"Choose a job that you love and you 'II never work a day in your life. " From the time that I was a small child, my parents instilled that concept into our family life day in and day out. Hard work and education were always things that were a vast part of our family's way of life. My parents encouraged me to follow my dreams and shine light onto the world everyday through helping others and making a positive impact. I now see the impact I can make is being much greater than that of a lone physical therapist. It is indeed tnic that every practitioner lias a unique skill set. and each discipline is a master of certain elements of a given patient's recovery process. Indeed, there is a philosophy, science, and art. which must be in harmony with every doctor, in even practice. Working inside an office with chiropractors, physical therapists, and medical doctors allows for better patient outcomes. I chose to work in an office that was not limited to my particular specialty because, ultimately, there is no place in medicine for doctors who feel that they can do everything themselves. Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco was quoted after being named this ycar"s Super Bowl MVP as saving that he could not have made those passes without an exceptional set of receivers. That is what a team is all about, and that is how we win in practice. I truly feel that there are no coincidences in life, and somehow my journey led me to the colleagues that I now have in an office with a very wide scope. Our practice is integrated with a group of medical professionals that truly believe in each other and our individual talents, as well as the cohesive way that we provide superior care to our patients. Using our individual gifts and abilities as well as a team approach to pain management allows us to achieve unsurpassed patient satisfaction. Helping others through working together not only yields improvement in patients" lives, but also creates momentum to achieve purpose and meaning in our own lives. Kindness and compassion arc contagious. We arc a group of medical professionals that maximize our abilities to help patients and embrace our differences in that each one of us has talents and gifts that provide superior patient care. We arc also a family that makes a tnic difference in the world. We support each other in our journey toward meeting our professional, personal, and financial goals in the hard work and passion we implement on a dailv basis. By merging and combining our skill sets as chiropractors, physical therapists, medical doctors, and other allied professionals, it is overwhelming to think of the amount of kindness we can spread on a daih basis. When you love your job. you never work — and you get paid. As healthcare providers, we have the ability to make such an impact on patients with our various gifts and talents that each of us possess. In our clinic, we are able to make even more of a lasting impression and impact with the individual qualities tliat each medical specialty can provide for the patients. We are living the change that we want to see in the future of health care. We strive for a world where patients get superb care from various specialties in order to provide as main treatment interventions as medically necessary to improve patient outcomes. We arc constantly living this in our clinic every day. and we work to improve quality of care with each patient we treat. I feel very lucky to be part of such a wonderful group of people that help me achieve my goals on a daily basis. Dr. Fennell is the Physical Therapy Director and practicing therapist of an integrated clinic in Maryland. She has been in private practice since graduation from Duke University in 2008. She completed her residency at Children s Hospital in Washington, DC. She is a consultant for Consultants of America where she helps offices integrate PT into Iheir practices. She can be reached at fennel a consultantsamerica. com.
