Re: Jim Rogers Response: CPO Infusion of new blood for O&P unlikely
Stan LaCount
Description
Collection
Title:
Re: Jim Rogers Response: CPO Infusion of new blood for O&P unlikely
Creator:
Stan LaCount
Date:
12/21/2000
Text:
Agreed, well mostly agreed, and well said too Jim!
I'm not slamming all your colleagues or the entire profession. I'm tired of
the turf wars and I'm sick of the exclusionary tone being used against BOC
by ABC. I'm trying to set my sights on a moving target and I'm concerned
about what ABC is letting in the back door (path 2 or 3 if you know what I'm
referring to). I'm sure this will generate a lot of heat and I'm sorry
about that too, well almost sorry. A lot of
lip service has been paid concerning the desirability of other disciplines
to enter this field. You could have fooled me! Now I understand O&P is a
very shallow pond. You can't criticize and you can't expose wrong doing.
You have to go along to get along. Give me a few more years in this field
and I'll probably be doing a lot of that. If someone puts me to work in
this field, perhaps I won't have any time for this and someone else can
carry the banner. I realize that this may seem a strange way to go about
getting involved but we all have moments when the stuffed shirts and phony
turf wars sort of stick in our craws and I just have to clear my throat. In
spite of my huffing and puffing, I'm not really out to blow the little pigs
house down, I'm just letting some of them know that their house is made of
straw. Call it a public service. O&P needs to scoot along a little faster
if they want to make up for the past foot dragging.
Why you take my comments on the chin is curious. Do you personally decide
who enters the field and what the going rates are for a residency? How
would you go about getting a start at 48 in O&P? If you did $50 worth of
work would you want to find out after the job was done that you were only
going to get $20. Excuse me if I want to know what I'm getting into here
OK? If my aim was to low you'd criticize that too! You want to get
personal on a public forum but it may have been wiser to simply e-mail me
privately.
If you care to call the ABC certified practitioners in Virginia Beach
colleagues, then perhaps you want me to tar you with the same brush. One
had better be careful with whom they associate and defend especially when
they don't know the story. Lying with dogs can give you fleas and whatnot.
It is rather amusing actually, to poke a little fun at O&P. I laugh when I
remember the piece of plaster attached to an aluminum pipe and foot that my
insurance company paid $900 for as an IPOP. The aluminum pipe and sachs
foot were on loan from the CP and I couldn't even get in the car unless I
took it apart. Ha Ha Ha. Then there was the new leg that catastrophically
failed the first day home. The foot bolt failed because all the components
were not installed in the fab job. Ha Ha Ha. The third time this happened,
I was in Louisiana where a ABC prosthetist replaced it using a metric bolt
for a UNC thread. Ha Ha Ha. I used to take you guys very seriously until I
could see that some of you boys needed a lot of help. I've been fired as an
O&P patient twice by letter. These ABC Prosthetists didn't even have the
courage to discuss it with me in person. Ha Ha Ha
I had a prosthesis made that was to be the same size and shape as my
contralateral limb. It was almost 2 inches bigger in circumference and I
had to rip all my jean pants to get it on. Ha Ha Ha. Oh I've had a lot of
fun with O&P the last 22 years as a BK and I can tell you I've received
about 50 thousand dollars worth of experience. The way it works here in
Virginia is the CP sees the patients and the techies do all the fab and
the check socket revisions. CP's are way too busy to do any of the dirty
work and the cheap guys in the back room get blamed for all the mistakes. I
really hate it when CP's can't even take responsibility for their own work
don't you? Everyone I've been to has had their ABC certification but I'm
sure this kind of practice only goes on in Virginia, well, I'm almost sure.
Excuse me if I'm not unduly impressed with existing certification
requirements. It's truly amazing how reluctant O&P can be to accept
passionate and qualified candidates with slightly more interest than the
usual bear. I'm just not willing or able to buy the whole store.
Lets make one further point and that is it is the vendors who are providing
these marvelous new technologies for the most part. not the CP's. It should
be their job to explore and exploit them, not just do what they have been
taught for the past 20 years. In the meantime I'm accumulating these
worthless pce's until I get a license number of some sort. Keep talking
down to me and if you talk loud enough I'll hear ya!
I'm sure there are a lot of exceptional CP's that I would love to learn from
(even the plaster casting) and they are needed desperately. Know any? You
do need passionate persons with vision and dedication to the mission. I am
such a person, and it will be fine whether one of you bonafide CP's has the
foresight to take me under their wing or not! In the meantime, keep looking
for a cheaper way out as I know everyone in this field does not share a
deep sense of satisfaction that transcends money. A new infusion of
talent is needed but I certainly don't see any welcome mat rolled out for
anyone fitting that description. I'll continue to compete until you learn
to cooperate.
Don't get your socks all in a wad until you walk a mile in my shoes. ;^)
Stan LaCount
Physical Restoration Engineer
Beach Biotech
Virginia Beach, VA
----- Original Message -----
From: Jim Rogers, CPO < <Email Address Redacted> >
To: < <Email Address Redacted> >
Sent: Thursday, December 21, 2000 12:17 AM
Subject: Re: [OANDP-L] Infusion of new blood for O&P unlikely-RESPONSE
> Stan:
>
> I have missed your previous comments so will restrict my response to this
> post. Your perspective is accurate; your aim is off a bit though. You seem
to
> show the same lack of perspective that many new graduates (regardless of
> field) show when their enthusiasm is considerably higher than their
practical
> experience. For the record:
>
> The orthotic and prosthetic profession is embryonic when compared to other
> allied health professions. At slightly more than fifty years old a quick
look
> at our history would show that we have risen from a field of veterans with
> little more than a trade skill to a profession with the beginnings of
> scientific documentation and a minimum bachelors requirement for
specialized
> study. How many fields or professions can you name that have increased
their
> educational requirements by four years before specialized training in
fifty
> years. Consider further that our profession is a booming 3500 strong
compared
> to the APTA which boasts about 90,000 members, or the AAOS which registers
> over 10,000 for its anual meeting alone. Sure, as a profession we have
missed
> opportunities and squandered efforts to improve our professional status
over
> the years. But.. we have also made tremendous strides on behalf of the
> patients we serve in terms of technological advances and in terms of our
> poitical influence given our dimunitive size. You have to decide if the
glass
> is half full or half empty.
> One thing I'm sure of: The successful and influencial practitioners in our
> profession have a passion for what we do and what we contribute to the
lives
> of others. We also share a deep sense of satisfaction that transends money
> (But, granted doesn't always replace it) O and P is not perfect, it
certainly
> has its challenges ahead, but it is not DOA, and certainly not looking for
an
> identity. We need passionate persons with vision and dedication to our
> mission. If you're not that person, fine. But don't slam my collegues or
my
> profession until you've worn my shoes for a while and yes, put your time
in
> the plaster room.
>
> JIM ROGERS, CPO
>
>
I'm not slamming all your colleagues or the entire profession. I'm tired of
the turf wars and I'm sick of the exclusionary tone being used against BOC
by ABC. I'm trying to set my sights on a moving target and I'm concerned
about what ABC is letting in the back door (path 2 or 3 if you know what I'm
referring to). I'm sure this will generate a lot of heat and I'm sorry
about that too, well almost sorry. A lot of
lip service has been paid concerning the desirability of other disciplines
to enter this field. You could have fooled me! Now I understand O&P is a
very shallow pond. You can't criticize and you can't expose wrong doing.
You have to go along to get along. Give me a few more years in this field
and I'll probably be doing a lot of that. If someone puts me to work in
this field, perhaps I won't have any time for this and someone else can
carry the banner. I realize that this may seem a strange way to go about
getting involved but we all have moments when the stuffed shirts and phony
turf wars sort of stick in our craws and I just have to clear my throat. In
spite of my huffing and puffing, I'm not really out to blow the little pigs
house down, I'm just letting some of them know that their house is made of
straw. Call it a public service. O&P needs to scoot along a little faster
if they want to make up for the past foot dragging.
Why you take my comments on the chin is curious. Do you personally decide
who enters the field and what the going rates are for a residency? How
would you go about getting a start at 48 in O&P? If you did $50 worth of
work would you want to find out after the job was done that you were only
going to get $20. Excuse me if I want to know what I'm getting into here
OK? If my aim was to low you'd criticize that too! You want to get
personal on a public forum but it may have been wiser to simply e-mail me
privately.
If you care to call the ABC certified practitioners in Virginia Beach
colleagues, then perhaps you want me to tar you with the same brush. One
had better be careful with whom they associate and defend especially when
they don't know the story. Lying with dogs can give you fleas and whatnot.
It is rather amusing actually, to poke a little fun at O&P. I laugh when I
remember the piece of plaster attached to an aluminum pipe and foot that my
insurance company paid $900 for as an IPOP. The aluminum pipe and sachs
foot were on loan from the CP and I couldn't even get in the car unless I
took it apart. Ha Ha Ha. Then there was the new leg that catastrophically
failed the first day home. The foot bolt failed because all the components
were not installed in the fab job. Ha Ha Ha. The third time this happened,
I was in Louisiana where a ABC prosthetist replaced it using a metric bolt
for a UNC thread. Ha Ha Ha. I used to take you guys very seriously until I
could see that some of you boys needed a lot of help. I've been fired as an
O&P patient twice by letter. These ABC Prosthetists didn't even have the
courage to discuss it with me in person. Ha Ha Ha
I had a prosthesis made that was to be the same size and shape as my
contralateral limb. It was almost 2 inches bigger in circumference and I
had to rip all my jean pants to get it on. Ha Ha Ha. Oh I've had a lot of
fun with O&P the last 22 years as a BK and I can tell you I've received
about 50 thousand dollars worth of experience. The way it works here in
Virginia is the CP sees the patients and the techies do all the fab and
the check socket revisions. CP's are way too busy to do any of the dirty
work and the cheap guys in the back room get blamed for all the mistakes. I
really hate it when CP's can't even take responsibility for their own work
don't you? Everyone I've been to has had their ABC certification but I'm
sure this kind of practice only goes on in Virginia, well, I'm almost sure.
Excuse me if I'm not unduly impressed with existing certification
requirements. It's truly amazing how reluctant O&P can be to accept
passionate and qualified candidates with slightly more interest than the
usual bear. I'm just not willing or able to buy the whole store.
Lets make one further point and that is it is the vendors who are providing
these marvelous new technologies for the most part. not the CP's. It should
be their job to explore and exploit them, not just do what they have been
taught for the past 20 years. In the meantime I'm accumulating these
worthless pce's until I get a license number of some sort. Keep talking
down to me and if you talk loud enough I'll hear ya!
I'm sure there are a lot of exceptional CP's that I would love to learn from
(even the plaster casting) and they are needed desperately. Know any? You
do need passionate persons with vision and dedication to the mission. I am
such a person, and it will be fine whether one of you bonafide CP's has the
foresight to take me under their wing or not! In the meantime, keep looking
for a cheaper way out as I know everyone in this field does not share a
deep sense of satisfaction that transcends money. A new infusion of
talent is needed but I certainly don't see any welcome mat rolled out for
anyone fitting that description. I'll continue to compete until you learn
to cooperate.
Don't get your socks all in a wad until you walk a mile in my shoes. ;^)
Stan LaCount
Physical Restoration Engineer
Beach Biotech
Virginia Beach, VA
----- Original Message -----
From: Jim Rogers, CPO < <Email Address Redacted> >
To: < <Email Address Redacted> >
Sent: Thursday, December 21, 2000 12:17 AM
Subject: Re: [OANDP-L] Infusion of new blood for O&P unlikely-RESPONSE
> Stan:
>
> I have missed your previous comments so will restrict my response to this
> post. Your perspective is accurate; your aim is off a bit though. You seem
to
> show the same lack of perspective that many new graduates (regardless of
> field) show when their enthusiasm is considerably higher than their
practical
> experience. For the record:
>
> The orthotic and prosthetic profession is embryonic when compared to other
> allied health professions. At slightly more than fifty years old a quick
look
> at our history would show that we have risen from a field of veterans with
> little more than a trade skill to a profession with the beginnings of
> scientific documentation and a minimum bachelors requirement for
specialized
> study. How many fields or professions can you name that have increased
their
> educational requirements by four years before specialized training in
fifty
> years. Consider further that our profession is a booming 3500 strong
compared
> to the APTA which boasts about 90,000 members, or the AAOS which registers
> over 10,000 for its anual meeting alone. Sure, as a profession we have
missed
> opportunities and squandered efforts to improve our professional status
over
> the years. But.. we have also made tremendous strides on behalf of the
> patients we serve in terms of technological advances and in terms of our
> poitical influence given our dimunitive size. You have to decide if the
glass
> is half full or half empty.
> One thing I'm sure of: The successful and influencial practitioners in our
> profession have a passion for what we do and what we contribute to the
lives
> of others. We also share a deep sense of satisfaction that transends money
> (But, granted doesn't always replace it) O and P is not perfect, it
certainly
> has its challenges ahead, but it is not DOA, and certainly not looking for
an
> identity. We need passionate persons with vision and dedication to our
> mission. If you're not that person, fine. But don't slam my collegues or
my
> profession until you've worn my shoes for a while and yes, put your time
in
> the plaster room.
>
> JIM ROGERS, CPO
>
>
Citation
Stan LaCount, “Re: Jim Rogers Response: CPO Infusion of new blood for O&P unlikely,” Digital Resource Foundation for Orthotics and Prosthetics, accessed November 15, 2024, https://library.drfop.org/items/show/215491.
