Sorry Karen — Your PT Has Tattoos

WEBVTT

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Go.

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A little time-lapse photography.

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Oh, very nice.

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It's pretty sharp.

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Yeah.

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It's beautiful here.

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Live again from APTA CSM here at Anaheim,

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California.

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I want to say thanks to Empower EMR.

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If your clinic is stuck in an EMR

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that slows you down, that's your fault.

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You did that.

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You can also undo that.

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Empower EMR gives you speed,

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clean workflows,

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and features PTs actually ask for.

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Upgrade your clinic's brain with Empower

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EMR at empoweremr.com.

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That is empoweremr.com.

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If you've ever been told...

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To look more professional without anyone

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defining what that actually means,

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this conversation is for you.

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I'm looking at you.

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Our next guest has spent her career

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expanding access to care and challenging

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narrow definitions of who gets to belong

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in this profession and who doesn't.

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Live from Anaheim, Jen Bell,

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welcome to the show.

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Yeah, thanks for having me.

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Thanks for taking time here during the,

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well, it's a little busy.

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A little bit of chaos.

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So it's a little bit of an unusual

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intro, right?

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So how do most PTs define professional?

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And where does that fall short?

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Yeah, definitely.

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Well,

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I think a lot of the definition of

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professional demeanor,

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professional appearance comes from kind of

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the classic white male heteronormative

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perspective that kind of governed health

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professions forever.

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And so that's the definition that's been

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handed down to us from other healthcare

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professions that came before us.

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And it's the one that's stuck around.

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The problem with that is that it's not

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who our patients are.

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And the world's changing.

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Yeah.

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That's not who we're actually have a

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mission to get more of into our

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profession.

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And it's not having to conform to those,

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those normatives around professional

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behavior and demeanor and appearance burns

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people out.

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And so these are three big problems that

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are professional right now.

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How do we connect with patients where they

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are to have good patient centered care?

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How do we recruit and retain diverse

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people to enter our profession and help

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them to feel like they belong there?

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And then how do we prevent them from

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burning out?

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Yeah.

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It's huge.

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World changed.

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Not that long ago.

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Having a tattoo was like, I mean.

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Yeah.

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It was sacrilege.

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And now,

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I don't know if it's a two on

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a scale of one to ten,

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but sometimes people will react that way.

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Having a piercing anywhere but a standard

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location was sacrilege.

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I worked at a job in rural Alaska

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and the email comes out with a reminder

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about the dress code.

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You're only supposed to have nail polish

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that's red or pink.

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and like all of these like just archaic

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definitions of like what's acceptable and

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i'm like in the world decided pink and

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red are okay but like blue or orange

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isn't like it's just absurd and you said

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that was in rural alaska yeah i mean

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i gotta be honest when you're that far

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away from help like the rules nobody cares

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right like what are we what are we

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doing what are we dictating

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yeah but even as recently as this summer

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i had a student tell me that someone

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told them like you're not gonna go into

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the clinic with your tattoos showing are

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you and it's like and the student was

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like how would you like me to do

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that right and it's like that's not the

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world that we live in right now if

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we continue to maintain those narrow

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definitions we're really gonna run people

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away

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Right.

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You're going to miss treating people and

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you're going to miss the people that treat

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those people.

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Yeah, exactly.

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And that make us better SPTs.

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Who gets marginalized most by traditional,

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I'll use air quotes,

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traditional professional norms?

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Who does it affect the most?

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Yeah, certainly.

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Well, I mean,

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we're a profession that has a lot of

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women in, and that's great.

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But I see some of the biggest impacts

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are in people of color,

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women of color that are coming in,

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and then also our gender nonconforming

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members of our profession.

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They are the ones that are,

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how they show up is always appreciated or

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respected, right?

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And so

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You know,

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I don't want my students when they're

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graduating to have to worry about whether

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or not they should put their pronouns on

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their CV.

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It's like if it's important to you,

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you need to put it on your CV.

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Right.

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And you don't want to work for someone

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who isn't going to respect that.

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So really thinking about the

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underrepresented people in our profession

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are the ones that are getting impacted by

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these these older, more traditional norms.

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Sure.

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Yeah.

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Why does this matter now?

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Well,

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we're doing so much stuff to try to

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diversify the profession and recruit

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people in,

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but we have to accept them when they're

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here as they are.

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And then we have this huge burnout issue.

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And so when we're constantly telling

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people that you need to code switch in

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the workplace,

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that you need to not show up as

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your authentic self,

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you need to dress up to look like

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what we expect a PT to look like.

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That's adding additional cognitive load.

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Layers and barriers and all those things.

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Exactly.

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And so, of course,

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those people are going to burn out faster

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because they're not able to fully relax as

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their true selves in the workplace.

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What do students understand about

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authenticity,

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which is a word I don't think was

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used.

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It's being used a lot more now,

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especially when you can generate anything

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you want with artificial intelligence.

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But what do students understand about

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authenticity that maybe the profession

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doesn't?

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forgot.

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Yeah, I think the, you know,

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most of the students coming through are

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those younger generations.

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We have some non-traditional students

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coming through,

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but they see that they can show up

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in these diverse ways and be respected.

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They're seeing, you know,

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people on social media that are medical

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professionals,

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that are leaders that aren't conforming to

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the white male heteronormative

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expectations.

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And so they're seeing it as

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they're coming in and they're expecting us

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to welcome them in in that way and

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we really only have ourselves that are

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going to hold them back right and so

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we've got to we've got to open our

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eyes we need to do some self-reflection we

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need to stop and pause and think about

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what is it as for me as a

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white woman what are my biases that i

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hold i need to figure out what they

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are check them think about how i might

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be interacting with young people coming in

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how am i connecting with my patients to

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be able to really um

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open up and allow these diverse

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individuals to really fully be themselves

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in our profession.

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All right.

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You got a magic wand.

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Yeah.

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Which belief do PTs need to let go

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of first?

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And you get to decide.

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No pressure.

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No pressure.

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Because no matter what you say,

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you're going to pick the wrong one to

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someone.

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What do you think?

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What do you think they need to let

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go of first?

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Us, we, we can own it.

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Yeah.

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No,

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I think we need to let go of

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our expectations that a couple of things.

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Our expectations that PTs are always going

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to continue to look the same way.

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I'm sorry,

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but we've put a lot of our khakis

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and polos and sneakers away.

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Yeah, we can ban that, right?

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Yeah, for sure.

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Sorry to my friend Anna who has it

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on right now.

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And we need to set aside the expectation

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that, well,

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I had to do it this way.

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So you have to do it this way.

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Like luckily these younger generations are

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coming in and I'm forty four,

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so I'm not that old,

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but I am that old.

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They're coming in with different

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expectations of what the workplace means

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to them,

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how they show up for their patients and

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connect.

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And we have a ton to learn.

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So we need to let go of our

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old expectations and learn.

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through reflection,

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of being curious with people that are

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coming in that are different than us so

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that we can all make the profession better

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and for our patients to get better faster.

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Yeah.

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All right.

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We've got a tradition on the show.

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It's called the parting shot.

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Yeah.

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What's the last,

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we're doing fast episodes here,

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but what's the last idea you'd want to

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leave with the audience,

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your mic drop moment or your soapbox

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statement?

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What do you got?

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Oh,

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I think it's really important that we're

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continuously growing and changing as

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professionals,

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and that can include the way you look,

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the way you talk, the way you dress,

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and that there's true value in showing up

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authentically for our colleagues and for

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our patients.

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We're going to be better for it.

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Yes.

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Right?

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Absolutely.

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We're going to be better people just in

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general, but also better PTs and leaders.

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Absolutely.

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DE&I is three letters that I don't know

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if they were talked about that much ten

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years ago.

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And when someone's against that,

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I guess someone said it way better than

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me.

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They're like,

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so you're okay with the opposite of DE&I,

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which is the opposite of diverse is

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homogenous.

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Right.

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right, equitable, inequitable, right,

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diversity, equity, inclusion,

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you like exclusion?

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If anybody, when you put it like that,

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it sounds,

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Right.

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Not great.

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No.

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And we've got to go that step beyond

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that to belonging.

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Right.

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So not just make it right.

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Not just right.

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Not just, you know,

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bring these folks into the profession,

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but to help them to develop that sense

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that they belong.

00:08:50.828 --> 00:08:51.208
Sure.

00:08:51.269 --> 00:08:53.091
In the profession, in the clinic with us,

00:08:53.750 --> 00:08:56.192
with their patients and also making sure

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our patients feel like they belong with us

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and that we can relate and connect with

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them.

00:09:00.395 --> 00:09:00.817
Exactly.

00:09:00.836 --> 00:09:02.077
Jen Bell, where can people find you?

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Where would you send people to find you?

00:09:03.379 --> 00:09:05.961
Yeah, so my Instagram handle is JenBell,

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and I am a professor at Tufts University,

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so you can find me on the Tufts

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University DBT Phoenix website.

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Jen Bell,

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appreciate you stopping by here at the

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live stream at CSM.

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Thanks.