This department spotlights a relatively recent addition to the workforce, focusing on the person’s educational or working background, daily responsibilities, challenges, passions, frustrations and outlook for his or her future in the field.

Name: Meredith Franczyk
Age: 27
Company: Supplemental Healthcare
Title: Physical Therapist
Location: Currently contracted at the Loyola Outpatient Center
College Path: Northern Illinois University, Bachelor’s in Science and Master’s in Physical Therapy

How you ended up here: I consider myself to be a very social person. Therefore, a desk job just wouldn’t work for me. I enjoy the medical field, working with others, education and fitness. I decided early on in college that physical therapy was a perfect fit for me. I was able to be in the medical field but have more one-on-one time with my patients and use my love of fitness.

Who you answer to: I have a contract company that sends me to facilities that need help, and then once at the facility, I work under the director or supervisor of that facility.

Hours you expect to be at work: The nice thing about physical therapy is that your day typically ends when it’s scheduled to, unless you’re behind on paperwork, and the hours are very flexible. I work 40 hours a week and made my schedule out to be Monday-Thursday, so I work 10-hour days, but I can pick up extra hours for overtime.

Job reputation: A physical therapist’s reputation is good for the most part because we help people return to their prior function, whether that be walking, sports or returning to work. I find that most people are fascinated with physical therapy and think that it’s great that we spend our time helping others. Very rarely do I hear anyone talk negatively about the profession, but from time to time, we get a few nicknames like “physical torturist,” or my favorite, “the bone crusher.”

Breakdown of what people anticipate from you: My bosses expect me to see patients for nine hours a day and handle a full caseload with all different diagnoses. My patients expect guidance for improving their symptoms, including pain relief, exercises and education. Most patients anticipate a 80-to-100-percent improvement of their current condition.

What your friends assume you do all day: Most of my friends assume that I exercise and massage people. The first thing I correct people on is that I am not a massage therapist, and typically the massages I give don’t feel good. I use a scientific approach in treating patients with multiple tools like exercises, manual therapy, modalities and education.

I have trouble dealing with... people who don’t want to help themselves. Most patients are great and try to help themselves as much as they can, but there are those individuals who don’t try and come to therapy with a poor attitude. A lot of what we do isn’t just physical, but mental too. I have to have a positive attitude myself and keep patients encouraged, which is hard when I’m having a bad day.

Helping people get back to health can be... very rewarding, but very frustrating at the same time. When you’re able to improve the patient’s status in a quick timeframe, you feel like you just conquered the world. Unfortunaly, that’s not the case most of the time. I’m constantly having to brainstorm and bounce ideas off other therapists to help get the patients better. People aren’t in black and white, so you have to learn to work in the gray area. Overall, the best reward is returning a patient back to his or her prior health status and making an impact on someone’s life.

Any particularly interesting cases you’d care to share? Oh where to begin. I’ve been very fortunate to work in many different facilities and settings, so I’ve been exposed to so many different things. A few of my more interesting cases in the outpatient setting include one patient who had a fall and had a very bad fracture. When I first started seeing the patient, she had to walk with both crutches and had severe pain with exercises and just walking. Over time, she was able to walk indpendently without limping and increase her strength to equal that of her opposite leg. I also get neurological cases from time to time, including strokes. I typically work on improving their balance and re-teaching them how to walk and do activities such as bed mobility and transfering out of chairs. I’ve seen everything from people getting shot to car accidents to arthritis.

I’ve come to realize the human body is... very fragile, and if you don’t take care of yourself, then it will just fall to pieces. I work with people from the ages of 10 to 100, and I’ve had people in their 90s just as active as some people in their 40s. It just all depends on how active people keep there minds and bodies. Remember, age is just a number. You’re only as old as you feel.

What might you change if given the chance: I would love to have more time with my patients, but with the way healthcare is today, it’s not economical to get one-on-one time for an hour with each patient. Also, with a shortage of therapists, we have to work on getting everyone in in a timely manner.

Advice for joining the field: If you are someone who enjoys working with others, being active on the job and using a scientific approach toward helping others, physical therapy may be the right profession for you. Most of us had to work hard to where we’re at today. School is an additional 2-3 years after a bachelor’s degree and consists of multiple internships. It’s important not to get too stressed out because, as I stated earlier, you have to learn to work in a gray area. There are going to be new challenges each and every day. Overall, I feel that I’m very lucky to be part of this great profession.

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