Careers in Sports Injuries
Prosthetist
Career Description
A prosthetist provides care to patients with partial or total absense of a limb by planning fabrication of, writing specifics for, and fitting prothesis under guidance of and in consultation with a physician.
General Duties
A prosthetist may evaluate and interview patients to determine their needs, document care in the patients' records, fit, test, and adjust devices on patients. They may also design orthopedic and prosthetic devices based on physicians prescriptions and take a mold of the part of the body that will be fitted with a brace or artificial limb.
Job Outlook
There are approximately 6,300 people in this career field.
Personality Qualifications
Prosthetists need to have a kind and warm-hearted personality because they are dealing with patients who are devistated for the most part, and they need to know they have someone there to help them through the hardship.
Education
To be a prosthetist you must have a minimum of a bachelor's degree in orthotics and prosthetics or a minimum of a bachelor's degree in another field and go through a post-graduate certificate program in orthotics and prosthetics, and a successfully completed 12-month National Commission on Orthotic and Prosthetics Education accredited program.
Schools of Specialization
The first school that I found that offered this field of study is the University of Hartford in West Hartford, CT. Another university that I found to offer this field is Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN.
Salary
The average salary for a prosthetist is around $65,000, a beginning salary ranges around $50,000, and an exceptional salary is around $72,000.
Injury
We were asked to find a common injury associating with our career field. Well, I decided to think back to the Boston Marathon bombing. I knew that so many people were injured from this incident and I also knew that a lot of them became amputees. So, I did some research and I found a woman who was at the marathon and ended up losing her right leg. As a prosthetist I would have assessed her after she arrived after her surgery. Then I would measure and fit her for a prosthetic leg.