New Graduate, New Job, New Opportunities to Learn!

Guest Blogger: Emily Zeman, OTD, MS, OTR/L

You’ve arrived!  You finally have your degree in hand, and you’ve passed your board exam(s)! There are initials after your name, and/or you have a license number as part of your signature.  And, you have your first job out of graduate school!  Now, you can relax.

Well, sort of!  Aside from the nuances of learning the ins and outs of your new job, your commitment to your profession and your clients includes remaining current with the latest evidence, evaluations, and intervention/treatment techniques.  To remain in-the-know, it’s not the same as going to the library or writing a paper with the research evidence.  As a working professional, conferences, webinars, online courses, and other continuing education opportunities are all available. 

But wait! Why, as a new graduate, with the latest education, should you think about adding more learning to your plate?

Believe it or not, the months and first few years go by very quickly in practice, and suddenly, you’ve hit your license or registration renewal deadline for your professional development points (PDPs) and/or continuing education units (CEU’s).   The renewal form arrives in the mail, and you realize, you do not meet the minimum standard because you did not make it to any conferences.  Or, you’ve read a few articles and had a few students, but did not keep track of the hours.  In addition, new treatment techniques, new assessment tools, and new laws and regulations governing practice, are constantly churned out by our peers who are researching and developing the cutting-edge methodologies to offer effective solutions to clients and patients.

Take occupational therapy and physical therapy practice requirements in Massachusetts, for example.  Just this summer, the Board of Registration for Allied Health Professionals has agreed that “For each renewal period, each physical and occupation therapy professional’s continuing competency points must include two points in ethics, laws, and regulations governing practice in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, or some combination thereof.”  If you practice in MA, have you started planning on how you will spend 2 points (equivalent) in time focusing your continuing education on ethics and/or laws?  Since you graduated, have you developed a plan for meeting the requirements of your state licensure board? 

Education Resources, Inc., offers clinically relevant, continuing competency courses, conveniently online and in-person, across the country, to help you learn the latest protocols in your profession that are evidence-based; have been vetted by seasoned practitioners; and are in-line with the current state and national requirements.  Education Resources, Inc. can support you in meeting the goals of accruing the required continuing education units while networking with professionals and learning from peers who can teach specialty skills that you can apply to your practice population. 

Are you a new school-based OT, SLP, or PT?  Come check out the Annual Therapies in the Schools Symposium to hear about the tried and true strategies, and earn many contact hours in the process!

Are you a new acute-care professional in either the ICU or NICU? Learn from the professionals in Physical Therapy in Acute Care, Occupational Therapy in Acute Care, and other courses! 

Can’t make it in-person?  Try the Online Courses tab to see what fits your needs, while adding to the tally of your required CEU hours.  

Your “new graduate” status is not only a wonderful celebration of all you’ve recently accomplished but also a jumping off point for gathering critical specialty and generalist skills while making your continuing education requirements, at the same time as networking and meeting others from whom you can learn.  Soon, you’ll be the seasoned practitioner and completing your renewal application with the CEU’s from taking courses with Education Resources, Inc., and maybe even teaching a course!

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Glowing Reviews for CEU course Addressing Visual Issues

“This is one of the most interactive and practical courses I’ve ever taken. I learned so many applicable treatment approaches, and I can’t wait to start applying all I’ve learned”. – Alyson, OT

“This was a great course that offered a lot of creative treatment ideas as well as covering various diagnoses, in order to make the information applicable across many populations and settings”. – Hannah, PT

We just had to share these wonderful testimonials for our new course this year:

Visual Processing, Visual Perception and Visual-Motor Skills
This workshop will help the therapist determine when they are able to address visual issues within their setting, (including schools, acute care, rehab and LTC facilities) and when they need to refer for further medical attention. It will arm therapists with intervention tools and strategies to optimize function. It will focus on the visual system and how various diagnoses can present with different visual difficulties in both children and adults. 

and for the new dynamic member of the ERI faculty, Melissa K. Gerber, OTD, OTR/L who teaches this course:

“This is definitely the best course I have been to in a long time. Melissa is knowledgeable and authentic. She creates an active atmosphere or learning and sharing”  – Paula, OT

 Don’t miss these dates coming up in 2018:

November 3-4, 2018 – Bridgeville, PA
December 8-9, 2018 – Robbinsdale, MN

and in 2019:
March 23-23, 2019 – Indianapolis, IN
May 4-5, 2019 – Denver, CO
September 21-22, 2019 – TBA
October 19-20, 2019 – New Brunswick, NJ
November 9-10, 2019 – TBA

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION
To download a brochure and to register

We also offer Melissa’s Online Courses:
Visual Processing/Visual Deficits Treat, Remediate, Compensate, Refer?

and:

Aligning Strategies to Support Motor Needs with Curriculum Goals

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Celebrating National Physical Therapy Month

In recognition of all our community of Physical Therapists, we would like to offer you the opportunity to win a free live CEU course with ERI.

When you register for a course during the month of October you will automatically be entered into a drawing to win a free 2 day CEU course of your choosing  (to be applied toward a future registration). We will randomly choose a winner in early November. #PTMonth

GOOD LUCK!

Discounts apply to live open enrollment courses only, and not applicable for online courses or one-day courses.
Not to be used in combination with other discounts or course credits.
Non-Transferable. Can not to be used for previous registrations

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Celebrating Neonatal Therapists with an ERI Winner

ERI supports INTW 2018We were excited to join our professional partners, the National Association of Neonatal Therapists (NANT) in celebrating neonatal therapists everywhere during International Neonatal Therapist WeekERIMembers of NANT were offered entry into a drawing to win a 2 day ERI course of their choice.

We received a tremendous response and would like to congratulate Alyssa, a Speech Language Pathologist from TX as the winner of our randomized drawing. 

Celebrating 30 years of life-changing learning, ERI provides evidence-based, clinically relevant CEU courses for neonatal  occupational therapists, physical therapists and speech language pathologists, Dieticians and Nurses working in the NICU, and beyond. Learn skills you’ll use right away, through hands-on learning. It’s about improving outcomes by improving patient care. Our cutting edge courses are taught by distinguished internationally renowned faculty who are leaders in their field.

Please click here to check out our CEU courses for the neonatal therapist and to learn more about NANT 

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Everything You Need to Know About Being a School-Based Therapist (Okay, maybe not everything, but this will certainly help)

GUEST BLOGGER and ERI Faculty Member: Kathryn Biel  

Going back to school doesn’t seem that complicated. New pens and pencils. Bright sneakers with good laces. Backpacks. I mean, after all, we were all students once. And if you’re a new PT, OT, or SLP graduate, you’re probably sick of school. But this time, when the staff badge is hanging around your neck, things are different.

School-based therapy is a specialized area of the rehabilitation therapies, walking a fine line between the medical and the educational systems. For therapists, it can be a difficult shift between the two. While therapy is therapy, working in a school setting is a whole different ball of wax than working in a hospital, nursing home, or outpatient clinic. Additionally, due to the nature of how therapists are hired in the schools (at least here in New York), there don’t seem to be many opportunities for students to do fieldwork/clinical affiliations in the schools to gain experience.

And let me tell you, very little about being a student prepares you for being the teacher.

It’s a whole new world of federal plans and school policies. There are acronyms and abbreviations and of course, these are always changing. And most of the time, the school district doesn’t know what to do with the therapists either, so they may not have some of the answers we need. We may be classified as “teachers” but don’t require the same certifications and professional development criteria that certified teachers do. Often our administrators don’t provide and don’t even know where to start providing appropriate (and state approved for licensure) continuing education for us.

That’s where Therapies in the School comes in. I stumbled upon this conference a decade ago, and have been attending ever since. Even though I started my career in special ed schools and had been doing EI and pre-school evals, as well as treating peds in an outpatient clinic, I found myself in over my head once I went back to school. I’d been hired by a contract agency and tossed into a large, urban district with one other PT and two PTAs (not all of us full time in the district) to cover 16 schools. I knew a little.
I didn’t know enough.

I came home from my first day of work, bought a large binder, folders, page protectors, and pencils, and proceeded to cry a little as I tried to make sense of the stacks of paper I’d been handed at “orientation.”

If only I’d had a crash course in how to navigate the schools.
I don’t, but you do.

If you’re a new graduate (congratulations, you made it!) or new to the school system, consider attending my session, Support for Beginning Practice, School-Based Therapy 101 at the Nineteenth Annual Therapies in the School Conference on Thursday, November 15th. Together with Occupational Therapist, Nicole Barmen, we’ll fill you in on the ins and outs of the special education system, give you an inside key to all the abbreviations that use more letters than a Sesame Street episode, help fill up your toolbox, and help you back up your clinical opinions with research and data that your administrators can’t ignore.

Plus, if we have enough time, Nicole and I are rehearsing an interpretive dance for your viewing pleasure.

Oh, and one of the best things about going back to school every year are the new pens and pencils, bright sneakers with good laces, and backpacks. For you.
Trust me, you’ll need them.

See you in November!

Kathryn R. Biel, PT, DPT is a school-based physical therapist in Upstate New York. She’s a loyal attendee of the Therapies in the School conference, and occasionally blogs for Education Resources, Inc. When not doing all of that, Kathryn chauffeurs her children, begs her husband to do the grocery shopping, and writes novels that are romantic and funny.

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