Job Shadow Reflection

Brianna Bello
3rd period

I was given the opportunity to Job Shadow Chantel Myers at the RPT office in West
Jordan. RPT stands for Registered Physical Therapists and they have about 11 different
locations. They offer many different services including running analysis, orthopedic
rehabilitation, aquatic therapy, women’s health, and industrial health. I chose to job shadow at
RPT because they have great reviews and I saw it a possibility to begin a career there. While I
was job shadowing Chantel I first had to do some paperwork and then I began to observe her
stretching her patient. The patient had scar tissue in her heel/foot and it was hard to walk because
the pain was unbearable. After Chantel stretched the patients foot she began to scrape the foot
with this metal tool. She got Palmer’s cocoa butter dipped the tool into the butter and began
rubbing it on the foot and digging in with the tool to ease the pain of her scar tissue. Another
patient had hip pain so Chantel gave the patient an elastic band to wrap around her knees and had
her do a butterfly position to stretch out her hips. At RPT they have many employees
approximately 25. They had the PTs, receptionists, aides, exercise specialists, and an account
manager. The building is located in West Jordan off of redwood road and the building was fairly
small with a few little rooms, an office, and one big room with the majority of their equipment.
The average employee was between the ages of 20-50 years old and was fairly fit. While I
walked around I observed that it’s a very professional and clean company and they have a very
high work ethic and are very proactive. I liked the working atmosphere because they get things
done but they still are chill and kind to everyone and have fun. I got in touch with Chantel by
calling the office and they referred me to Chantel. Chantel has worked at RPT for about 2 years
and she was an intern for a PT in Texas when she was a college student. She got the job because
she had the experience RPT was looking for. Everyday for Chantel at work she stretches
patients, gives them exercises to do at home, and helps gain their strength back so they can go
back to doing the sport they play or so they can work again. Chantel likes how she can help
people feel better and hopefully try to resolve their pain. A lot of patients try to go to therapy
instead of surgery and Chantels hope is that she gives the patients the right kinds of things to do
so they can prevent having surgery for their injury. She says it’s challenging when the patient
does not get better because she feels like she has failed her patient. Another challenge for
Chantel is when her patients don’t do their exercises at home because they cannot heal properly
without doing what they need to do. Useful personality traits are to be kind and outgoing with
other people because she meets new patients everyday and without being able to communicate
with her patients she cannot find the proper stretches to fix her patients pain. The steps Chantel
recommended to me are to work hard always and get the right kind of experience so I can easily
get hired as a PT one day.