Feb. 18, 2026

It’s Not the Patient. It’s You.

It’s Not the Patient. It’s You.

Recorded live from CSM, this episode features Jake Irwin, PT, DPT — professor, athletics PT, private practice owner, and APTA delegate.

The conversation covers:

  • Why seasoned PTs still attend CSM
  • How to approach conferences strategically
  • The real value of networking
  • Using AI to navigate conference programming
  • The uncomfortable truth about home exercise compliance

Jake delivers a strong parting shot:

When patients don’t get better because they didn’t follow their home program — that’s not their fault. That’s yours.

This episode challenges clinicians to choose growth over blame.

Transcript
WEBVTT

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There we go.

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Dun, dun, dun.

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All right, we are doing it live.

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I'm wearing a ridiculous Valentine's Day

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theme.

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You are very easy to spot in the

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crowd.

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That's why people are like,

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that's a great red jacket.

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I'm like, it's Valentine's Day.

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Jake Irwin, live on the show.

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Appreciate you walking by.

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We made eye contact,

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and we were talking about talking anyway,

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so we'll just go with it.

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Jake, what's your superhero backstory?

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When someone says here at CSM,

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who are you, what do you do,

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where do you fit in the profession?

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So I'm a full-time professor at Georgia

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State University.

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Nice.

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In addition to working at my teaching job,

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I spend ten hours a week working with

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all the sports teams on campus.

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I'm the only physical therapist employed

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by the athletics department.

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And how long have you been there?

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I've been there since twenty-twelve,

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but I've been with athletics since

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twenty-twenty-three.

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Good for you.

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But I also own a small private practice,

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so I get a lot of hats.

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When do you do others?

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I'm also a delegate to APTA.

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For Georgia?

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yeah well good i love that so you're

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all over i'm also on the bylaws and

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house documents committee for apt well

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someone's got to write bylaws i got a

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little bit everything going glad it's not

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me uh so let's go with uh excited

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and expectations since we started csm all

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of twelve minutes ago yeah i can't ask

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you what you've seen so far but what

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are you what are you looking forward to

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what are you seeking out here

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So that's a great question.

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I actually am looking for a specific

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answer to a specific patient problem.

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I've got an athlete who's presenting with

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a neurologic problem that nobody can seem

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to figure out.

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And I'm not really a neuro PT.

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So I'm going to go to some of

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the neuro sessions and see if anybody has

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answers for me.

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Come to where the neuro PTs are.

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Exactly.

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Let's go to where the experts are and

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see if someone's got an answer.

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I heard that great advice long ago.

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I think this is my tenth CSM?

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Ninth?

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I mean,

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you start losing count after five or six.

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And someone said,

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really great advice is if you're an ortho

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PT,

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make sure you go to at least one

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or two things that are not in your

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lane.

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Hearing the same or similar things fifty

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times is great,

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but hearing different things might make

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you go, huh.

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Yeah,

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the only time I go to things that

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I know about,

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I'm actually just sort of interested in

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how they're presenting it.

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As somebody who teaches this material,

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I like to see how other people present

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the same concept.

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Yeah, delivery device.

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See if there's something else that I can

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do differently.

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I don't really take notes on the content.

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It's more on the delivery.

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Yeah.

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There will be many screenshots of slides

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that will die in your photo app that

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you'll never,

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because they're out of context in a week.

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You're like, oh yeah,

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that was that cool slide in the moment.

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It felt so impactful,

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but you have no idea where it is.

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No idea why I even took a picture

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of it.

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Yeah.

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Yeah, that definitely happens.

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So, Pat,

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looking backwards to CSMs in the past.

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Yes.

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When someone comes away with this,

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and there's a lot of PTs here.

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We'll find the final number at the end

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of the day.

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People question all the time,

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why do you come?

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I've said the CEU ratio is not the

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reason to come.

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It's a part of a reason.

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But what do you come to CSM for?

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Flying from Georgia,

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it's not a short trip, man.

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I've been coming to CSM since I was

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a first-year PT student.

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I love CSM.

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Honestly,

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it's really more for the networking.

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When I was a student and a new

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grad, it was the material.

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Give it to me from the experts who

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are on the cutting edge of it.

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Instead of reading the article,

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listen to the guy who wrote it or

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the lady who wrote it.

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That was huge early on.

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And then I had a gap when I

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was starting my private practice.

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I couldn't afford to just take a bunch

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of time off to come here.

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Probably busy, too.

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Yep.

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But now that I'm teaching,

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I get some money from the school to

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be able to come.

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I come every year and it's really a

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ton of networking.

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I get to see a lot of people

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that I only get to see once a

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year at CSM.

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And so I just love the time I

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spend with those people.

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I get to catch up with, you know,

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I went to school at Southern Cal.

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So I get to like see some of

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the people I went to school with.

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It's the only time I really get a

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chance to do that.

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That's great.

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yeah it's an awesome experience words of

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wisdom if someone is walking in here

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because people are like it's pretty cool

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to watch you got people like yourself you

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got people like i was hanging out with

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stanley paris yesterday who's like i don't

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even know how many decades of csm's i've

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been here been here since before it's been

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csm uh when someone's walking in here with

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fresh eyes you see it every third or

00:04:03.765 --> 00:04:05.907
fourth person here is someone walking with

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fresh eyes what do you wish we'll play

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that whole what do you wish you knew

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uh what do you know now that you

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wish you knew then any words of advice

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for someone

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So the exhibit hall, have a plan.

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Like it's way too big to wander around

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and try to find what you're looking for.

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Have a plan,

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know where you're trying to get to.

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That's how I got here.

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I looked you up.

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I said, oh, it's booth twelve forty four.

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I'm going right there.

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And for the rest of it,

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it's also have a plan.

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But pick two or three things for every

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hour,

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for every time frame that there's an

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event,

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because you're going to go into one and

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like listen to it for a little bit

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and be like, no,

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it's not what I wanted.

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But pick one that's close by.

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Like geographically nearby.

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So you're not missing half of it.

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You could walk around for forty five

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minutes and not see anything.

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So have two or three events for every

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time frame that there's scheduled

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programming.

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And pick things that are near each other

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so that if you don't like something,

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you can immediately just walk out and go

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next door.

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Right.

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It's not too late because these things

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were quick.

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I dumped a bunch of screenshots from the

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programming into AI.

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And then I was like, hey,

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I'm looking for this and this and this.

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Help me figure that out.

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And it was like, oh,

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here's three suggestions.

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None of the titles were anything that I

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would have normally been like, oh,

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that that could find that.

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But sometimes you got to go deeper than

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the headline.

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Yeah, no, that's really smart.

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I've not thought to do it that way.

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I still search it by category.

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By next year,

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it'll just have AI embedded in it.

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And you'll just say,

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I'm looking to become this.

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It'll be great.

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Got your suggestions.

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Simple, simple, but not easy.

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All right, let's do a parting shot.

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Every episode has a...

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This is the parting shot.

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One last mic drop moment.

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No pressure.

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Just your legacy on the line.

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Oh, yeah.

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Well, we started Parting Shot.

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I'll give you the inside scoop.

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I'll give you one.

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Because I was interviewing people as a

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student, and I was like,

00:05:53.916 --> 00:05:56.137
I don't know how to – Will Humphrey

00:05:56.158 --> 00:05:56.617
is walking by.

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I don't know how to end these interviews

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because they just keep saying smart stuff.

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So I had to come up with a

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thing where I was like,

00:06:01.781 --> 00:06:02.822
it's called the Parting Shot,

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which means like, hey,

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say something great.

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Time to go, though.

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All right.

00:06:06.403 --> 00:06:07.704
So wrap it up with something good.

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Yeah.

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When your patient doesn't get better

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because they didn't follow their home

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exercise program, that's not their fault.

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That's your fault.

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Yeah.

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Re-evaluate what you did.

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If you blame the patient for not getting

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better,

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you've missed an opportunity to learn.

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It's lazy.

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Plus it's lazy.

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And let's say they are the most,

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we'll say it in this hypothetical,

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that is the most horrible patient in the

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world.

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Sure.

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You still should change your game.

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Yep.

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You've got to learn from it.

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You have a choice in those situations to

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blame them and move on or learn.

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Yeah.

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All right.

00:06:34.738 --> 00:06:34.918
Jake,

00:06:34.939 --> 00:06:36.259
where can people find you on LinkedIn?

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It's just under your Jake.

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Dr. Jake DPT is my title for everything.

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Jackpot.

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Jake,

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appreciate you walking by and jumping on

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and taking the leap with us live from

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CSM.

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We've got more.