#38- Passed my boards exam!

I am officially licensed in the State of Oregon to practice physical therapy!! That's right, I am a physical therapist!

Dr. Jyndia Schaible PT, DPT!!!!

Celebratory Drinks @ Royal Bank in SF

I am so relived to have that exam behind me as it was easily the hardest exam I have ever taken! Especially when your entire ability to practice in the profession you have been working on for the last three years, rides on this one test.  I had to take the exam in San Francisco due to no test sites being available in Oregon, Washington, Idaho or Montana. This past year the Federal Board of PT moved to fixed date testing, which now limits the test to only be taken 5 times per year.  University of CO graduated (what seemed like) last in the country, so I was one of the last ones able to register for the exam. Long story short, I was able to spend 5 nights in the lovely city of San Fran!

Not much to say about the exam except it was the longest 5 hours of my life! There are 250 multiple choice questions and you are scored on 200 of those questions.  Each test is variable, so the exact raw score needed depends on the difficulty of the test.  Walking out of the exam I felt like it could easily go either way.  There were a hand-full of questions that I basically said "I have no idea what that is" and then there were some that seemed like "gimme" points.  Overall, I would say the exam was very challenging and 

all my prep work paid off! And the 8 days that followed where I waited patiently (or not so patiently) 

for my results, I am glad those are over too!

Now, with those fancy 4 digits next to my name (license number) and the initials PT after my name, I am ready to start work!  Today marks my first day as a physical therapist and the first day of my career!   I am going to be working at OHSU three days a week as an outpatient neuro therapist and then floating two-three days a week as an inpatient therapist.  I will know more about what my schedule/hours by the end of this week, but right now I am just excited to get my hands dirty! I am also going to interview for another PRN (on-call) position at another hospital in Portland to pick up extra shifts until my outpatient position goes full time.  This is my dream job and I feel so beyond fortunate to have this opportunity!