President/Instructor at Institute of Manual and Manipulative Therapy | Manual Therapy Consultant
One part agreement, the other strongly disagree. I agree with the sentiment on avoiding an overemphasis on letters. However, specialties and the letters they represent help the public know of our educational background and what we are good at doing. Mike the PT could be a generalist, an acute-care specialist, a sports medicine PT, or a bunch of other things. In terms of outcomes, patients that get treatment from a specialist do get better outcomes than when they do not. Studies have borne this out. So, again, while I agree that letters can become problematic if overemphasized or used to knock down those that don’t have them, they serve an invaluable purpose in healthcare. Not the least of which is to motivate clinicians to become specialized.
Physical Therapy colleagues: Can we PLEASE stop the ridiculous alphabet soup? I'll start the trend! I've done some things in my career that I'm proud of but how does it drive better outcomes to your patients?? Dr. Michael Connors, PT, BS, MPT, DPT, PhD, OCS, FAAOMPT, CDN These days it's just Mike, PT, your friendly neighborhood PT for Life! Just a thought!!
I strongly believe that we should at least be allowed to include the credentials earned from the APTA’s own post-professional arm, the ABPTS. I agree that it can get crazy with credentials from private companies, educational programs and such but we can’t even use the ones from our national profession.
Physical Therapist | Pain-relief and Mobility Specialist 💪 | Empowering you to take control of your physical health, without being dependent on me or anyone else 💪🏔️
10moAsk the next 10 new pts that you see if they know what the OCS or FAAOMPT stand for…none of them will. I’m sure 95+% of people do not! You’re right, your outcomes are better because of those trainings. And that is why pts will come. Take the letters off your website and your business won’t take a hit. Within our profession, I agree there is some use. But ‘Cert HVLAT’ and ‘Cert ADN’?? C’mon man…no one knows wtf that means! Michael Connors is 💯% right. But I get it. PTs do love letters and you’ll sell more courses because of it.