What Is the OCS (or Orthopedic Clinical Specialist) Certification?

PT, DPT

When you go to see a PT you might see a list of initials after their name.  Most common is PT, DPT which is physical therapist, doctor of physical therapy.  A physical therapist graduating today from PT school completed 3 years of schooling after their bachelor’s degree.  The three years of PT school lead up to the DPT designation.

Ummm what are all those other letters?

There are sometimes lots of other acronyms after the PT,DPT designation.  Most of them refer to some specialization, courses and/or exams that the therapist has completed.  The most common ones seen in the outpatient orthopedics realm are OCS and SCS.  SCS stands for sports clinical specialist certification and OCS is for orthopedic clinical specialist certification. 

What does one do to get an OCS designation?

In order to get the OCS designation, a PT has to have completed at least 1 full year as a full time clinician working in the orthopedic environment, and then studied A LOT!  The exam is really rigorous and requires a lot of studying.  Also, it is not recommended that someone go for the OCS designation until they have been practicing in the field for at least 3-5 years.  It is THAT challenging an exam!

 I was an OCS

I took the exam in 2009 after studying for 6 months.  I was lucky to pass.  The designation lasts for 10 years.  So, my designation expired this year.  I decided to retake the exam (you have to do this every 10 years if you are going to maintain the designation) and I will be honest…my heart wasn’t in it.  When I took the exam 10 years ago, I wasn’t a clinic owner.  I was able to devote MANY hours to studying and I really wanted to pass the exam.  This year when I decided to retake the exam, I really didn’t put my all into it.  In fact, I hardly studied at all.  And I am not the type of person who can take an exam on the fly. 

So the result is what you would expect

I didn’t past the exam.  I have never NOT put my all into something like a test.  But my priorities have shifted dramatically.  I now am busy treating full time and running my business.  And I also have specialized my practice even more to treating patients with persistent pain syndromes.  The exam was REALLY hard because I had not prepared for it.  And the result was not surprising.  In the end what this did was reinforce that I cannot do it all, and that is okay.  Not to mention that I haven’t taken an exam in 10 years so I was a little out of practice.

I am not upset. 

I am a little disappointed in myself.  But not for NOT studying—that was a conscious choice.  I am disappointed in myself for paying the money and taking the exam and putting myself through that, when I knew from the beginning that my heart wasn’t in it.  I didn’t acknowledge that I had changed, and my priorities had changed.  If I had done that, I would have simply allowed my designation to expire and moved on. 

So, what did I learn?

I learned that I can’t just jump into the role of being a student when I haven’t been for 10 years and if I decide to study anything it is going to be what I want to study.  So now I get to choose.  I don’t know what my next professional step is going to be but whatever it is, it will be what I want and what I am passionate about.