Posts by Melissa Hughes
Money Talks: A 2025 DPT Student Loan Survey
What happens when the best of the best are drowning in debt? Our scholars are excellent in every sense of the word. They’re engaged in school, they lead student organizations, volunteer in their communities, and contribute to—or sometimes even drive—new research. Many of our scholars achieve industry recognition, and several have won prestigious scholarships outside…
Read More6 Equitable Hiring Practices to Help You Diversify Your DPT Clinic
Let us put on our fortune-teller hat and make some guesses about who you are. You are a hiring manager, HR representative, or clinic leader—and your physical therapy clinic needs help. Your patient population is unique. Whether you treat a large number of Spanish-speakers or Black postpartum parents, you’ve noticed that your patients have distinct…
Read MoreExceptional Scholars, Exceptional Debt: A 2023 DPT Student Loan Survey
Winning Jenga is simple: Destabilize the tower as little as possible when relocating blocks from the bottom to the top, and hope your opponent sends the tower tumbling to the ground. The rules are easy enough—but as the average Jenga-enjoyer knows, each turn becomes more difficult as the players methodically erode the tower’s foundation. It’s…
Read MoreTelehealth For Me, But Not for Thee: Examining the Biases in Virtual Care
Telehealth has the potential to expand healthcare access to millions of patients. When used, it supplements health professional shortage areas—it offers a legitimate solution to patient transportation issues. It reliably reduces no-shows, and it gives physical therapists the unique opportunity to walk patients through their HEP in their home environment. Virtual care is not a…
Read MoreFrom Generalist to Specialist: What to Know About Board-Certified PT Specialties
Have you ever heard the advice to “niche down?” This business concept is simple: Narrow your focus to serve a targeted group of customers and best serve their specific needs. But can this “choose your line” style of advice work for PT students? Absolutely! There are some serious benefits to developing a greater depth of…
Read MoreEverything You Need to Know About the New Student Loan Forgiveness Plan
Published August 26, 2022 Student loan debt is a $1.6 trillion problem for more than 45 million Americans—or at least, it was until this week. On Wednesday, August 24, President Biden announced a student loan forgiveness plan that will cancel $10,000 (or $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients) of federal student loan debt for every eligible…
Read MoreInvestigating LGBTQ+ Cultural Competence in Physical Therapy
No two patients are exactly alike. In a clinical sense, two patients recovering from the same condition won’t progress in exactly the same way—and in a social sense, those patients will respond differently to their provider interactions. One patient may respond well to detailed explanations about their care, whereas another may respond to light overviews…
Read MoreDiversifying the PT Hiring Pool Through HBCUs
Many people who work in or alongside the physical therapy industry are invested in diversifying the PT profession. National PT organizations, like APTA, ACAPT, and APTQI, alongside private companies, are working tirelessly to improve access to physical therapy and ensure that patients feel represented by their PT providers. That said, the PT industry has a…
Read MoreIdentifying and Dismantling Performative Allyship
Good intentions are easy to have. Most people have a lot of them—and you likely do, too. You may intend to empty the trash when you get home. You may also intend to book a flight to visit a friend in Chicago, or you may intend to knit a blanket for your niece. But the…
Read MoreHow to Network as a PT Student
Networking is key to a fruitful and far-reaching career. If you’ve spent any amount of time looking up professional development advice or job-hunting tips, you’ve probably encountered some iteration of that advice. It lives on countless webpages and is passed around more freely than a bucket of popcorn at a movie theater. But unlike digging…
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