In celebration of Physical Therapy Month we welcome to The FOX Five one of our favorite FOX PTs, Senior Clinical Leader of University Relations and Site Coordinator of Clinical Education, Jovanni Cifaloglio, PT, DPT, GCS, LSVT. He explains the various ways a clinician can grow, both in their craft and as a leader within FOX Rehabilitation. As you’ll soon discover, it takes some initiative and a good work ethic, but once you get going on the right path, opportunities and career growth are sure to follow.

Jim: Hey everyone, welcome to The FOX Five, the show that explores the wonderful world of FOX Rehabilitation through an original list created by a FOX colleague. That FOX colleague today is Joe Cifaloglio.

Jovanni: You kind of have a long title, Joe, so this is Joe Cifaloglio, physical therapist, Senior Clinical Practice Leader of University Relations—I think that might be the longest title at FOX Rehabilitation, and then Site Coordinator of Clinical Education.

Jovanni: Yeah, a couple of long titles to go with a long last name really makes it difficult on everybody constantly. So, yeah, here we are.

Jim: And that does it for this episode of The FOX Five. We'll see you next week. No, no, no! All right, so Joe, we got your title out of the way. I can't believe that you've never done a FOX Five before. I feel like your title and your position mean you should have done 20 of these by now.

Jovanni: I've been doing my best to hide from you, but you finally sought me out. Here I am.

Jim: It's my fault because I never invited you; I never asked.

Jovanni: That's right. I'll put it right back on you.

Jim: So, Joe, today what is your FOX Five?

Jovanni: My FOX Five today is Five Ways to Grow with FOX Rehabilitation.

Jim: All right, what is Number One on your FOX Five?

Jovanni: Number One, and the best way to grow, is to become a mentor for your regional team. When you become a mentor, that approves you to be able to mentor a new graduate clinician and also allows you to host a full-time student for a clinical education experience.

It's just a great way to share your clinical expertise, gain new clinical expertise by working with a student or a young clinician, and really improve your clinical skills, management skills, and just grow overall here at FOX.

Jim: Solid Number One on your FOX Five. What's Number Two, Joe?

Jovanni: Number Two is our FOX Board-Certified Specialist Program. You can become board certified in your area of interest. Here with FOX, we have so many Geriatric Clinical Specialists, which I'm one of. I went through the FOX board-certified specialist program a couple of years ago to get my GCS.

It's so awesome because FOX pays for the application fee and the testing fee, which is not cheap. They also provide a full study track through MedBridge, so you're able to successfully sit for the exam and become a board-certified clinician.

Jim: That brings us to Number Three on your FOX Five.

Jovanni: It's so important to attend your team social events because, as we know at FOX, we're super autonomous. We're one-on-one with patients, and that's where so much of the focus is.

But at your team social events, that's where you really get to meet those other physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists, PTAs, and COTAs. You also get to know your regional director and your regional quality assurance liaison better.

You start to learn where people have extra skills and certain specialties. I know for me, my first eye-opener for that was in my first year with FOX, where I got to meet one of my occupational therapist counterparts. She treated in a couple of towns over from me, so we didn’t share any patients, but she used to work at a special services program where she worked with wheelchairs and power mobility every day. So, when I had that one patient—or two patients—per year that needed new power mobility or a new power wheelchair, she was my go-to person to learn about those things.

Creating that type of connection with someone and having that line of communication allows you to learn a ton more about a certain specialty. Each team tends to have certain clinicians who are really good with certain areas, such as power mobility, assistive devices, prosthetics, and orthotics.

You can really take that skill from them and become an expert in something else on your team. You can become the go-to person.

Jim: You grow into a better clinician.

Jovanni: Absolutely, it's the only way to do it.

Jim: That brings us to Number Four on your FOX Five.

Jovanni: Number Four is to constantly seek opportunities through your regional director. When I first started with FOX, I knew I wanted to get exposed to as many things as possible. Every single time I spoke with my regional director, I was asking, “Hey, what opportunities are there? Is there anything I can help out with? Anything I can volunteer for? Anything I can get involved in?”

Of course, you get pointed to the important things like the PACE program, which is always great. I got to do a ton of physician lunches with the account manager. I got to do a career fair with the University Relations team. There were just a ton of different ways to grow my experiences and put me in a better role for different opportunities that come up throughout the practice.

You cannot remind your regional director enough that you're interested in opportunities. They'll help you grow; that's one of the most important parts of their job—helping you grow and putting you in position for those opportunities.

Jim: And Joe, I don't know if this is Number Five, but I would also think patience plays a key role. Maybe there aren't a lot of things coming at you, but when they do, they come at you fast. You may ask for more growth opportunities, and maybe you don't hear anything in a month or two, but soon as it comes, they come raining in.

Jovanni: Absolutely! And again, that's why you have to constantly reinforce with your regional director every time you see them, “Hey, I'm interested,” because, yeah, you tell them once or twice a year, and there might not be anything for a few months. You have to keep reminding them, like, “Hey, I'm interested. I'm available. I'm ready to volunteer for some extra activities.”

Jim: As they say, “Squeaky wheel gets a greasin’.” My mom would always say that.

Jovanni: That must be a Pittsburgh thing.

Jim: (laughs) And Joe, that brings us to Number Five on your FOX Five.

Jovanni: Number Five is super simple: check your email. FOX Rehab is sending out information on opportunities throughout the practice. Don’t miss those opportunities!

Make sure you're checking your email. You get them in Teams activity alerts as well, so there are tons of ways to see when those opportunities come about. You want to make sure that if you see them, you take advantage.

Jim: Makes sense to me, right?

Jovanni: Absolutely!

Jim: I've noticed this, Joe. You work with college students a lot. I'm an adjunct professor, and not everyone likes to check their emails. I tell everyone, “No, you have to check your emails!”

Jovanni: Agreed! It drives me crazy. I'm one of those people that, as soon as I see a new email come in, I can't stand seeing that alert. I'm like, “Okay, let me read through this and figure it out.” So yeah, I'm the same way. I’m probably a little overboard sometimes, but I’m always refreshing my email. It's nice too; you get those compliments like, “Oh, thank you for the quick response.” It makes me happy!

Jim: Well, Joe, thank you for the FOX Five today. Those are five solid reasons that you can grow with FOX Rehabilitation.