Brianne Ray

Healthcare workers have always been heroes to me. When I was little, I often talked about becoming a doctor. I wanted so badly to help people feel better. Over the years I considered several different career paths, but it wasn’t until college that I was introduced to my passion: physical therapy.

I was an athlete all my life and ultimately ended up playing soccer for my university. It’s difficult to play sports for that many years and avoid an injury, so at one point I found myself in physical therapy. My therapist was a fantastic motivator and found clever ways to improve my strength and balance. I saw immediate results and thought, “What a rewarding way to help people!” I had already spent four years in college pursuing a bachelor’s degree in exercise physiology, but I discovered the physical therapist assistant associate degree program (PTA) at Washburn University and applied. The two-year program perfectly complemented my previous studies.

I’m now a physical therapist assistant for Stormont Vail Orthopedics and Sports Medicine. I treat a wide variety of patients, from athletes to amputees and stroke survivors. Many of my patients are recovering from surgery. For all, I work closely with physicians and my supervising physical therapists to ensure I’m providing the proper care — they create plans for me to carry out so a patient will meet all of their therapy goals. I get to make connections with people, and their goals become my goals. Together, we’re motivated to achieve them.

This is right where I want to be in my career. I get to work with a diverse patient population, and I have a talented group of colleagues who challenge me to keep improving. Through its tuition reimbursement employee benefit, Stormont Vail Health also encourages continuing education to help us evolve and keep up with cutting-edge therapy techniques. Washburn’s PTA program qualifies for this benefit, so if you can get your foot in the door as an employee at Stormont prior to starting your PTA program, you can avoid the expense!

If you’re considering a career path like mine, I recommend emphasizing high school science courses such as anatomy, physics, biology, chemistry and physiology. You’ll study all of these in depth later, so preparing yourself early will make that challenge less stressful. You might also find a clinic that allows high school students to observe therapists on the job — this will allow you to really immerse yourself in various healthcare scenarios and ask all the questions you may have about the field of physical therapy.