me one second.
[00:03:31] I have an interview going on, talking about leadership. So let me ask you, when you did all these other programs. Hmm. Why, why did you feel like you weren't ready to take those? You know what, there's so much information out there. And even though I've been a therapist for this long, you know, sometimes I maybe it's imposter syndrome sometimes, you know, where you're like, oh, you know, you hear these people talk when you're like, they're so smart.
[00:03:55] And you know, even though you're in the field, you're doing it. And so sometimes you're like, I don't know if I'm at that level on the way they're presenting. And you're just like, I don't, I don't know. Right. There's so much information out there. So. When I found you, I liked the way you presented it. It was kinda like you were right there alive, like a colleague kind of, you know, a coworker going over things with me and like plain language, normal stuff.
[00:04:20] And I'm like, oh yeah, I'm already doing this stuff. And it helped build my confidence too, so. Okay. That's awesome. So when, when [00:04:30] you came on, when we, when you got started, when we created that plan and we created a six month plan. So some people come in and they need a shorter plan. They need a longer plan, depending on that plan.
[00:04:41] How well were you able to stick to that plan that we created together? Good. Yeah, so we set that goal and it held me accountable. And I knew only because I've started studying before that it was achievable that I set the goal for the may date rather than November. If I just started this year, I probably would've set it for November, but because I was already studying it helped to do it for me, but it also helped guide me.
[00:05:06] And then. The structure and the recommendations, the reading material, the worksheets that you, you shared and watching the videos. So then I would block time to commit to the program and to accomplish it. So this is a nice timeline. Okay, good. Awesome. And you know, one of the biggest things that I often talk about is, you know, becoming a decision maker I think a lot of times in occupational therapy or in physical therapy and the way there it's still taught in school is that we give away our power.
[00:05:35] We give our power away to doctors. We give our power away to insurance companies. We just give our power away to a lot of different entities and people, which I think gives away like our power as a therapist, as an expert, people are coming to us for particular reason. And one of the reasons why I talk about that so much and being a decision makers, [00:06:00] because when you are with your patient, You need, they ask you a questions.
[00:06:05] Do you need to be able to make decisions? You need to have a response and answer, right. And when you sit and you take the exam, there's nobody with you. You're on your own. Right? How were you able to think through and feel good about making the decisions that you made on the exam? Oh, you know, if I did not do this program, I probably.
[00:06:29] I mean, aside from practice exams, and I'm glad to have practice those and you recommended taking them to before, before sitting for the real thing, but Ooh, I, I mean, you would come into my brain so many times, and then our CHT study group two that we've had on Saturday or Saturday calls, that was helpful.
[00:06:46] Just the strategies that were taught were very helpful until like eliminate down to, to two answers and, you know, otherwise I probably would have been taken. Back a lot more. I was much more confident taking the exam much more confident that makes me so happy. Cause that really at the end of the day, outside of passing the exam, did it change how you approach your patients at all?
[00:07:13] Oh yeah. Not just taking the exam, but even leading up to it. So I just remember like hearing you and saying like, you know, like, You know, work, like act like you're a CHT already. And just even getting more confident with the things that I was learning and, you know, relaying some of the things that I've learned from the [00:07:30] program and reading rehab of the hand and telling my patients information and turning it back to evidence, it was like, oh, I am, I'm acting like it.
[00:07:40] You know, let me manifest that. Yeah. Manifests make it happen because it's one year. When you can take it to the daily on the everyday daily of knowing what to say, how to say it. And it's not just the patients. Like we have to know what to say to patients. People have as much info people have as much access to information.
[00:08:04] As you have as a therapist, what is going to differentiate you from the information that they can get on YouTube on Google? Because. I put out YouTube videos and I have people who come to, to that channel as patients looking for answers. I think the biggest difference is like when they come to you and your neck of the woods in your area to your town what are you going to say to them that helps them believe that you're the expert?
[00:08:36] Right. That's so true. Exactly. And just having that knowledge and then they trust you more too, when you know what you're talking about, they have trust, especially when it comes down to like a patient that's not improving or they expect oversold results that I think I read somewhere, I don't know the exact percentage, but it was about 30% patients.
[00:08:55] Remember about 30% of. I told him I'm in a doctor's office. So, you know, a lot of times people say, well, the [00:09:00] doctor never mentioned that before surgery. Again, I thought I was going to have my full hand back. It's like, well, you know, so research shows and then you can kind of pull, you know, the evidence so they know what you're talking about.
[00:09:10] And then you're not utilizing services and resources that they don't need. And you're not going against the doctor. You know, the doctor is right. You know, from their standpoint of surgery, they do the surgery. You should get better. What they forgot was the part that takes a while, but that's why they sent you to therapy.
[00:09:30] That's why you're supposed to come to therapy, regardless if they said that or not. And a lot of things get lost after surgery because there's so much information. So, you know, you come to us as, as a therapist, as experts so that we can bridge that gap between what they've done and what you want, and essentially the outcome, right.
[00:09:53] It's changed how you approach the referral sources that you work with, the, the, the doctors that you work with, the people that you work with, your bosses, anything like that. It's I just took the exams, I'm waiting on my results. So I, I think afterwards it'll be great assuming, you know, passing. So that would be great to at least put that out there and add more Letters to my name.
[00:10:20] And, you know, I know it builds competence with the hand surgeons as well, because they do prefer people be certified hand therapist, especially with their tough cases. I work at a trauma hospital, so that's like [00:10:30] huge for them. I do have a new coworker, a new occupational therapist that they hired recently at my work and I've been training him and it's just nice to be that resource and in my actually.
[00:10:43] They want to see each T to represent them regionally. We're a huge system. So it's exciting for what opportunities it will present. So they did know you're studying for the exam. Yeah. So yeah. So you're the people in your community did know. So w was that a motivating factor for you to just stay on.
[00:11:10] It did start as a professional gold last year. So when I put it out there to my bosses, my annual review, like a Google, that's what I wanted to do. So that's where I started to study, but I figured, yeah, you have a year, you know, so it's like, okay, I better crack down and get this thing done. No, you goes by fast.
[00:11:25] The year, this year has got like I blinked and half the year's gone. And this is why I. Go on, you know, videos so often to talk about it because time passes us so fast and before we know it years have passed by and we haven't yet done a thing that we said we wanted to do. So how good does that feel after, you know, I love that you've been in practice for 20 years.
[00:11:55] I've been in practice for a really long time, and I think that we have [00:12:00] opportunities for the lifetime of our careers. And once you get it, like you still have so much more years that you can work and have those letters. Once you get it, you only need to get it one time. Right? Well, thank goodness. Right?
[00:12:19] That's a real test for just keep up. There CDUs, which is not that hard to do. You know, I'm a big fan of going to the big conferences, like the Han society, you know, the American society of hand therapists. They put on a great conference. Every year when you go, you get tons of CEOs, you get to network and connect with other therapists and learn, hopefully learn something new.
[00:12:41] You can, once you get the competence of that, you can dive into other specialties as well. It just makes it easier. Hmm. Yeah. Do that cause you out like ears and then like doing like a deep dive on studying for all these months, you know, things change. Things are not how they were in OT school 20 years ago.
[00:13:01] There's more evidence there. Right? The new OT that I was talking about, you know, he, he knew some of the things. That are newer out there, like risk proprioception, for instance, that's not something we really learned about in school. Like that wasn't a big thing 20 years ago, but it is now. So, some of, some of that research is, is it being applied to the OT schools, but it's nice to have like, a rehash on everything rather than just taking one CE course.
[00:13:24] And you don't always get the whole picture. You might learn something about the thumb or. But not [00:13:30] the whole upper extremity. So that was really nice. And you do have a lot of programs too, which is nice. So I did recommend for him when he's ready to, to take your mentorship program too, because if you're a new therapist and you want to become a CHT, I've recommended to anybody.
[00:13:45] That's awesome. Thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah. That's very focused on treatment and treatment driven and it's, you know, sometimes, you know, you can be a mentor to someone within your own team, but that requires a lot of time sometimes. And you are still a practicing therapist. Like I'm S I'm still a practicing therapist.
[00:14:05] I don't treat full-time, but I still practice. But you know, they can't always come to you for everything because you just, you still have your own patients. You still have your own work, right? Yup. So, you know, having a program, having someone else who they can really go to NASA more in depth questions so they can bring more specific questions to you as the person, seeing the patient.
[00:14:30] Bridges that gap of not just knowledge, but experience, and then knowing you're on the right track when you're doing something. Absolutely. I would tell, you know, my, my coworkers or, you know, and just my family and friends, like, yeah, I'm working with the coach to take the exam. So I would refer it to you and your programs.
[00:14:50] You're my coach, your mind, my coach to help me take the exam. But it really was kinda like a whole coaching experience as it wasn't just like a class where like, here's your assignments. It [00:15:00] wasn't like that. It was like, yeah. Her name, but also coaching and, you know, like affirmations and things like, okay, when you go to take the exam, I'm like, you know, you're take some time off things like that that were helpful to get your mindset ready for it too, because a lot of it is mindset.
[00:15:16] It is, it is nobody wants to admit it. They don't want to come into my program for that. They want me to talk about hands and wrist ligaments, which I do all the time, but I've got you're right. I am starting to think of myself as more of a coach. I think I kind of, wanted to deny it for so long, but one of my students, when I first started, she actually is one of my coaches that, you know, runs our Saturday group and You know, she mentioned that, you know, she came into the program cause she liked the coaching aspects, you know, to have someone that you can not just safely talk to, but bounce ideas off, but you know, treat you as a whole person.
[00:15:58] Not just the exam or not just like the one handoff question. And that was the first time it kind of been like, oh, I need to, I need to embrace. It's word. It is a coaching program. Cause it's not just giving you the structures to learn, but it's taking you through the, all the steps of where to focus, how to like, did you get stuck on anything?
[00:16:21] Like, did you get stuck on a particular topic? And then I came on and I was like, you better move off that topic. You go to the next topic. [00:16:30] So that happened for that. There were, there were like two, well, probably like the risk section took me a little longer when you're really, over-analyzing like the ligament conditions and, you know, smack slack and all that, but you're just like, okay, we'll come back to that.
[00:16:48] Or, you know, then it starts to like all kind of come piece together and you digest it. But then that's where, like, I really enjoyed the classes. And even though I was at work or when you go live on. Weekly calls. I was working evenings, but just to watch the replays and hear people ask questions, or then when I would participate in the Saturday groups, it's nice to hear people ask questions and you're like, it's a safe place because no question is dumb.
[00:17:11] And you know, it's like, It's like, everybody's in the same boat as you. And you're like, okay, I could do this. You know, any limiting beliefs that you might have, they won, they went away with a program. So you got so much more than just instructions on like hands and hands on her shoulders. So it was just so much more than so much more, so much more.
[00:17:31] That's awesome. That makes me so happy. Was there any one thing, any one part of the program that was. Very valuable to you that, that, you know, it was like the icing on the cake. I could pick one thing. That's a hard one. I mean all the videos plus the bonus videos too, because again, I liked to listen to things in my car and I feel like driving to work is just, [00:18:00] it's like, why not multitask?
[00:18:01] I'm an old light Tasker. You know, he say it's not efficient. It is for me. But I just like to like, listen while I'm working and just, I felt like I was always in it with the hands and, and it was just nice. I just felt like I was digesting it. I was digesting it in my sleep to dream it about those videos, but it was, it was helpful.
[00:18:18] The videos for sure. For sure. And all the bad. Yeah. Do you think that it really sped up your time? Like, like it, you know, I often talk about do you feel the need to read, were you one of those people who really needed to read the rehab of the handbook? I did, yes. And you had the recommended chapters to read, so I would read them some of it before some of that, after the videos for the weekly talk and I found it very helpful.
[00:18:47] Yeah. And I liked that you used dissected everything by week or every other week. And it was helpful just to cause this a lot of information. That's a lot of information. I only like I need to do is, you know, watch a course and, and do read rehab of the hand to prepare for the exam new, because that's a lot of information and you read it, but you don't realize what's important or not.
[00:19:12] So then when I hear it in your videos, you're like, oh, okay. And it's, so again, it's just that repeat of information or highlighting, oh, that's important. I kind of breached through that section, but I think that was important maybe. Boring, but then you made it fun and you're like, okay, this part is important.
[00:19:28] Then you connected the dots. So I found [00:19:30] that very helpful to do both. Okay. Yeah. So that's good. Cause one of the biggest things that I stress about the program is like, if you do an in particular order, it will speed your process up. It will speed your reading. Cause if you watch the videos and you find out what is the key things to really look for, when you go to read it, then you're like, oh yeah, this, this, and this is important.
[00:19:50] And it locks in your brain that much faster, but more concretely so that you don't think that you have already forgotten it. Right. Right. Yeah. And then I would take like notes from your weekly calls. And with the notes I had downloaded like a flashcard app that you could make. And I just kind of made my own flashcards with that information just so I could go back to it and study.
[00:20:19] Awesome. Awesome. Well, thank you. I really appreciate you being in the program. It makes me happy. You're a full-time therapists working in the fields. You're a mom, you're a wife. I mean, we're all multiple. We have multiple things that we are and studying it's just for a short period of time. The sacrifice that we make, and I'm a big believer in when you want something and you actually take the steps to do it, especially when you have children, you'll see that.
[00:20:51] And even if it's for a short time that you're not necessarily spending all your time and they see the effort that you're putting in and They're proud of [00:21:00] you when you took the exam, like just did y'all celebrate, like afterwards we went out to dinner that night mama needed a glass of wine and then some bring me the bottle.
[00:21:12] Right. You know, like I'm celebrating. Yeah. So we all separated after, so that was nice. Yeah. So it was very nice. And I'm grateful you I'll call you my godmother for CHT. Yeah. I'm, I'm grateful that you started this program that I found you. I feel like it all kind of comes to play. So when you, you know, just it just all aligned that I found you, it was a blessing and you know, it just really helped me.
[00:21:38] And I'm proud that I took the exam no matter what the results are, I'm a better therapist. That's amazing. That's amazing. Well, I think that no matter the results your. You're doing so much more and better than, than anyone else, you know, who wants it, but didn't do it. You know what I mean? And I think you're going to get the results.
[00:22:01] Did you have any questions? Like did you Nope. Thank you. The one pending my results. I'll keep everything else open with the bridge program and everything else. So
[00:22:13] I appreciate you. Thank you so much. Have a great day, have a great day off. Thank you. Bye.
