Physical Therapy Careers

One of the quickest growing professional fields is physical therapy.  Physical therapy is an area of medicine where a therapist will help someone recover from a physical injury or gain strength in a certain area of their body.  The experience that a physical therapist will have while on the job will vary significantly based on the specialization that they choose.
 
What do physical therapists do?
Many physical therapists that enter the field begin their careers by working directly for hospitals or nursing homes.  When a patient undergoes any form of surgery their recovery often requires meeting with a physical therapist to strengthen their body following surgery.  The therapist will generally spend about two thirds of their time meeting and working with patients and the remainder of their time will be spent filling out paperwork.  Physical therapists could either work directly in the hospital or visit their patients at home.

Where can physical therapists work?
Many physical therapists that succeed in the field will eventually try and work or start their own private practices. Therapists who work in or own their own private practice generally are able to earn a much higher salary as they are not normally required to share as large of a portion of the therapy revenue with the hospital.  However, since they are required to find their own patients and form relationships with insurance companies and other hospitals, more of a privatized therapist’s time is spent marketing and trying to build a business. 

Education requirements for a physical therapist:
While there are plenty of options in the field of physical therapy, all physical therapists are now required to get a master’s degree in the field.  When including a traditional bachelor’s degree program in physical therapy, this means that a student will need to take at least 6 years of higher education after graduating from high school.  Furthermore, much of the school work can be quite challenging as it focuses on medicine and the related sciences.
 
Since getting into physical therapy can be challenging it would be wise to take a physical therapy aptitude test to determine if this is truly where your interests and skills lie.  The aptitude test would also provide you with a career assessment that will determine what other potential career paths you should look into which will maximize your interests and skill sets.

Other types of Medical and healthcare careers :

• Counseling
• Holistic medicine
• Home health
• Massage therapy

Data provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics

The growth outlook for Physical Therapy careers is estimated at about 30% while the estimated growth for all career fields over that same span is at about 10.12%. Over the next six years, Physical Therapy jobs are expected to grow at a 196% higher rate than the national average for annual salaries.