Physical Therapist Career Information

A physical therapist is a licensed individual that has completed specialized education and works in a health care setting. A physical therapist works with patients, attempting to improve their quality of life by, among other things, making them more flexible and trying to relieve symptoms of pain they may be experiencing. Physical therapists are in demand and job opportunities in this field will increase as the elderly numbers in the United States grow.

Job Description

• The major objective of a physical therapist is to ease a patient's pain, restore his mobility, allow her to function normally and to lessen the effects of physical disabilities. Among the different types of patients a physical therapist will work with are victims of accidents, people with pain in places such as the lower back due to medical conditions and individuals recovering from surgeries. Initially a physical therapist will review a patient's medical history before gauging their strength, range of motion, balance and other skills as they develop a treatment plan. This treatment usually will be comprised of exercises designed to increase flexibility and stamina. In addition a physical therapist may employ the use of electrical stimulation, hot and cold packs, and ultrasound devices to deal with pain. Massages and traction are also at the disposal of a physical therapist and he may also need to educate a patient about how to use certain equipment such as wheelchairs or crutches. Teaching home exercises and meticulously documenting a patient's progress are also in the job description. Physical therapists may go into a specialized area of practice such as sports medicine or geriatrics.

Education

• A Master's degree from a physical therapy program is required to become a physical therapist. The individual must also pass a state and national level examination and be licensed in any state that she desires to work in. The American Physical Therapy Association states that as of 2007 there were a total of 209 education programs that were accredited for physical therapy, with 43 of these offering a Master's degree and 166 offering a doctoral degree. The Master's degree courses and program take two years on the average to complete while the doctoral degree normally takes three years. Basic courses such as biology, physics, and chemistry will give way to much more specialized ones such as neuroanatomy, growth and development, and therapeutic procedures. The majority of physical therapy programs want an applicant to have had some volunteer experience in the field.

Earnings

• According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics the average annual salary of a physical therapist as of May 2006 was $66,200. Some earned as much as $95,000 a year while the low end of the scale had physical therapists that were paid an average of $46,000 annually. Those that worked in a home health care setting typically earned around $70,900 while hospital physical therapists made $66,630.

Work Settings

• The BLS also says that as of 2006 there were 173,000 physical therapists practicing in the United States. There is a huge demand for physical therapists, with many of these individuals working two jobs, often at a private practice and at a health care facility. 60 percent of physical therapists work in hospitals or in an office while others are employed at home health care facilities, nursing homes, doctor's offices and as teachers of their profession.

Industry Growth

• The need for physical therapists will expand as the elderly population of the U.S. grows in size. The industry is expected to grow by 27 percent by the year 2016 according to the BLS projections. Since older individuals are susceptible to the types of chronic conditions those physical therapists specialize in helping there will be an urgent need for people with these types of skills in the future. Medical technology is expected to make advancements that will allow the treatment of many conditions that were previously labeled as untreatable, making physical therapists even more valuable.