July 24, 2025 • 32 mins
Ryan Hardin and Brett Burton share their journeys from McCook, Nebraska through PT school and various career paths before ultimately returning to their hometown to practice physical therapy at McCook Community Hospital.
• Both attended University of Nebraska for athletic training and UNMC for physical therapy
• Brett's path included a sports residency in Idaho and working with professional athletes in Phoenix
• A cancer diagnosis at 30 prompted Brett to reevaluate priorities and eventually return to McCook
• Ryan values working in a one-high-school town where he can serve athletes and be involved with FCA
• Small-town PT practice offers unique advantages including seeing patients through their entire recovery journey
• The critical access hospital setting provides excellent resources with 10 therapists and extensive facilities
• Both therapists treat patients across age ranges (4-104) and wide-ranging conditions
• Being part of the community creates deeper relationships with patients
• Challenges include regulatory limitations specific to critical access hospitals
• Both find joy in helping patients move better, with Ryan noting movement has "physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual benefits"
• APTA Nebraska membership provides valuable professional connections and continuing education
• McCook offers excellent quality of life with three recreational lakes, new YMCA facilities, and affordable living
Join us at upcoming APTA Nebraska conferences to connect with fellow physical therapy professionals and build valuable relationships across the state.
Episode Links:
Ryan Hardin, PT, DPT, ATC | Community Hospital - McCook, Nebraska
Brett Burton - PT, DPT, SCS, ATC, CSCS | Community Hospital - McCook, Nebraska
Founder/Instructor — One Harmonic Motion
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the APTA Nebraska podcast, where we dive
into the stories, challenges andinnovations shaping physical
therapy in our state.
We're here to advance, promoteand protect the practice of
physical therapy, optimizing thehealth and quality of life for
all Nebraskans.
Join us as we connect withexperts, share insights and
(00:22):
build communities throughout ourprofession.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
connect with experts share insights and build
community throughout ourprofession.
Well, hey, welcome back to theAPTA Nebraska podcast.
I'm Brad, your host, and todayI'm excited.
You know, one of the statedgoals of this podcast is to try
to develop more communitythroughout our organization, and
one of the ways that we'retrying to do that is just by
giving a voice to the members inour organization.
(00:45):
And so today I have Ryan Hardenand Brett Burden, both from
McCook, Nebraska, on the podcast.
So welcome guys, Thanks forhaving us.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Thanks, Brett.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Yeah, ryan, let's maybe start with you, and Brett,
we'll jump to you afterwards,but can you guys just tell our
audience a little bit aboutyourselves?
So hey, how long have you beena PT?
Where has your career taken youso far?
What does family life look like?
What kind of recreation hobbiesdo you have, and why McCook?
Speaker 4 (01:14):
Sure.
So yeah, my name is Ryan Harden.
I graduated from Nebraska MedCenter in 2016.
I graduated high school fromMcCook and had zero ambition to
ever move back here.
I don't really know why I lovedhigh school here, but it's four
days after I graduated from themed center, god had different
(01:35):
plans for me, and so I think,ultimately, I always wanted to
work with high school athletes,wanted to be able to work with
high school FCA, to be in kindof kind of a one high school
town, and so, you know, I lovedbeing in lincoln omaha, but
there was just uh.
There's just just a differentuh atmosphere and environment
(01:56):
when your town only has one highschool that you can kind of
revolve around.
And so, you know, mccookchecked all of all of those
boxes and so, uh, I actuallywork in a critical access
hospital here, mccook CommunityHospital, and we feel super,
super blessed just with theresources the hospital has given
us with the size.
(02:16):
I have a lot of classmates thatare working in 1,000 square
foot strip malls in biggercities and they say, yeah,
they're in bigger cities.
And say, yeah, they're inbigger cities and you know, they
the uh, but you, you come to asmall town and there's 10 other
therapists that are all workingout here which, in all honesty,
is probably bigger and biggerthan most people think of a
small town critical access rehabcenter, and we get to see a
(02:39):
little bit of everything.
You know, I think that I thinkthe youngest person I've worked
with was four and the oldestperson was 104 and uh, and you
know you, it's just a massive,massive, massive joint benefit
just to just to see people moveand a smaller town.
I think people are people alittle bit more open to just
conversation and telling youtheir life story.
(03:01):
And so, you know, I think oneof the one of the biggest things
that I just love, love at PT isjust the stories that I've
heard just by asking questions.
Some people are willing to getreal personal and deep and some
people give you a realsuperficial answer and that's
just fine, but you get to learna ton from a super wide, wide
(03:22):
range of patients, from a superwide range of occupations, a
super wide, wide range ofpatients from a super wide range
of occupations.
And so, yeah, I've absolutelyloved, loved being back here.
I brought my wife, who's thesmallest town she's ever lived
in prior to McCook was LincolnGrowing up in the Air Force,
moving all over the place, butshe has absolutely loved, loved,
loved McCook, and so I say,yeah, we feel pretty blessed to
(03:42):
be here cook, and so I see howwe feel, feel pretty blessed to
be here.
I love it.
Uh, how many kids do you have,ryan?
I have twin girls that are fourand a two-year-old boy, so it's
a uh, it is a party, anabsolute, absolute active party
you, you guys are busy right now, that's for sure.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Good, brett, how about you?
Speaker 3 (04:01):
yeah, so my uh pathway.
Ryan and I both graduated fromhigh school in McCook and I was
two years ahead of him, so weknew each other.
In high school we both went toUniversity of Nebraska for
athletic training.
We both went to the med centerfor school.
So our backgrounds.
Speaker 4 (04:21):
I just grabbed onto those coattails and held on
strong.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
We're good and we actually had another one, chan
Sunger.
So our backgrounds I justgrabbed onto those coattails and
held on strong, we're good.
And we actually had another one.
Chan Sunger was just a littlebit, he was right in between us.
We actually had three peopleright in a row that all went to
athletic training, physicaltherapy schools, so I think that
was kind of unique in a way.
(04:46):
And then after school I wasquite adventurous I guess I like
to travel and go and so Iapplied for sports residency
programs and got into a sportsresidency in Boise, idaho, at St
Luke's Sports Medicine, whichthey still currently have a
residency program there.
It's a large hospital-basedsports medicine program.
So I really wanted to try tofigure out how to take my
(05:08):
athletic training skills andphysical therapy skills and make
them work together and that wasa great place to do that.
We got to cover anywhere fromsemi-pro to peewee football, so
you know as a wide range ofexperiences there.
We stayed up in Idaho for a fewyears.
My wife is a therapist as well,so we both worked at St Luke's.
(05:29):
Then our travels took us downto Phoenix, arizona, for a while
to work with Exos as a humanperformance company where we
serviced professional athletesand that was kind of the bread
and butter of the company.
We also saw high school,college, but it was a setting
where it was pretty muchtreating athletes all day, which
(05:51):
was a lot of fun, and got tosee a lot of different sides of
sports, from the business sideto very high level of
competition and just a lot ofamazing athletes.
So I had a really good timethere.
But I think for my story thingsgot changed quite drastically.
(06:11):
I was diagnosed with cancerwhen I was 30, when I was
working at Exos, and so thatforced me to stop.
I had to stop work for aboutfive months.
I entered into a couple ofmajor surgeries, had to go
through chemotherapy, all thosethings, and when you're kind of
(06:31):
running fast, I would say, andyou're forced to stop so quickly
, that makes you kind ofevaluate what you're doing.
And I got back.
Fortunately I had great medicalcare when I was down in Phoenix
.
I got feeling better and I gotback to Exos and just didn't
feel like that's where I wassupposed to be and so I dipped
my toe, I would say, intoteaching for a while and kind of
(06:52):
the private space we'reoffering CEUs for blood flow
restriction training andteaching health and fitness
professionals about thosemethods and eventually ended up
doing some self-employment andsome teaching and had started a
wellness company as well.
So, between those three thingsthey were paying the bills and
we were doing all right inPhoenix.
(07:16):
And then, I think you know, Igot to a point where, yeah, god
made it pretty clear that it wastime to come back home.
And we came back here to mccookjust a couple years ago and, uh
, at this point in time we'vegot four children and our uh, we
, we enjoy mccook.
I mean, one of the reasons whyI'm a cook is it's very simple,
(07:38):
I think is one thing that Iappreciate about it.
The people are very friendly,but I can ride my bike to work
and it takes me eight minutes toget here and you don't have to
fight traffic and I can be homefor dinner at night and there's
like some just very simplethings to our community that
make it just really nice for ayoung family, for the kids to be
(08:02):
able to play in the yard andother things.
So you know, I think early on inmy career it was very career
driven and focused, and now thatour family has grown and I went
through cancer.
What's important and whatyou're looking for has changed.
So I guess, to kind of closeall this, my day kind of looks
like I still have my onlinewellness company that I run,
(08:25):
which is more of a performancebased business, and I do that a
couple afternoons a week, andthen I'm treating like four days
a week here.
So there's it's kind of a goodmix of like some time at the
computer and things that I'mworking on there, but also I
really like the interaction withco workers and patients as well
.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Yeah, I, I appreciate both of you kind of giving some
background on what your careershave looked like and and, uh,
you know how you've movedthrough different seasons of
your life too and why you'vemade those decisions in some
ways, because, um, I thinksometimes it can feel like, uh,
it can feel like failure if you,if you don't like, end up in
one spot and stay there for therest of your life, right, and I
(09:04):
think it's okay to to understandthat you change as a person and
, and you know, you don't haveto go work in one setting or in
one place for the entirety of ofyour profession as well.
I think I, you know, ryan, youand I, at our annual conference,
we did that debate, right, andI remember talking to you a
(09:26):
little bit about just even thefact that, hey, when I was going
through PT school, just becauseof my family of origin, I
watched my grandpa work the samejob for 65 years, right, and I
think just I inherently thought,gosh, I need to be in one spot
my entire life and it would befailure if I'm not Now.
(09:49):
I don't think that's the casefor many people these days, but
I appreciate your guys'transparency and just kind of
talking through why you've endedup where you've ended up and
how your career goals have evenchanged, because I think it
demonstrates great reflectionskills, professionalism.
Brett, you've done a number ofthings, and certainly it was a
(10:10):
personal health issue that maybehelped you reevaluate why you
want to be closer to home alittle bit more too, and so I
really appreciate that, guys.
Speaker 4 (10:21):
I Just being a physical therapist to where it's
, you know, I think I think oneof one of the reasons, the
reasons why I love my job somuch from and say, like
everybody wants to move, the.
You know, god designed us, goddesigned our body to move and to
move well and as.
And you know, moving better hasobvious physical benefits, but
(10:43):
there's emotional benefits orpsychological benefits, there's
spiritual benefits, like we,just everybody wants to move.
And so you know, being being aPT, like yeah, we could work
anywhere, you know there's,there's, there's massive
mobility options in terms of youknow where, where, where do you
want to work as a PT, and whatavenue and what?
Because it's a you know whether, whether whether you're you're
(11:04):
trying to get someone to movebetter, in that they just roll
over in bed better, or whetheryou're trying to get them to run
a marathon faster, at the endof the day, like we're just
moving better.
And so you know you become amovement specialist pretty
quickly, whether you're workingwith 18 year olds or 85 year
olds, and you know being able towatch someone's face when they
(11:27):
accomplish a movement goal thatthey weren't able to do, like
there is always genuine joy,purely because that's that's
that's just how the body, thebody was created to move.
And so you know, we get to enterinto these awesome environments
where you know there might bepsychological trauma associated
with their physical trauma oremotional trauma, or you know
(11:49):
there's something is keepingthem from moving and we get to
break through that wall, whetherit's purely through exercise or
whether it's throughconversation, or whether it's
through the side gig ofcounseling that we've all had to
do with some people and youknow, at the end of the day, you
they get to move better and youget to watch them.
Uh, just the yeah, like it'sit's, it's just pure joy to
(12:14):
watch someone move better,whether it's a super simple task
or a super complex task.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
I love that and you're like, you're kind of
reading my mind a little bit,ryan, because I wanted to hear
what, what has been joyful foryou guys about being a physical
therapist.
I also want to know about whatwhat's been hard about being a
physical therapist.
Again, I appreciate thetransparency and the candor and
I think it's good to talk aboutthose types of things.
And so you know, ryan, maybeyou can talk a little bit about
(12:39):
what's been what's been tough attimes.
And then how do you balancethat with what you just said
about what's been joyful too?
Speaker 4 (12:49):
I think, from a work specific standpoint, I think I
have a couple tough neurologicalcases, one being someone with
ALS, and so, you know, gettinglike she's absolutely awesome to
work with, the family's awesometo work with, like it's been
fun, I mean fun, sounds kind ofmorbid but it's it's, it's been
fun, I mean fun fun sounds kindof morbid but it's a, you know,
(13:11):
from a professional sense, likeit's been a really, really cool,
awesome opportunity to be ableto walk, walk, walk with these
with, with this family, familythrough that.
But there's also just some, justjust some natural reckonings
that that you just have to have,uh, from you know, watching the
physical decline, watching thestrength decline, watching going
(13:33):
from pseudo walking to now in apower chair, and you know, just
, you know kind of being forcedinto those conversations with
family and then say, you knowhow do you enter into those
conversations with grace intactto where you're not setting up
false expectations but you'realso not forcing the family to
(13:53):
lose complete hope?
And there's that sweet middleground that you know,
particularly with some of thosetougher diseases.
And you know Brett's done abunch of research on muscle
wasting disease and things likethat to where I'm sure he's had
to have these conversations witha lot of people on it on his
own, uh, private, private,private counseling and
(14:14):
counseling company he has.
But, um, you know it's, youknow every, every, everyone
talks about how you know thepaperwork with PT is hard and
you know, finding finding thatwork-life balance and you know
it's, I mean, that's that,that's, that's the reality for
everybody.
But, um, yeah, just current,currently I just have a couple
people where finding, findingthat line of how do you provide
(14:35):
hope without inflatingexpectations to unrealistic
beings?
Uh, it's, it's just been atough psychological, emotional,
spiritual battle, that battlethat we're dealing with.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
Yeah, Brett.
How would you answer that samequestion?
Speaker 3 (14:54):
Yeah, I think the joy , what brings you joy and what
brings the heartache are almostintertwined, because sometimes
the hardest things areeventually what end up reaping
the most joy.
I mean I would speak to thateven personally with going
through cancer.
That was a very hard season inmy life but looking back on it
(15:14):
it's probably one of the bestthings that has happened.
To be honest which is odd tosay, I know but seeing and
getting into the trenches withpeople in their lowest points, I
think that's one thing thattherapy offers.
And especially out here atMcCook we might see somebody in
acute care down at the hospital.
We might see them for a fewdays there, get them home and
(15:39):
then their baby back inoutpatient this next week.
So it's like you see acute care,you see them coming in, you
know there might even be about ahome health potentially in
between there as well.
So I think this is like veryunique that you're not going to
see in too many places.
Where you might see a patientin acute care, you might see
that same person in the hospitalor in home health, then you
(16:00):
might see that same person inoutpatient and you get to see
really from their lowest of lowsto building and making progress
and seeing them come so faralong.
That's really quite remarkableand very unique in this type of
a practice, setting that most ofthe time it's a little more
(16:22):
siloed I would say acute care,home health and outpatient and
sometimes you're able to seethat all the way through.
Ryan might be able to speak tothat even a little bit more.
Speaker 4 (16:35):
And that's the.
I mean you work in a smallenough town to where I mean
you'll get people that you knowthey come in for their total
knee and then two years laterthey're back in for their total
hip, and then you know, a yearlater they're back in for their
total hip, and then you know, ayear later they're back in for a
shoulder, and and so you knowyou, you get to develop these,
these pretty awesomerelationships with people across
(16:56):
multiple, multiple injuries,even, not necessarily even even
with just you know, one, one,one traumatic experience, going
through all phases and phases ofthe rehab yeah, I'm listening
to you guys talk about some ofthat and even just thinking
about my own career, where I'vehad opportunities to develop
really deep relationships withsome of the patients that and
(17:18):
the families that I've servedover time.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
And you know, some of them are still in my community,
so to say, within Omaha, butmany of them have gone back to
other states that was the natureof what my work looked like,
right or they've gone out todifferent communities and, as I
listen to you guys talk, like,many of the people that you're
serving are just a part of yourcommunity, right, they may live
down the street from you ormaybe your kids have some
(17:43):
overlap in some way shape orform, or it happens to be your
parents, friends or you know.
Know like you have these longstanding relationships with many
of those people and, um, that'sjust part of being maybe part
of a sticky community in someways, right, like everyone is is
linked and um, uh, sometimesyou may not have to ask about
the history because you know thehistory, you've been an
integral part of it.
(18:04):
Um, as you're doing thatevaluation process, right, and
some and some of that goes with.
Speaker 4 (18:09):
You know McCook has 7,500 people at the town but
from a marketing standpoint, alot of the businesses associate
about a 50,000 person circlesurrounding McCook, and so you
know there's about 40, there'sabout a 45 mile radius that
McCook operates as the hub of.
(18:29):
Uh, you know the the theclosest Walmart is 72 miles away
outside of McCook, and so youknow you, you draw in a pretty
massive, uh massive, massiveamount of people, people, people
coming into to, to, to theMcCook area and uh, yeah, you
talk about just life experiencesthat walk through this hospital
(18:51):
every day.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
So I'm kind of curious you know this is maybe
just thinking about APT Nebraskain general.
You know there's always thingswithin our profession that we're
maybe advocating for indifferent ways.
But I'm also just curious, likewhat kinds of problems do you
guys have pop up in your day today within maybe a business
(19:13):
perspective, and and how are youguys working to maybe find
solutions to some of thoseproblems currently?
Speaker 4 (19:20):
I think one of our, one of our biggest problems, and
it's some some some of it'sjust kind of the nature of the
beast when you're working with acritical access hospital and
there's just different rules andregulations from standard
outpatient, which some of thoseit's a massive benefit for us,
some of them it's somewhat of adrawback.
And so I know I think the lasttime that I was at the UNMC
(19:43):
career fair we were talking to aNebraska APTA rep talking to a
Nebraska APTA rep and they weresaying they're currently working
on trying to get rid of or justmodify how direct access works
in a critical access hospital.
Because you know there's directaccess, true direct access, for
outpatients and for private PTpractice clinics, I believe.
(20:05):
But there's still several hoopsto jump through when you're
with a critical access hospitalto where you you know all of our
orders still still require adoctor referral.
We can't see a single personwithout getting getting a doctor
referral and you know it's it'sreally really hard to do cash
(20:27):
pay and you know it's reallyreally hard to do cash pay Also
out of a hospital due toinsurance regulations and just
how the referral system works.
It's a you know, most of thetime if you have to go to a
doctor to get a referral to PT,you're just going to have
(20:48):
insurance pay for it anyway, andso you know those.
Those are probably the twobiggest, biggest hurdles that
the the I know the, I know theNebraska APTA is is working on
at the, at the state level, toget regulations and laws
modified in that manner.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
Is there anything that you guys maybe do, just
communicating with your hospitalleadership or even with the
physicians there, to educate onphysical therapy and what you
guys are able to accomplish?
What does that look like fory'all?
Speaker 4 (21:18):
I think most of our conversations it's a have like.
We've had several of those and Ithink we have a pretty awesome
relationship with our admin andmost of our responses are kind
of it's a, our hands are tied,like there's stuff above us in
the state and federal rules andregs where, yes, we'd love to be
(21:41):
able to do that but we can't,and so I think that's kind of
the it's also, you know, beingbeing being in a smaller
facility.
The hospital is fairly, fairlyin tune with what rehab does,
the, whether it's from thecommercial benefit, just revenue
(22:02):
coming in, whether it's, youknow, from them having to add
parking spaces purely becausethere wasn't enough room, you
know from them having to addparking spaces purely because
there wasn't enough room andit's, I mean, they've given us a
pretty awesome amount of spaceand resources to be able to
operate in, and so I don't thinkit's necessarily a level of you
know our hospital admin notnecessarily knowing what we do
or what we can do or what weneed to do.
(22:23):
I think it's just a there'ssmall, small pond and bigger
fish make the rules.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Yeah, Well, let me.
Let me ask you this lastquestion, guys what, what kind
of value have you found in beingan APTA Nebraska member?
Speaker 3 (22:44):
I'll start, you know, coming back to Nebraska just
two to three years ago.
I have enjoyed reconnectingwith old professors, students.
I went to the conference thispast year what would have been
spring?
Speaker 2 (23:02):
Spring yep.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
The conference here just a few months back and it
was nice to connect with severalclassmates and professors and
people that you had interactedwith before, and I do think that
that is one benefit thatNebraska has, you know, being
down in Arizona, they have theArizona Therapy Association as
well, which is, you know, alarger group, and I did go to
(23:28):
some of their events as well.
And I think again, what makesNebraska, and McCook in
particular, unique are thepeople.
Really, you know, it's likethose connections and it's not,
you know, like the connectionsjust seem to run deeper, because
a majority, a lot of the stateis made up of rural communities
like ours, where you might'vegone to high school together,
(23:50):
you went to boys state togetherin high school or, you know,
there's there's these pocketsplayed in state basketball or
state track or these thingsright, there's these pockets
where you're continuing to bumpshoulders with people and
interacting with them throughdifferent phases of your life,
and so I think, you know, beinga member and being able to lean
(24:13):
into some of those resources hasbeen helpful.
I've enjoyed, like, for example,like I talked to Dr Norman at
the conference and I actually amgoing to take a call with him
here in a few weeks about somethings that I was just
interested in, you know, and sobeing able to like, have that
type of relationship withprofessors or clinicians or
(24:35):
students that goes beyond thelength of time you're there
really is very meaningful.
So I think that's some thingsthat the association provides is
the ability to collaborate andnetwork in these unique ways
that are hard to recreate ifyou're just trying to do that
(24:57):
independently.
Speaker 4 (24:58):
I would echo that I hadn't been to a state meeting
in years.
In all honesty, I don't.
I probably went to one withinthe first couple years of
graduating but in all honesty,it had probably been six or
seven years prior to this lastspring when I went one and I got
to meet a couple of ClarksonCollege professors who had sent
(25:22):
PTA students out to us.
I'd to meet a couple of greatnew university professors and so
, yeah, getting to have thoseconversations with it's a you
know that I'll look forward toseeing at the next meeting.
Like in all honesty, like I'mnot going to.
Our paths are probably not goingto cross over the next six
months between last meeting andthis meeting, but it is.
(25:45):
It's going to be something towhere you know, over the next
six months between last meetingand this meeting, but it's gonna
be something where you know I'mlegitimately looking forward to
hey, hopefully they're at thismeeting so I can see them again
and they, you know, figuring outwhat they're, you know what
they're doing, doing withstudents, how they're teaching
things.
I think I'd probably justunderestimated the impact of
(26:08):
seeing current professors thatare currently teaching and say
you know, now that I'm doing alot more just having a lot more
students, like it's reallyhelpful to just have
conversations of how theteaching method changed over the
last 10 years, changed over thelast, over the last 10 years,
(26:30):
um, uh, so yeah, I think thethat networking and community
aspect of you know, you don'tyou don't get to see these
people on a regular basis.
We're all busy, we all havejobs and it's a you know, most
of the time when we take avacation, it's not going to be
to a pt location and uh and so,uh, having having those
scheduled, those uh, thosescheduled uh conferences, the um
I'll be.
I'll make sure they're on thecalendar a heck of a lot more
(26:52):
often than they have been overthe last six years.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
Hey, love it.
Love to hear that I didn'twrite you notes to say any of
that either, Like that was justoff the cuff.
Ryan, I love it.
Speaker 4 (27:06):
No it is the truth, though.
So, that does make it a littleeasier.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
Yeah, you guys both participated in the conference.
Um, brett, I know you taught umone of the courses, and Ryan,
you did a debate on uh Fridayevening too.
So thank you guys for justserving in those ways and
connecting those ways too, andI'm glad to hear that was
beneficial just to reconnectwith people and um, uh, you know
even sounds like Brett you'reyou're continuing to connect
(27:31):
with uh people here movingforward too.
Um, I do have to ask you guyssince you, uh, since you brought
this up, you're both fromMcCook originally is it a
requirement that you have to befrom McCook in order to come
back and work in McCook?
Is that, like, how does thiswork?
Speaker 4 (27:46):
It is really hard to convince people not from small
towns to go work in small towns.
It's funny there's a joke thatall rural Nebraskans have the
opinion that all Lincoln, Omahapeople don't know the state
exists west of, maybe York, the.
(28:10):
You know, you talk to Omahapeople and they're like, yeah,
the state doesn't really existwest of Omaha, maybe even west
of Elkhorn and, and so it's a.
You know, there's a, there's alot of awesome people out here.
The we've we've we've been very, very fortunate enough to where
we have been able to recruit avast majority of our own people.
And you know it's it's so mucheasier to to to recruit people
(28:34):
that you can develop, that youcan develop a relationship with
in high school and then, andthen you watch them go to
college and you're like, hey, westill exist, how are we doing?
How are you Like, is life stillgreat?
How's life?
And then it's a.
You know they go to PT schooland so I'd say, yeah, you know,
I had at the UNMC career fair,so so, so this last fall was the
first year that we had that wehad ever done the UNMC career
(28:56):
fair and in all honesty had anawesome experience, like
absolutely loved it, and I thinkI think in years prior we'd
always like not a chance we'regoing to be able to talk to
anyone from the Lincoln andOmaha Western or Eastern
Nebraska era into coming out toMcCook and I think by the end of
(29:17):
the day I think we had seven oreight resumes ended up having
some pretty good conversationswith four of those people, had a
couple people that we're prettyexcited about it and say I mean
, and going into different,going going to different places,
which you know that's thebeauty and the beauty of PT.
You know you can get a jobanywhere, um, uh, but the the.
(29:40):
We were kind of surprised byhow many people that were like,
yeah, I'll have a conversationwith someone four hours away
from omaha, um, and so and andso.
No, you do not have to be aresident of mccook to work here.
Uh, the uh, but it is a our.
Our track record has provedthat's about the only people we
(30:03):
we can hire, despite our bestefforts.
So uh no no, we're alwayslooking to say, yeah, if you're
interested in hunting,interested in fishing, we got
about.
We got three lakes within halfan hour that are all great
recreational lakes, New YMCA,new city pool, trying to get a
(30:27):
new high school and junior high.
We'll see how those bond issueswork out.
So, no, we have a ton of funout here.
I kind of say we're in themiddle of everything, but kind
of next to nothing.
We're an hour from I-80 and anhour from I-70 and four hours to
Denver and four hours to Omahaand so in our own little piece
(30:49):
of paradise.
It took COVID about nine months, longer than everywhere else,
to get here.
You know a small joke, it's a.
You know, the whole state wasgetting it in March and April
and it showed up here about Idon't know, october, maybe.
So, but no, we have, we have aton of fun in McCook.
Uh, it's uh, uh, it's anawesome place to work, like I
(31:12):
love, love the people that Iwork with.
Um, yeah, I feel, I I feelpretty blessed to call my
coworkers good friends.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
So hey, I appreciate it, guys.
Thank you so much.
Uh, you, you gave me your lunchhour.
Thanks for having theconversation with me.
I hope this is valuable to ouraudience.
I think it will be, and yousaid there's a lot of great
things west of Omaha and Lincoln.
You guys are part of that.
(31:41):
You guys are pretty great guys.
So I appreciate you jumping onand doing this with me and I
hope we can even talk againbefore the state meeting.
Speaker 4 (31:50):
Okay, Thanks, dan, for chatting with us.
Brad yeah, thank you.
All right, see you guys Later,dave.
Bye-bye.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
Thanks for tuning in to the APTA Nebraska podcast.
Stay connected with us for moreconversations that elevate our
profession and improve the livesof Nebraskans.
Don't forget to subscribe,share and join the discussion,
because together we're drivingthe future of physical therapy
forward.
Welcome to the APTA Nebraska podcast, where we dive
into the stories, challenges andinnovations shaping physical
therapy in our state.
We're here to advance, promoteand protect the practice of
physical therapy, optimizing thehealth and quality of life for
all Nebraskans.
Join us as we connect withexperts, share insights and
(00:22):
build communities throughout ourprofession.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
connect with experts share insights and build
community throughout ourprofession.
Well, hey, welcome back to theAPTA Nebraska podcast.
I'm Brad, your host, and todayI'm excited.
You know, one of the statedgoals of this podcast is to try
to develop more communitythroughout our organization, and
one of the ways that we'retrying to do that is just by
giving a voice to the members inour organization.
(00:45):
And so today I have Ryan Hardenand Brett Burden, both from
McCook, Nebraska, on the podcast.
So welcome guys, Thanks forhaving us.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Thanks, Brett.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Yeah, ryan, let's maybe start with you, and Brett,
we'll jump to you afterwards,but can you guys just tell our
audience a little bit aboutyourselves?
So hey, how long have you beena PT?
Where has your career taken youso far?
What does family life look like?
What kind of recreation hobbiesdo you have, and why McCook?
Speaker 4 (01:14):
Sure.
So yeah, my name is Ryan Harden.
I graduated from Nebraska MedCenter in 2016.
I graduated high school fromMcCook and had zero ambition to
ever move back here.
I don't really know why I lovedhigh school here, but it's four
days after I graduated from themed center, god had different
(01:35):
plans for me, and so I think,ultimately, I always wanted to
work with high school athletes,wanted to be able to work with
high school FCA, to be in kindof kind of a one high school
town, and so, you know, I lovedbeing in lincoln omaha, but
there was just uh.
There's just just a differentuh atmosphere and environment
(01:56):
when your town only has one highschool that you can kind of
revolve around.
And so, you know, mccookchecked all of all of those
boxes and so, uh, I actuallywork in a critical access
hospital here, mccook CommunityHospital, and we feel super,
super blessed just with theresources the hospital has given
us with the size.
(02:16):
I have a lot of classmates thatare working in 1,000 square
foot strip malls in biggercities and they say, yeah,
they're in bigger cities.
And say, yeah, they're inbigger cities and you know, they
the uh, but you, you come to asmall town and there's 10 other
therapists that are all workingout here which, in all honesty,
is probably bigger and biggerthan most people think of a
small town critical access rehabcenter, and we get to see a
(02:39):
little bit of everything.
You know, I think that I thinkthe youngest person I've worked
with was four and the oldestperson was 104 and uh, and you
know you, it's just a massive,massive, massive joint benefit
just to just to see people moveand a smaller town.
I think people are people alittle bit more open to just
conversation and telling youtheir life story.
(03:01):
And so, you know, I think oneof the one of the biggest things
that I just love, love at PT isjust the stories that I've
heard just by asking questions.
Some people are willing to getreal personal and deep and some
people give you a realsuperficial answer and that's
just fine, but you get to learna ton from a super wide, wide
(03:22):
range of patients, from a superwide range of occupations, a
super wide, wide range ofpatients from a super wide range
of occupations.
And so, yeah, I've absolutelyloved, loved being back here.
I brought my wife, who's thesmallest town she's ever lived
in prior to McCook was LincolnGrowing up in the Air Force,
moving all over the place, butshe has absolutely loved, loved,
loved McCook, and so I say,yeah, we feel pretty blessed to
(03:42):
be here cook, and so I see howwe feel, feel pretty blessed to
be here.
I love it.
Uh, how many kids do you have,ryan?
I have twin girls that are fourand a two-year-old boy, so it's
a uh, it is a party, anabsolute, absolute active party
you, you guys are busy right now, that's for sure.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Good, brett, how about you?
Speaker 3 (04:01):
yeah, so my uh pathway.
Ryan and I both graduated fromhigh school in McCook and I was
two years ahead of him, so weknew each other.
In high school we both went toUniversity of Nebraska for
athletic training.
We both went to the med centerfor school.
So our backgrounds.
Speaker 4 (04:21):
I just grabbed onto those coattails and held on
strong.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
We're good and we actually had another one, chan
Sunger.
So our backgrounds I justgrabbed onto those coattails and
held on strong, we're good.
And we actually had another one.
Chan Sunger was just a littlebit, he was right in between us.
We actually had three peopleright in a row that all went to
athletic training, physicaltherapy schools, so I think that
was kind of unique in a way.
(04:46):
And then after school I wasquite adventurous I guess I like
to travel and go and so Iapplied for sports residency
programs and got into a sportsresidency in Boise, idaho, at St
Luke's Sports Medicine, whichthey still currently have a
residency program there.
It's a large hospital-basedsports medicine program.
So I really wanted to try tofigure out how to take my
(05:08):
athletic training skills andphysical therapy skills and make
them work together and that wasa great place to do that.
We got to cover anywhere fromsemi-pro to peewee football, so
you know as a wide range ofexperiences there.
We stayed up in Idaho for a fewyears.
My wife is a therapist as well,so we both worked at St Luke's.
(05:29):
Then our travels took us downto Phoenix, arizona, for a while
to work with Exos as a humanperformance company where we
serviced professional athletesand that was kind of the bread
and butter of the company.
We also saw high school,college, but it was a setting
where it was pretty muchtreating athletes all day, which
(05:51):
was a lot of fun, and got tosee a lot of different sides of
sports, from the business sideto very high level of
competition and just a lot ofamazing athletes.
So I had a really good timethere.
But I think for my story thingsgot changed quite drastically.
(06:11):
I was diagnosed with cancerwhen I was 30, when I was
working at Exos, and so thatforced me to stop.
I had to stop work for aboutfive months.
I entered into a couple ofmajor surgeries, had to go
through chemotherapy, all thosethings, and when you're kind of
(06:31):
running fast, I would say, andyou're forced to stop so quickly
, that makes you kind ofevaluate what you're doing.
And I got back.
Fortunately I had great medicalcare when I was down in Phoenix
.
I got feeling better and I gotback to Exos and just didn't
feel like that's where I wassupposed to be and so I dipped
my toe, I would say, intoteaching for a while and kind of
(06:52):
the private space we'reoffering CEUs for blood flow
restriction training andteaching health and fitness
professionals about thosemethods and eventually ended up
doing some self-employment andsome teaching and had started a
wellness company as well.
So, between those three thingsthey were paying the bills and
we were doing all right inPhoenix.
(07:16):
And then, I think you know, Igot to a point where, yeah, god
made it pretty clear that it wastime to come back home.
And we came back here to mccookjust a couple years ago and, uh
, at this point in time we'vegot four children and our uh, we
, we enjoy mccook.
I mean, one of the reasons whyI'm a cook is it's very simple,
(07:38):
I think is one thing that Iappreciate about it.
The people are very friendly,but I can ride my bike to work
and it takes me eight minutes toget here and you don't have to
fight traffic and I can be homefor dinner at night and there's
like some just very simplethings to our community that
make it just really nice for ayoung family, for the kids to be
(08:02):
able to play in the yard andother things.
So you know, I think early on inmy career it was very career
driven and focused, and now thatour family has grown and I went
through cancer.
What's important and whatyou're looking for has changed.
So I guess, to kind of closeall this, my day kind of looks
like I still have my onlinewellness company that I run,
(08:25):
which is more of a performancebased business, and I do that a
couple afternoons a week, andthen I'm treating like four days
a week here.
So there's it's kind of a goodmix of like some time at the
computer and things that I'mworking on there, but also I
really like the interaction withco workers and patients as well
.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Yeah, I, I appreciate both of you kind of giving some
background on what your careershave looked like and and, uh,
you know how you've movedthrough different seasons of
your life too and why you'vemade those decisions in some
ways, because, um, I thinksometimes it can feel like, uh,
it can feel like failure if you,if you don't like, end up in
one spot and stay there for therest of your life, right, and I
(09:04):
think it's okay to to understandthat you change as a person and
, and you know, you don't haveto go work in one setting or in
one place for the entirety of ofyour profession as well.
I think I, you know, ryan, youand I, at our annual conference,
we did that debate, right, andI remember talking to you a
(09:26):
little bit about just even thefact that, hey, when I was going
through PT school, just becauseof my family of origin, I
watched my grandpa work the samejob for 65 years, right, and I
think just I inherently thought,gosh, I need to be in one spot
my entire life and it would befailure if I'm not Now.
(09:49):
I don't think that's the casefor many people these days, but
I appreciate your guys'transparency and just kind of
talking through why you've endedup where you've ended up and
how your career goals have evenchanged, because I think it
demonstrates great reflectionskills, professionalism.
Brett, you've done a number ofthings, and certainly it was a
(10:10):
personal health issue that maybehelped you reevaluate why you
want to be closer to home alittle bit more too, and so I
really appreciate that, guys.
Speaker 4 (10:21):
I Just being a physical therapist to where it's
, you know, I think I think oneof one of the reasons, the
reasons why I love my job somuch from and say, like
everybody wants to move, the.
You know, god designed us, goddesigned our body to move and to
move well and as.
And you know, moving better hasobvious physical benefits, but
(10:43):
there's emotional benefits orpsychological benefits, there's
spiritual benefits, like we,just everybody wants to move.
And so you know, being being aPT, like yeah, we could work
anywhere, you know there's,there's, there's massive
mobility options in terms of youknow where, where, where do you
want to work as a PT, and whatavenue and what?
Because it's a you know whether, whether whether you're you're
(11:04):
trying to get someone to movebetter, in that they just roll
over in bed better, or whetheryou're trying to get them to run
a marathon faster, at the endof the day, like we're just
moving better.
And so you know you become amovement specialist pretty
quickly, whether you're workingwith 18 year olds or 85 year
olds, and you know being able towatch someone's face when they
(11:27):
accomplish a movement goal thatthey weren't able to do, like
there is always genuine joy,purely because that's that's
that's just how the body, thebody was created to move.
And so you know, we get to enterinto these awesome environments
where you know there might bepsychological trauma associated
with their physical trauma oremotional trauma, or you know
(11:49):
there's something is keepingthem from moving and we get to
break through that wall, whetherit's purely through exercise or
whether it's throughconversation, or whether it's
through the side gig ofcounseling that we've all had to
do with some people and youknow, at the end of the day, you
they get to move better and youget to watch them.
Uh, just the yeah, like it'sit's, it's just pure joy to
(12:14):
watch someone move better,whether it's a super simple task
or a super complex task.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
I love that and you're like, you're kind of
reading my mind a little bit,ryan, because I wanted to hear
what, what has been joyful foryou guys about being a physical
therapist.
I also want to know about whatwhat's been hard about being a
physical therapist.
Again, I appreciate thetransparency and the candor and
I think it's good to talk aboutthose types of things.
And so you know, ryan, maybeyou can talk a little bit about
(12:39):
what's been what's been tough attimes.
And then how do you balancethat with what you just said
about what's been joyful too?
Speaker 4 (12:49):
I think, from a work specific standpoint, I think I
have a couple tough neurologicalcases, one being someone with
ALS, and so, you know, gettinglike she's absolutely awesome to
work with, the family's awesometo work with, like it's been
fun, I mean fun, sounds kind ofmorbid but it's it's, it's been
fun, I mean fun fun sounds kindof morbid but it's a, you know,
(13:11):
from a professional sense, likeit's been a really, really cool,
awesome opportunity to be ableto walk, walk, walk with these
with, with this family, familythrough that.
But there's also just some, justjust some natural reckonings
that that you just have to have,uh, from you know, watching the
physical decline, watching thestrength decline, watching going
(13:33):
from pseudo walking to now in apower chair, and you know, just
, you know kind of being forcedinto those conversations with
family and then say, you knowhow do you enter into those
conversations with grace intactto where you're not setting up
false expectations but you'realso not forcing the family to
(13:53):
lose complete hope?
And there's that sweet middleground that you know,
particularly with some of thosetougher diseases.
And you know Brett's done abunch of research on muscle
wasting disease and things likethat to where I'm sure he's had
to have these conversations witha lot of people on it on his
own, uh, private, private,private counseling and
(14:14):
counseling company he has.
But, um, you know it's, youknow every, every, everyone
talks about how you know thepaperwork with PT is hard and
you know, finding finding thatwork-life balance and you know
it's, I mean, that's that,that's, that's the reality for
everybody.
But, um, yeah, just current,currently I just have a couple
people where finding, findingthat line of how do you provide
(14:35):
hope without inflatingexpectations to unrealistic
beings?
Uh, it's, it's just been atough psychological, emotional,
spiritual battle, that battlethat we're dealing with.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
Yeah, Brett.
How would you answer that samequestion?
Speaker 3 (14:54):
Yeah, I think the joy , what brings you joy and what
brings the heartache are almostintertwined, because sometimes
the hardest things areeventually what end up reaping
the most joy.
I mean I would speak to thateven personally with going
through cancer.
That was a very hard season inmy life but looking back on it
(15:14):
it's probably one of the bestthings that has happened.
To be honest which is odd tosay, I know but seeing and
getting into the trenches withpeople in their lowest points, I
think that's one thing thattherapy offers.
And especially out here atMcCook we might see somebody in
acute care down at the hospital.
We might see them for a fewdays there, get them home and
(15:39):
then their baby back inoutpatient this next week.
So it's like you see acute care,you see them coming in, you
know there might even be about ahome health potentially in
between there as well.
So I think this is like veryunique that you're not going to
see in too many places.
Where you might see a patientin acute care, you might see
that same person in the hospitalor in home health, then you
(16:00):
might see that same person inoutpatient and you get to see
really from their lowest of lowsto building and making progress
and seeing them come so faralong.
That's really quite remarkableand very unique in this type of
a practice, setting that most ofthe time it's a little more
(16:22):
siloed I would say acute care,home health and outpatient and
sometimes you're able to seethat all the way through.
Ryan might be able to speak tothat even a little bit more.
Speaker 4 (16:35):
And that's the.
I mean you work in a smallenough town to where I mean
you'll get people that you knowthey come in for their total
knee and then two years laterthey're back in for their total
hip, and then you know, a yearlater they're back in for their
total hip, and then you know, ayear later they're back in for a
shoulder, and and so you knowyou, you get to develop these,
these pretty awesomerelationships with people across
(16:56):
multiple, multiple injuries,even, not necessarily even even
with just you know, one, one,one traumatic experience, going
through all phases and phases ofthe rehab yeah, I'm listening
to you guys talk about some ofthat and even just thinking
about my own career, where I'vehad opportunities to develop
really deep relationships withsome of the patients that and
(17:18):
the families that I've servedover time.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
And you know, some of them are still in my community,
so to say, within Omaha, butmany of them have gone back to
other states that was the natureof what my work looked like,
right or they've gone out todifferent communities and, as I
listen to you guys talk, like,many of the people that you're
serving are just a part of yourcommunity, right, they may live
down the street from you ormaybe your kids have some
(17:43):
overlap in some way shape orform, or it happens to be your
parents, friends or you know.
Know like you have these longstanding relationships with many
of those people and, um, that'sjust part of being maybe part
of a sticky community in someways, right, like everyone is is
linked and um, uh, sometimesyou may not have to ask about
the history because you know thehistory, you've been an
integral part of it.
(18:04):
Um, as you're doing thatevaluation process, right, and
some and some of that goes with.
Speaker 4 (18:09):
You know McCook has 7,500 people at the town but
from a marketing standpoint, alot of the businesses associate
about a 50,000 person circlesurrounding McCook, and so you
know there's about 40, there'sabout a 45 mile radius that
McCook operates as the hub of.
(18:29):
Uh, you know the the theclosest Walmart is 72 miles away
outside of McCook, and so youknow you, you draw in a pretty
massive, uh massive, massiveamount of people, people, people
coming into to, to, to theMcCook area and uh, yeah, you
talk about just life experiencesthat walk through this hospital
(18:51):
every day.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
So I'm kind of curious you know this is maybe
just thinking about APT Nebraskain general.
You know there's always thingswithin our profession that we're
maybe advocating for indifferent ways.
But I'm also just curious, likewhat kinds of problems do you
guys have pop up in your day today within maybe a business
(19:13):
perspective, and and how are youguys working to maybe find
solutions to some of thoseproblems currently?
Speaker 4 (19:20):
I think one of our, one of our biggest problems, and
it's some some some of it'sjust kind of the nature of the
beast when you're working with acritical access hospital and
there's just different rules andregulations from standard
outpatient, which some of thoseit's a massive benefit for us,
some of them it's somewhat of adrawback.
And so I know I think the lasttime that I was at the UNMC
(19:43):
career fair we were talking to aNebraska APTA rep talking to a
Nebraska APTA rep and they weresaying they're currently working
on trying to get rid of or justmodify how direct access works
in a critical access hospital.
Because you know there's directaccess, true direct access, for
outpatients and for private PTpractice clinics, I believe.
(20:05):
But there's still several hoopsto jump through when you're
with a critical access hospitalto where you you know all of our
orders still still require adoctor referral.
We can't see a single personwithout getting getting a doctor
referral and you know it's it'sreally really hard to do cash
(20:27):
pay and you know it's reallyreally hard to do cash pay Also
out of a hospital due toinsurance regulations and just
how the referral system works.
It's a you know, most of thetime if you have to go to a
doctor to get a referral to PT,you're just going to have
(20:48):
insurance pay for it anyway, andso you know those.
Those are probably the twobiggest, biggest hurdles that
the the I know the, I know theNebraska APTA is is working on
at the, at the state level, toget regulations and laws
modified in that manner.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
Is there anything that you guys maybe do, just
communicating with your hospitalleadership or even with the
physicians there, to educate onphysical therapy and what you
guys are able to accomplish?
What does that look like fory'all?
Speaker 4 (21:18):
I think most of our conversations it's a have like.
We've had several of those and Ithink we have a pretty awesome
relationship with our admin andmost of our responses are kind
of it's a, our hands are tied,like there's stuff above us in
the state and federal rules andregs where, yes, we'd love to be
(21:41):
able to do that but we can't,and so I think that's kind of
the it's also, you know, beingbeing being in a smaller
facility.
The hospital is fairly, fairlyin tune with what rehab does,
the, whether it's from thecommercial benefit, just revenue
(22:02):
coming in, whether it's, youknow, from them having to add
parking spaces purely becausethere wasn't enough room, you
know from them having to addparking spaces purely because
there wasn't enough room andit's, I mean, they've given us a
pretty awesome amount of spaceand resources to be able to
operate in, and so I don't thinkit's necessarily a level of you
know our hospital admin notnecessarily knowing what we do
or what we can do or what weneed to do.
(22:23):
I think it's just a there'ssmall, small pond and bigger
fish make the rules.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Yeah, Well, let me.
Let me ask you this lastquestion, guys what, what kind
of value have you found in beingan APTA Nebraska member?
Speaker 3 (22:44):
I'll start, you know, coming back to Nebraska just
two to three years ago.
I have enjoyed reconnectingwith old professors, students.
I went to the conference thispast year what would have been
spring?
Speaker 2 (23:02):
Spring yep.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
The conference here just a few months back and it
was nice to connect with severalclassmates and professors and
people that you had interactedwith before, and I do think that
that is one benefit thatNebraska has, you know, being
down in Arizona, they have theArizona Therapy Association as
well, which is, you know, alarger group, and I did go to
(23:28):
some of their events as well.
And I think again, what makesNebraska, and McCook in
particular, unique are thepeople.
Really, you know, it's likethose connections and it's not,
you know, like the connectionsjust seem to run deeper, because
a majority, a lot of the stateis made up of rural communities
like ours, where you might'vegone to high school together,
(23:50):
you went to boys state togetherin high school or, you know,
there's there's these pocketsplayed in state basketball or
state track or these thingsright, there's these pockets
where you're continuing to bumpshoulders with people and
interacting with them throughdifferent phases of your life,
and so I think, you know, beinga member and being able to lean
(24:13):
into some of those resources hasbeen helpful.
I've enjoyed, like, for example,like I talked to Dr Norman at
the conference and I actually amgoing to take a call with him
here in a few weeks about somethings that I was just
interested in, you know, and sobeing able to like, have that
type of relationship withprofessors or clinicians or
(24:35):
students that goes beyond thelength of time you're there
really is very meaningful.
So I think that's some thingsthat the association provides is
the ability to collaborate andnetwork in these unique ways
that are hard to recreate ifyou're just trying to do that
(24:57):
independently.
Speaker 4 (24:58):
I would echo that I hadn't been to a state meeting
in years.
In all honesty, I don't.
I probably went to one withinthe first couple years of
graduating but in all honesty,it had probably been six or
seven years prior to this lastspring when I went one and I got
to meet a couple of ClarksonCollege professors who had sent
(25:22):
PTA students out to us.
I'd to meet a couple of greatnew university professors and so
, yeah, getting to have thoseconversations with it's a you
know that I'll look forward toseeing at the next meeting.
Like in all honesty, like I'mnot going to.
Our paths are probably not goingto cross over the next six
months between last meeting andthis meeting, but it is.
(25:45):
It's going to be something towhere you know, over the next
six months between last meetingand this meeting, but it's gonna
be something where you know I'mlegitimately looking forward to
hey, hopefully they're at thismeeting so I can see them again
and they, you know, figuring outwhat they're, you know what
they're doing, doing withstudents, how they're teaching
things.
I think I'd probably justunderestimated the impact of
(26:08):
seeing current professors thatare currently teaching and say
you know, now that I'm doing alot more just having a lot more
students, like it's reallyhelpful to just have
conversations of how theteaching method changed over the
last 10 years, changed over thelast, over the last 10 years,
(26:30):
um, uh, so yeah, I think thethat networking and community
aspect of you know, you don'tyou don't get to see these
people on a regular basis.
We're all busy, we all havejobs and it's a you know, most
of the time when we take avacation, it's not going to be
to a pt location and uh and so,uh, having having those
scheduled, those uh, thosescheduled uh conferences, the um
I'll be.
I'll make sure they're on thecalendar a heck of a lot more
(26:52):
often than they have been overthe last six years.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
Hey, love it.
Love to hear that I didn'twrite you notes to say any of
that either, Like that was justoff the cuff.
Ryan, I love it.
Speaker 4 (27:06):
No it is the truth, though.
So, that does make it a littleeasier.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
Yeah, you guys both participated in the conference.
Um, brett, I know you taught umone of the courses, and Ryan,
you did a debate on uh Fridayevening too.
So thank you guys for justserving in those ways and
connecting those ways too, andI'm glad to hear that was
beneficial just to reconnectwith people and um, uh, you know
even sounds like Brett you'reyou're continuing to connect
(27:31):
with uh people here movingforward too.
Um, I do have to ask you guyssince you, uh, since you brought
this up, you're both fromMcCook originally is it a
requirement that you have to befrom McCook in order to come
back and work in McCook?
Is that, like, how does thiswork?
Speaker 4 (27:46):
It is really hard to convince people not from small
towns to go work in small towns.
It's funny there's a joke thatall rural Nebraskans have the
opinion that all Lincoln, Omahapeople don't know the state
exists west of, maybe York, the.
(28:10):
You know, you talk to Omahapeople and they're like, yeah,
the state doesn't really existwest of Omaha, maybe even west
of Elkhorn and, and so it's a.
You know, there's a, there's alot of awesome people out here.
The we've we've we've been very, very fortunate enough to where
we have been able to recruit avast majority of our own people.
And you know it's it's so mucheasier to to to recruit people
(28:34):
that you can develop, that youcan develop a relationship with
in high school and then, andthen you watch them go to
college and you're like, hey, westill exist, how are we doing?
How are you Like, is life stillgreat?
How's life?
And then it's a.
You know they go to PT schooland so I'd say, yeah, you know,
I had at the UNMC career fair,so so, so this last fall was the
first year that we had that wehad ever done the UNMC career
(28:56):
fair and in all honesty had anawesome experience, like
absolutely loved it, and I thinkI think in years prior we'd
always like not a chance we'regoing to be able to talk to
anyone from the Lincoln andOmaha Western or Eastern
Nebraska era into coming out toMcCook and I think by the end of
(29:17):
the day I think we had seven oreight resumes ended up having
some pretty good conversationswith four of those people, had a
couple people that we're prettyexcited about it and say I mean
, and going into different,going going to different places,
which you know that's thebeauty and the beauty of PT.
You know you can get a jobanywhere, um, uh, but the the.
(29:40):
We were kind of surprised byhow many people that were like,
yeah, I'll have a conversationwith someone four hours away
from omaha, um, and so and andso.
No, you do not have to be aresident of mccook to work here.
Uh, the uh, but it is a our.
Our track record has provedthat's about the only people we
(30:03):
we can hire, despite our bestefforts.
So uh no no, we're alwayslooking to say, yeah, if you're
interested in hunting,interested in fishing, we got
about.
We got three lakes within halfan hour that are all great
recreational lakes, New YMCA,new city pool, trying to get a
(30:27):
new high school and junior high.
We'll see how those bond issueswork out.
So, no, we have a ton of funout here.
I kind of say we're in themiddle of everything, but kind
of next to nothing.
We're an hour from I-80 and anhour from I-70 and four hours to
Denver and four hours to Omahaand so in our own little piece
(30:49):
of paradise.
It took COVID about nine months, longer than everywhere else,
to get here.
You know a small joke, it's a.
You know, the whole state wasgetting it in March and April
and it showed up here about Idon't know, october, maybe.
So, but no, we have, we have aton of fun in McCook.
Uh, it's uh, uh, it's anawesome place to work, like I
(31:12):
love, love the people that Iwork with.
Um, yeah, I feel, I I feelpretty blessed to call my
coworkers good friends.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
So hey, I appreciate it, guys.
Thank you so much.
Uh, you, you gave me your lunchhour.
Thanks for having theconversation with me.
I hope this is valuable to ouraudience.
I think it will be, and yousaid there's a lot of great
things west of Omaha and Lincoln.
You guys are part of that.
(31:41):
You guys are pretty great guys.
So I appreciate you jumping onand doing this with me and I
hope we can even talk againbefore the state meeting.
Speaker 4 (31:50):
Okay, Thanks, dan, for chatting with us.
Brad yeah, thank you.
All right, see you guys Later,dave.
Bye-bye.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
Thanks for tuning in to the APTA Nebraska podcast.
Stay connected with us for moreconversations that elevate our
profession and improve the livesof Nebraskans.
Don't forget to subscribe,share and join the discussion,
because together we're drivingthe future of physical therapy
forward.
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