I will be starting my first contract at a hospital in a few weeks. It's 3 days/week hospital OP and 2 days/week acute care. I'm surprised they hired me, given that I did not do an acute care rotation in school, and I have only been working in private OP ortho since I graduated about a year ago. What should I expect? I know there will be some training, but I'm mostly expecting to get thrown into the deep end 😬
I just signed my first contract, and I am planning to start in 1 month. I'm still working for a private OP clinic for the next two weeks. I have SO MANY things to do before I start. Holy hell, this is like clinical rotations in school again: I have to get titers, a physical, yet another fucking background check (how much trouble could I have possibly gotten myself into in the past year since I got my license and have been working full time?), and I have to take four online exams?! Wtf?? Do I have to do this EVERY TIME I sign a new contract? What a nightmare. It doesn't help that I'm moving right now, trying to sell a bunch of shit, and training for an ultra. If anyone cares, this is with Lucid. I hope it wasn't a poor decision. I guess I'll find out either way. God help me.
A coworker showed me a video of her grandchild (an infant) last week. I realized that I can't even feign interest, amusement, anything. Another coworker comes by with her newborn every few weeks. Everyone else stops what they're doing to ogle over him, etc. I'm not impressed or interested in the slightest, I apparently don't know how to pretend to be, and I stick out like a sore thumb.
I'm curious what the general consensus is on how much loan debt should be paid off via PSLF. I see a lot of posts on r/StudentLoans , and it seems like >$200k = PSLF. What do you all think and why? What did you do/are you doing, and how did it turn out? What would you do differently if given the chance?
34 y/o female
5'7"
150 lbs
300mg bupropion and 40mg buspirone/day for depression and anxiety; daily multivitamin
elective hysterectomy 9 years ago for suspected endometriosis and voluntary sterilization
no significant other PMH
I am a long distance runner and have been for about 10 years. Since I began running 20+ miles in a day, I've noticed that I barely pee, despite drinking a ton of water. I sweat A LOT. It was about 90 deg F last weekend, I drank 5 liters in 15 miles, and did not pee until maybe 2 hours after I finished running. It was darker, but not brown, and the volume was pretty low-- maybe 5-8 seconds of flow before it stopped. I don't know the volume, but I could figure out a way to collect and measure it if someone here thinks I should. This is always the case after long runs.
On hot days (>80 deg F), I have less of an appetite, and I don't eat as much, but I still make sure I have salty snacks in addition to simple and complex carbs in an effort to avoid hyponatremia or any other wonky electrolyte related conditions.
I realize that I can't control what portion of my water goes to sweat glands vs what goes to my bladder, but does this sound concerning? Or am I just wired to sweat more than I pee, and it's not a problem when paired with long distance running?
This is my nightmare to treat every time. I don't love treating LBP in general, but paired with posterior or posterolateral hip pain is so much worse. I should add that these are typically people with few impairments (great lumbar/thoracic and hip ROM and strong MMTs), and they're uncertain of aggravating and easing factors, which makes my job a lot harder. These people almost always have TTP at the origin of glute med/min and/or the piriformis, and often at the SIJ. They almost never have radiating pain down their legs. Sometimes I think it's gluteal tendinopathy, but that doesn't seem like something that should come out of nowhere. I'd expect some MOI or a clear change in activity, right?
I'm sorry if this post is just me ranting aimlessly, but this is the stuff that makes me feel totally clueless and useless, and I thought it'd be less intimidating a year into practice. If anyone with more experience has any thoughts, I'm all ears.
I am almost a year into my first job at a private OP orthopedic clinic, and I am still so freaking anxious every day with at least half of my patients. I dread going to work a lot of days because I don't know if I can actually help people in many cases. I feel like I should see 12-14 people/day to make more $$ and have a shot at ever paying off these loans, but holy hell, I feel like I've been run over by a truck on those days. 10 is my comfortable limit currently, but the finances of that make me anxious. I try to do point of service (POS) documentation, but goddamn, it is so tough to be fully engaged, provide good treatment, AND finish every piece of the note. When I fail to do that and spend unpaid time documenting, I feel resentful and bitter. And even when I do POS documenting, there is often still unpaid documentation time to request visits from insurance. I feel like I should be doing med bridge courses a few times a month, but I'm mostly just recovering when I'm not at work. I have time to exercise and cook and maybe clean, and I don't have much bandwidth left after that.
I have great coworkers and a great mentor, and it's very flexible, and no one is breathing down my neck about productivity ever; but it's pay per visit and zero benefits (healthcare, retirement, etc), and I am becoming increasingly aware of the financial unreality of my situation.
Rinse, repeat, anxious wreck.
Thoughts? Recs from other new-ish grads?
Possibly as soon as this fall, and I have a few questions. I am a new grad and have worked in a private OP clinic, and I just don't see how I can continue to make it work here financially with my crushing student loans and increasing COL. For this reason, I may start traveling in Sept or Oct. I'd love to get some insight from fellow travelers to be sure I'm not making a mistake. I've been offered all four jobs I've interviewed for in the past year, surprisingly, and the money still seems best with travel.
Every contract I've seen is 13 weeks. Are they ever shorter? Or does that not happen?
A recruiter told me that I can take up to 30 days off and keep my health insurance. What do you do if you take off for longer? Go without?
This same recruiter also told me that only about half of my income would be taxable. I read an article about having a tax home and satisfying the requirements, and it sounds like I could make it work. Is that actually the case?
How often do you feel like you're being exploited and worked to death? And how much push back do you give?
What are the most significant drawbacks and benefits compared to a traditional PT job?
What do you wish you would've known before you started traveling? What regrets did/do you have, if any?
I am 34 years old and started a new career and job about a year ago. I have been on Medicaid since going back to school, and I have had 2 MRIs and 3 mammograms under my doctor's recommendation because my mom had breast cancer at age 42. My mom and I have both had genetic testing that only revealed "unknown variants". The doc recommended an MRI in addition to a mammogram because I have "extremely dense breast tissue", and they cannot clearly see anything with the latter. I already had a scare last year where they found a lump that turned out to be a cyst, and for that I had a mammogram, then an MRI, then an ultrasound. I am still on Medicaid but expecting to get kicked off at any moment, and I work for a small company that does not provide any benefits. I am probably going to leave this job for that reason and because the pay just isn't enough to aggressively pay back my student loans. However, if I don't, how do I even start to look for a plan that isn't going to bleed me dry for this preventative imaging every year? I believe breast cancer screening is covered for women 40 years and older through most if not all plans, but I won't be in that category for several more years. I tried to start looking at plans through the ACA already, and my phone BLEW UP with dozens of texts and calls from people trying to sell me insurance, which feels like a giant, red flag. I know insurance is the biggest scam in America (well, almost), but is there a way for me to avoid getting completely screwed if I keep working for this company?