Mysuru
Physiotherapy graduates should treat every patient as a person before viewing them as a diagnosis, remain lifelong learners and build their reputation through compassion and dedication, Prof. Rajesh Shenoy, Member, National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions and President, Karnataka Allied and Healthcare Professions Associations, said.
Addressing the graduation ceremony of JSS College of Physiotherapy here on Friday, Prof. Shenoy congratulated the Class of 2026 and urged the graduates to recognise the significant responsibility they were assuming as healthcare professionals. “Your hand is the tool of your trade,” he said, asking the graduates to look at their hands before receiving their degrees.
He noted that the trained hands of a physiotherapist could help a patient walk again, enable a mother to lift her child without pain, help an athlete return to sport and restore independence to the elderly.
Prof Shenoy said physiotherapy had become increasingly important in modern healthcare as advances in technology, surgery and artificial intelligence transformed medicine. With shorter hospital stays and faster surgical procedures, the responsibility of helping patients regain strength, mobility and confidence increasingly rested with physiotherapists. “You are not an adjunct to medicine. You are very often the difference between a patient who survives an illness and a patient who truly recovers from it,” he said.
He asked graduates to remember three principles throughout their careers. First, they should treat every patient as an individual rather than merely as a medical condition. Clinical expertise, he said, could restore movement, but empathy and humanity gave patients the confidence to continue their recovery. Second, they must remain students throughout their professional lives. Medical evidence, treatment protocols and rehabilitation techniques would continue to evolve, making continuous learning essential. Third, a professional’s reputation was built during moments when nobody was watching or grading. Spending extra time reassuring a patient, patiently explaining an exercise or comforting a frightened child could make a lasting difference.
He also highlighted the quiet nature of a physiotherapist’s success, saying it was often measured not in dramatic moments but in small improvements achieved over weeks and months. “Somewhere, months from now, a person you treated will walk their daughter down the aisle, or bowl a cricket ball again, or simply get up from a chair without wincing,” he said.
Prof. Shenoy thanked the parents and families for their sacrifices and appreciated the faculty of JSS College of Physiotherapy for shaping students into compassionate and competent professionals.
He urged the graduates to be worthy of the trust of patients, remain humble enough to learn and confident enough to use the skills they had acquired. “The people whose lives you are about to change are waiting for you. Go begin,” he said.
Dr C.G.Betsurmath, Executive Secretary, JSS Vidyapeeta, R Mahesh and others were present.