Student Focus: APTA Home Health

APTA interviews Philip Goldsmith, PT, MSPT, EMT, DScPT, president of APTA Home Health.

'Flexibility With a Sense of Humor'

As a physical therapy student, it can be overwhelming to familiarize yourself with all the specialties and practice settings in the profession. To provide a primer on the various career paths for PT and PTA students, APTA Magazine reached out to those in leadership roles in APTA's different academies and sections. At the APTA Combined Sections Meeting in February 2024, we got a chance to ask questions and get advice from section leaders.

In the coming issues, we will cover each section. In this month's edition, Leah Fogarty, APTA Magazine editor, interviewed Philip Goldsmith, PT, MSPT, EMT, DScPT, president of APTA Home Health and owner and founder of Goldsmith Therapy Solutions in Hanover, Pennsylvania.

APTA: Tell me about the advanced skills or knowledge that specialists in the home health arena have.

Philip: We are nonspecialist specialists. We see the entire gamut of physical therapy and medical diagnosis — musculoskeletal, neurologic, cardiopulmonary, integumentary — we get it all, sometimes all in the same client. I compare it more with acute care in that we are typically now seeing clients who are still acutely ill and have been hospitalized, sometimes for long periods of time. So you need to be very confident with a skill set for managing medically complex clients. The big thing is you need to be confident in your skills because you're it. There's no backup, there's no code team, there's none of that. If something goes sideways, it's you and your telephone to call 911.

APTA: What does a typical day look like?

Philip: You could go into your day with one plan with one set of clients, and by the end of the day you've done something completely different. There is a unique challenge to going into clients' homes; it is their environment. They may tell you they don't feel good, the power is out, or the plumber is coming because the water heater blew up overnight. You've got to roll with it...

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