Getting to Know Our White Coat Speaker: Dr. Ally Bove
Tell us about your journey to physical therapy. What inspired you to pursue this path? My father was a physical therapist, and a Columbia
grad too! He graduated from the graduate certificate program in the mid-1970s. Once I figured out that I wanted to become a health care provider, physical therapy seemed like the best option because of the amount of time we get to spend with our patients. Being able to really get to know the patients we help is my favorite aspect of being a physical therapist.
What were some of the challenges you faced during the program, and how did you overcome them? I was in DPT school during the recession in the late 2000s, and the federal government kept changing the rules about my student loans! It was really stressful having interest rates going up, knowing it was going to take longer to pay them back, and just hoping it was going to be worth it.
Can you share a moment during your clinical experiences or early career that made you realize why you chose this path? I always thought I’d eventually end up pursuing research and teaching, but Dr. Rao wisely told me to wait to pursue a PhD until I found something I was really passionate about studying. In my early career, I ended up working at a clinic that was at the intersection of two higher-income neighborhoods and two lower-income neighborhoods with poorer health care and fresh food resources. Seeing how neighborhood of residence impacted my patients’ outcomes was what inspired me to study health equity and build a line of research focusing on improving access to high-quality care for ALL patients.
What do you wish you knew as a student that you know now? That it’s OK not to have a clear career path on graduation day! Our profession is so broad. It’s amazing how different the day-to-day work of a school-based PT vs. an inpatient neurorehabilitation PT vs. a pelvic health PT is, and it’s so great that ONE degree can lead you down any of those paths. If you end up in a setting that doesn’t feel like a long-term fit for you, you can just change your mind!
How do you stay motivated and continue to grow in your career as a PT? Our profession is constantly changing, and we have to grow and change with it. From the time that my dad graduated from Columbia’s PT program to the time that I graduated, our profession went from a bachelor’s degree to a master’s to a doctorate. We have Direct Access now. We’re slowly gaining legislative victories around the country to expand our scope of practice. It’s important to keep up with all of that by continuing to expand your knowledge through high-quality continuing education courses.
What are some of the most rewarding aspects of your career that have kept you passionate about PT? I think everyone who works in a “helping profession” measures their success by how many people they can help. That’s part of what led me to teaching and research. As a clinician, I can help however many patients I see on a given day. But when I teach, I can indirectly help all of my students’ future patients. And when I conduct research, I can indirectly help the patients of everyone who decides to make a small change to their clinical practice based on the work that I do.
How can the future generation of PTs contribute to improving healthcare and patient care in the future? It’s no secret that our healthcare
system isn’t great. The United States spends more money than every other country, but our outcomes are poorer, and we have stark disparities in health and healthcare outcomes between different demographic groups. In addition, new DPTs are graduating with too much student debt, and all PTs are underpaid relative to our effort, value, and level of education. But we can’t solely rely on our legislators or our professional association to fix these problems for us. We ALL have to get involved in advocacy work and present a unified voice that is so loud that the decision-makers can’t ignore us.