I drive past an elementary school on my usual route to work. Call me reckless but I always get irritated when the car in front of me goes 20 MPH when there are no kids in view. Am I driving behind Michael Jackson or something?
Today, driving slowly past the school made me think about whether my future work schedule would allow me to see my future children. This is extremely premature worrying because I’m a dude with no plans of having children during PT school and I haven’t even begun PT school yet.
But the outpatient orthopedic companies I know of do not have parent-friendly clinic hours. These clinics see patients until seven, eight or nine in the evening. That’s lights-out time for young children. It’s also dinner time for a lot of families.
If I decide to go the outpatient route, I wonder if I’ll find a job that’ll allow me to get out of work at a reasonable hour. I wonder what our physical therapists’ experiences have been with this potential problem. I’m not sure I’d be happy sacrificing family or wife time so I can treat a snobby, ungrateful, middle-aged corporate braggart.
Earning the DPT 
I know exactly what you are talking about! Though most outpatient clinics are open 7-7 the hours can be a little flexible. I’ve worked at places that have 7-3 and 11-7 shifts. Also you may work 4 10 hour days. Usually when you start you get the shifts no one wants. I started working 11-7. Won’t see the kids go to bed but you can help them get ready for school! Regardless, the longer you stay with the same company the better your odds at getting hours that fit your life. Right now as I open a new clinic I have to be available whenever someone wants to schedule. That can make for some long days!! But Tues and Thurs I work 7-4. It’s nice to get off early here and there. Once we have a full patient load and hire another therapist I plan on working the morning shift. Then I can take the kids to practices and the like.
That will certainly be nice once your business is more established; good luck in the coming months! Are you making doctor visits and doing general administrative work on top of that, or do you have an office manager-type that helps you? A friend, and former co-worker, opened a clinic about a year and a half ago. He said that the first 6-9 months were extremely erratic with patient appointments. But once he established a referral base of 5-8 doctors, it got much, much busier.