Matthew Vermillion, PT has been with RehabVisions since September 2015. The solid understanding of mentorship he established while in school and during his first two years with RehabVisions has led to knowing when to seek mentorship as a growing clinician and when to transition from a mentee to a mentor.

“At Wichita State, I was fortunate in that we did a lot of interdisciplinary learning,” he said. “During one clinical rotation I was in a hospital setting learning with occupational therapy students. It reinforced that within a rehab unit everyone is working toward the same goal, and that you have to communicate with each other to get the patient home. It was good to learn early that you can always learn from another therapist, even if you are not the same discipline.”

This aligns well with RehabVisions’ internal approach to mentorship. We promote a multidisciplinary approach to patient care and in turn believe that mentors should span the disciplines of your rehab department. Learning from both “within your lane” of practice and from other therapists around you brings out the best in us as clinicians.

Matthew has experienced both kinds of mentorship within his department. “One of the most helpful mentorship activities during my first two years as a therapist was just having multiple sets of eyes looking at difficult cases and being able to bounce ideas off of our rehab director (Alex Brooks, PT),” says Matthew. “Having another physical therapist around led to a lot of knowledge-sharing and practice with different manual techniques.”

To involve interdisciplinary mentorship, he and occupational therapist Nicole Sampson would work together. “Again, it’s helpful to think that while we’re not always working on the same thing, we are working toward the same goal,” he says.

Receiving strong, varied mentorship during his first few years as a clinician has set Matthew up well for the transition period where he can now turn the table and mentor others. He has been a clinical instructor for two students and is getting ready for his third soon.