Elise Cantu (00:19)
Hey, OncoPT and welcome back to this episode of the OncoPT podcast. Again, we are continuing our series on last minute ABPTS oncology exam prep. And in today’s episode, we’re gonna get real because this is perhaps one of the most common fear inducing like panic stricken questions that I get at this time of the year when it comes to preparing for your exam.

which is, it too late to pass the ABPTS oncology specialty certification exam? Let’s get this out of the way. It depends. And I know that is such a terrible answer, but I’m going to explain more here shortly, right? Like I’m not just gonna leave you in the gray. I’m going to go into more specifics on where you might fall into this camp because truly the only person that can actually answer this question is you.

And I’m going to give you some tools and strategies on how to make a very informed decision at the end of this. So many physical therapists, as we get closer and closer to the exam, are starting to feel a lot of things, all the feels, as some might say. And some of it may be a significant self-doubt, an insecurity in your own ability to take this knowledge and actually apply it

in this very intense environment. And right now they’re kind of at a point of, it even realistic to keep studying, to keep preparing, or am I pushing forward out of fear? Now let’s get something very clear. This is not a conversation on imposter syndrome, okay? And I know there’s some nuance here, but I want to be abundantly clear with this. This is not a place of like, ⁓ gosh, like,

I just don’t know if I can do this and I just don’t know if I’m a good enough on copete friend friend. If you are asking, like if you are realistically asking yourself if you’re a good on copete and you’re good enough, like number one, if you submitted a dang application and you know all the work that goes into that application and that case report. Hello. If you submitted application.

and you submitted that case report and they were accepted, like check yes. Yes, you are already good enough for this. And this whole like, ⁓ am I good enough? Like, am I good enough, Onco PT? If you’re asking, the answer is yes. I’m gonna say that with full confidence. I mean, we have grown adult men out here doing terrible jobs in elected official positions. You know exactly who I’m talking about, right? The highest political offices in the land right now.

are complete buffoons and they have never once asked themselves if they are doing a good job. And so I want to stop you right here. You can do, you can absolutely do this. Okay. So if you are talking about imposter syndrome, this episode is probably not for you. Okay. That’s not what I’m talking about here. Wondering if it is too late to realistically move forward is what we are talking about in today’s episode.

And so I really want to zoom in on this, like, is it too late for 2026? Is it too late or whenever you’re listening to this, like most of you are going to be listening to this in 2026. Is it too late for me to push forward, to keep pressing on and succeed on this exam? This is what we’re talking about today. And I really want to take the time at the top of the episode right now.

to remove the shame or the guilt that maybe you might be feeling by asking this question or even wondering this out loud, right? Like you’ve put so much time and effort into all of this. Is asking this question a betrayal of all the work that you’ve done and all the people who have supported you? No, no it is not, okay? Take that shame and punt it out the window, okay? We have no time for this.

But I want to recognize how extremely common this is. And it’s not, again, ⁓ an indicator that you are a bad physical therapist, that you’re a failure, right? That you are not worthy of the title of board certified clinical specialist. None of that, okay? But if you are asking this question, it is most likely an indicator

that you are actively and conscientiously discerning your path forward. And that is perhaps one of the most powerful places that you can be in all of this. what this is, not, doubt is not failure. Instead, it should be viewed, we should be viewing this as a signal to maybe reassess your strategy moving forward. And so I really wanna just,

Again, take away that shame. If you’re not feeling shame, awesome. I love that for you, friend. But if you are feeling some of that shame, ⁓ coming to this episode, coming to this conversation, leave it at the door, friend, because this is an extremely common question that we get. ⁓ a lot of OncoPTs are dealing with this, especially as we get closer to the exam and they’re starting to feel that crunch, that time pinch. ⁓ like this is.

It’s a really, really good question. And so I really appreciate you having this honest conversation and asking yourself about this. So what I want to start with is how you use your remaining time matters more than how much time is left.

We’ve talked a little bit about this in previous episodes.

But rather than mindlessly adding hours and hours and hours to your study plan is not necessarily the best way to move forward. It’s how you use that time. And in the last episode last week, we talked about how do you use that time effectively and really zooming in on having a sustainable strategy where the emphasis is on ⁓ application, right?

And so I really want you to start kind of auditing yourself, auditing your study process and your strategy and asking yourself, how has my studying been going? Not just like, ⁓ good, or, man, not good. I mean, really, how has it been going? Are you passively kind of going through material at this point and just kind of reading to read things? Like, do your eyes glaze over?

over the hundreds of articles that you’ve been reading? Because I totally get that. Or are your study sessions maybe more application focused, where you’re taking that knowledge and using it to create treatment plans for these hypothetical patients? know, coming up with ⁓ intervention sessions and how are you dosing? Like, what are those parameters that you’re using?

How are you assessing patient progress? Like again, putting yourself in the position of I’m the specialist here. Here’s how I’m going to approach this patient. You know, are your study sessions focused? Are they structured? Are they prioritized in the ways? And we talked about priority a couple episodes ago. Are you prioritizing the information that’s really important, really effective? Because this

This focus, this prioritized studying can be effective even late in the game, even late in the process. Where we run into trouble is unfocused studying because unfocused studying rarely is going to be effective, especially as we get closer and closer to the exam. And so this is where this honesty with self is really required on. Okay. How is my studying been?

What am I focusing on? And then how do I move forward? What is the kind of decision that I’m making here? Now, before we get into the decision making process, we need to really revisit or maybe bring up some unpleasant emotions because what gets us here in the first place is fear. And again, we talked about time scarcity and intensity and just feeling all the feels.

a little bit over the past couple episodes, but fear really distorts our decision making as humans, period. This is something that I’ve learned a lot about in therapy over the past couple years and coming from a very primal ⁓ human perspective of like our whole thing as humans, deep, deep down, was we are just, is, not was, is we are just trying to survive. And as humans, way back when,

part of doing that was making sure that we were part of a group and we were accepted. And so we as humans and you know, maybe not you, right, but me, I have such a deep issue and like seeded conflict with rejection and not wanting to be rejected because I hate like, primarily, I hate not feeling safe. I hate feeling other than outside. And so there’s a degree of fear that

motivates our decisions when we perceive this potential of like, I might not be a part of the group. And I’m not just saying like, I might not be a part of the group that gets to wear a cool pin. That’s not what I’m saying here. But we as humans try really hard to avoid fear because fear has meant evolutionarily not safe, unsafety, right?

⁓ back then, maybe it was like a bear or a, you know, a saber tooth tiger or whatever the heck was hunting humans back then. I’m not an evolution, ⁓ biologist here, as you can tell. So there were very primal fears that were associated with danger and I need to avoid those. I need to be safe, right? So in order to be safe, I’m going to avoid fear. Now, fear can be useful, right? It can kind of keep us from doing some really crazy, stupid things, but sometimes fear.

gets out of hand, gets out of control, right? It is outside the boundaries of what we are realistically working on with humans and in our highest, most adult self.

that person, that you knows how to make decisions that are putting you in safe, that are putting you in safety, right? You know when you’re working with patients that I need to do this in order to be most safe when working with this person, right? I know the things I need to be doing to be an effective clinician. I also know that I am going to…

take steps in my everyday life to make sure that I’m safe. I wear my seatbelt. I don’t leave candles burning. You know, I do this, this, and this to be safe. I’m looking around when I’m walking in my neighborhood, just like all these things. You know how to make safe decisions, but sometimes that can get overridden when we get into this time scarcity of the exam. And that fear can start to creep in and creep up as a more of a decision driver.

especially this late in the preparation process. And so this is where we really need to be aware of this fear and acknowledge it. We can’t shove it down. We can’t push it aside. We have to confront it a little head on because what we need to walk away from this is making a clarity based decision over a panic based decision. And a lot of times,

When clinicians are asking themselves, is it too late to pass the ABPTS oncology exam? It’s not from a place of clarity. It’s from a place of panic and it’s okay. But we do have to move from the panic zone into the clarity zone so that you can really make the best decision for yourself moving forward. I remember. So a little bit of an example here. Way back when.

in elementary school. Imagine it. Elise was like three foot something. Okay. And I did really well on our spelling tests in class. And so I was automatically nominated or whatever for a spelling bee. Now it may not seem like it now because of how charismatic I appear on, you know, video and podcasts. I was terrified of any kind of like public appearance, public speaking.

and the thought of having to spell words out loud in front of people, in front of judges, was horrifying to me. And I didn’t really tell anybody that I felt this way. So over Christmas break, they sent us home with, you know, the book of spelling words to learn. And I was so afraid of this. I just avoided it altogether. Like I literally

took the book, put it in my backpack and didn’t look at it for the whole of Christmas break. And then we came back from Christmas break and at some point like it was time for the spelling bee. And I was like, my God, I’m just, I’m so afraid. I just cannot do this, whatever. And so we had a spelling bee rehearsal and we didn’t do any like spelling. was just, here’s where you sit, you know, and here’s how the process works. And here’s the microphone and everybody practiced getting up, you know, just to know kind of how the flow of the spelling bee would.

would go. And it was literally, I think, like the day before the spelling bee and I’m still just like in complete panic, froze because I could have made the decision and told, you know, anybody, hey, I don’t want to do this, but I didn’t because I was so afraid. And so in tears after everyone had finished the rehearsal, I went up to the teacher or whoever that was coordinating this and just was like bawling my eyes out of like

I don’t want to do this. I can’t do this. And the teacher too, that person’s credit was like, it’s okay. You don’t have to like did all the things. Absolutely all the things. And just that like, my God, I was so afraid. That was purely from a panic position. And so could I have done well in the spelling bee? Maybe. I don’t know. But what I do know is that the next year,

I actually did participate in the spelling bee and same thing. I was doing well in my spelling tests that I guess automatically gets you, you know, nominated or whatever for the school spelling bee. And I did it that year and I did a little more preparation and I did okay at the spelling bee. didn’t like no medals or anything y’all, but I did better and I was able to make a better decision to actually participate.

because it came from a point of clarity. It came from a place of clarity and not panic like I was the previous year.

And I think this is a really good example of when we make decisions from a place of panic versus where you make a decision from clarity. And I think it’s really easy to look at this as an adult because you’re an adult listening to this podcast right now and kind of chuckle, maybe laugh and maybe dismiss this example as, know, like, at least that was spelling bee and that was elementary school. Your frontal cortex wasn’t even developed fully. You’re right.

but I think it’s also easier to reflect on that when we’re looking as adults back on that child self. And right now it’s really, really hard. It might be really, really hard to discern if you’re in a place of panic or if you’re in a place of clarity asking yourself if it’s too late. What I want you to do is I want you to zoom out and I want you to look at yourself. This might feel silly. Okay. Humor me for this.

and then message me and let me know how this goes. But I want you to kind of step above yourself right now, kind of above this situation and imagine that you are elementary school Elise who is borderline having a meltdown behind the stage before it’s time for the spelling bee. And are you panicked Elise? Asking the decision, is it too late or are you clarity you, right?

Are you clear to you making this decision, asking this question of is it too late to pass the ABPTS oncology exam right now? This pausing that you’re doing now and this kind of like ascending above yourself to really have this conversation, this pause that we’re doing right now, again, is not an indication that you are failing, is not an indicator that you should not be participating.

This is a skill and this takes a tremendous amount of courage to really sit with this right now and ask yourself these questions. Discernment is a professional skill and that’s something that you have been honing over the past few years, probably more than that, years of your career and getting to this point where you are a future specialist working with oncology patients day in and day out, making these very high level, intense, important decisions that are going to help a person who is

facing a cancer diagnosis. And you also know from this work that pushing through is not always the most courageous choice that you can make. It may not be the right decision. And making that decision, making that choice can be really hard. But you also know when there’s times to push through, there’s times when you don’t push through.

And I really want you before you make a decision on this, okay? I don’t actually want you to make a decision while listening to this podcast. This is fuel for your fire that you are going to tend in order to fuel that decision that you are making. Okay? So don’t make a decision now. I want you to sit with this information before you make a knee jerk reaction. That is the worst thing that could come out of this podcast episode. Okay? Please don’t do that. Please sit with, please have conversations. You know, for me,

a really important like ⁓ source of discernment in my life is my relationship with my partner, with my husband. And being able to have these conversations because he can kind of pull me out of that panic zone that I find myself in and shed some light, shed some perspective, right? And there’s other people in my life who I have that kind of a relationship with. I know you do too, like my sister. My sister is a significant source of discernment with these, you know, kind of

conversations. And so having these conversations with somebody and not just keeping it internal, I think is a really, really important way to make an informed decision here. So with this pausing that we’re doing, okay, pausing to make a decision is what we’re talking about right now. This is really going to protect your long term confidence and not just in the like,

Okay, I’m gonna, you know, prepare for the exam and I’m gonna, you know, have XYZ outcome out of all of this. But in your own decision making and seeking and implementing what is best for you by doing these exercises that I’m recommending to you, by pausing and by sitting with this information and by having these conversations, you are protecting…

your confidence in yourself to make these hard decisions, to show up from a place of clarity in order to do that. So I want to really just kind of emphasize one more time here. It’s on you to make this decision for yourself and I support you no matter what you choose. Okay, this is not meant to dissuade you from taking the exam. It’s not meant

to tell you keep pushing forward, like keep going at all costs. This is to just give you time to pause and sit with yourself if this is a concern of yours. Now, if you’re like, I haven’t actually had this concern, friend, don’t even worry about it. Like, I will see you in next week’s podcast episode. This one is probably not for you, but this is for the OncoPTs who are really having this kind of crisis and helping them to make, helping you to make an informed decision, a discern.

like decision to get to where you need to be moving forward. And again, I would really encourage you reflect on how your studying has been going, realistically, honestly, and then sitting with the two selves of like, is this coming from a place of panic? Is this coming from a place of clarity? Again, think of spelling bee elementary school Elise if you need to.

because that’s a really clear example of like, can very much separate myself from this. And I think implementing a kind of strategy like that to really pull yourself out of the right here, right now, and all the feels that you’re feeling to make that decision is really going to help you on this process. The truth is not everybody should continue to push forward in every exam cycle. And there is no shame whatsoever in whatever decision you make, whether you continue to push forward, whether you don’t.

It’s okay. But continuing to push forward out of fear or pausing from fear, right? Being in a place of fear and making decisions from a place of fear instead of clarity is going to increase your burnout. It’s going to erode your confidence in yourself regardless of the outcome, right? Regardless of whether you choose to move forward, whether you choose to pause, whether you pass the exam, whether you fail the exam.

but having that deep knowing, that deep discernment and that confidence in yourself in knowing that you are making the right decision for yourself from a place of clarity is only going to support you and future you, right? This isn’t just a right here, right now, you, this is five years in the future, you, the Onco PT, doing amazing, incredible things in your community.

And this, whatever choice you make, does not mean that you’ve failed.

period. Clear informed decisions are always, always better than panic driven ones. And it’s really easy to be in that panic zone right now. We got to get you out of that. So whether you continue or whether you pause, clarity is going to give you a sense of control and self-trust back in yourself.

Your confidence is not built by ignoring the reality of a situation. And I’m not, know, again, at the end of this, this is not a put your head in the sand, plug your ears, la la la la la la kind of situation. Okay. We are realistically assessing how are things going and am I making this choice from a place of panic or a place of clarity? And I really encourage you sit with yourself. Honestly, this is not a time for heroics, right? If you have been feeling like

I know in my soul I am not ready. You can pause. You can… What’s the word I’m looking for here?

⁓ delay, that’s not totally the right word. You can make the choice to actually not take the exam this cycle and then push it back to take the exam next year, potentially. That is an option. And in the AB PTS candidate guide, they do go into those specifics, but you have to make the decision after realistically assessing how you’re doing. And also again, place of panic.

or place of clarity that you’re making whatever decision that you choose to. Whatever decision you choose, whatever path you choose, there is support for you here. And that’s also why we do this. That’s also why we talk about this. ⁓ So if you need more guidance on this process, if you want a little more of a breakdown, I have a YouTube playlist that I’ve been working on as these episodes have been coming out.

called ABPTS Oncology Exam Prep, How to Study with Clarity and Confidence. And I have put that link in the chat, or excuse me, in the chat, ⁓ in the podcast description here in your podcast player so that you can easily find that. Now, I only want you watching those if you know this is a resource that’s helpful for you, okay? Remember, as we’ve been talking about, we are not consuming more for the sake of consuming more. Only watch this.

if this is going to be helpful for you. And I have linked that once again in the show notes for you here. I am rooting for you. We are rooting for you every step of the way because you are actively putting in the work to make cancer rehab better for everybody, not just your patients, but in your community. And when you have that kind of a…

you know, drop in the ocean kind of effect. There are ripples that extend far beyond you and you never know what kind of an impact you’re having. I hope you do. I genuinely hope you know what kind of an impact you’re having, but sometimes it can be hard to see that. And especially if you are in a place of fear and a place of panic as you are like, my God, the clock is ticking. I have this much time to get this done and I’m freaking out here. You are making a really

really impactful difference. And I will leave you with this anecdote for today. So long story short, we are doing some home renovation right now. And I have been to Lowe’s, I think 15 times in the last two weeks. No joke. So I went there yesterday. No, was two days ago. I went to Lowe’s the other day and I was in the electrical aisle of all places and this associate came up. This is also not a promo for Lowe’s, just so we’re clear.

This associate came up to me and was like, do you need help? And I was like, well, I’m looking for this. And you know, I’m holding up these different things, not knowing what the heck I’m looking for and very, very helpful. And this person asked me, ⁓ says, do I know you? You look familiar. Long story short, I worked with this person’s parent in my work as an onco PT and it

blew my mind because this was years ago, genuinely, that I encountered this person’s parent. And the fact that this person remembered me and remembered the impact I had on their family was mind blowing. And it wasn’t because I did anything super crazy. It’s because I showed up and did the work that you are doing in your own community.

Holy cow. That’s what I want you to remember out of all of this, is this is the kind of ripple effect that you are having with your patients, with your families, with their communities. You are elevating the standard of excellence in cancer rehab and the expectation that all patients with cancer should have when it comes to…

I have been diagnosed with cancer. This is the kind of care that I know is out there. I expect to receive and this is what I expect to come out of that, right? Like I can work on not feeling as crummy as I’m going through treatment. I can work on getting stronger. I can feel better. I can feel more in control.

As I’m dealing with a diagnosis that has taken so much control away from me, that is what we are here to do, friend.

And I hope you remember that as you are, if this is you, if this is you discerning this, I hope you remember this and remember the impact that you are having on your community and not just what you’re having right now, but also what you’re going to have five years down the road when you walk into a home improvement section because you have to replace the electrical outlets in your new home.

Right? That’s what I want you to really, really remember. This is the big picture.

And I know you are having that kind of an impact in your community. I don’t want you to forget that. So in some decisions from clarity, not from fear, honest assessments are going to support you in this decision. And whatever path you choose, there is support for whichever path. And I can’t wait to keep cheering you on. So until next time, this is Elise with the Onco PT.

And remember, you are exactly the physical therapist that your patients with cancer need. So let’s get to work.