Physical Therapist
Sarah Tallent
Job Discription
Being a physical therapist can be very rewarding if you like helping people. When you become a physical therapist you will be an expert on the human body. If you think this is what you would like to do you'll need a doctorate or professional degree to follow out your goal. "Physical therapists, sometimes called PTs, help injured or ill people improve their movement and manage their pain. These therapists are often an important part of rehabilitation and treatment of patients with chronic conditions or injuries."
http://www.bls.gov/ooh/Healthcare/Physical-therapists.htm
Tasks You Would Do Everyday
- Plan, prepare, or carry out individually designed programs of physical treatment to maintain, improve, or restore physical functioning, alleviate pain, or prevent physical dysfunction in patients.
- Perform and document an initial exam, evaluating data to identify problems and determine a diagnosis prior to intervention.
- Evaluate effects of treatment at various stages and adjust treatments to achieve maximum benefit.
- Identify and document goals, anticipated progress, and plans for reevaluation.
- Record prognosis, treatment, response, and progress in patient's chart or enter information into computer.
- Obtain patients' informed consent to proposed interventions.
- Test and measure patient's strength, motor development and function, sensory perception, functional capacity, or respiratory or circulatory efficiency and record data.
- Review physician's referral and patient's medical records to help determine diagnosis and physical therapy treatment required.
- Discharge patient from physical therapy when goals or projected outcomes have been attained and provide for appropriate follow-up care or referrals.
- Instruct patient and family in treatment procedures to be continued at home.
http://www.bls.gov/ooh/Healthcare/Physical-therapists.htm
Physical Therapist Careers Video from APTA
Degree Needed and Schools that Offer This
You'll need to have a Masters or a Doctorate to be a Physical Therapist. Some schools you could go to that offer this is East Tennessee State, Tennessee State, and Vanderbilt. All of these schools you can earn your doctorate at. While going to Pellissippi State I'll need to be here for two years get my Associates degree in science. Then transfer to a different school to get my Bachelors in science which will take four years to complete. After that I'll need my Masters it'll be three years till I complete that. I can stop there if id like, but im going to move forward to get my doctorate which will take me another four years to completely be done with school.
Entry Wage and Employment Growth
Your entry wage would be $29.13.
Employment (2012)204,000 employees
Projected growth (2012-2022) Much faster than average (22% or higher)
Projected job openings (2012-2022)123,700
Estimated Job Openings
There are a 32 current job openings in this profession in Knoxville, Tennessee.
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https://pstcc.emsicareercoach.com/#Search=physical+therapist&action=loadOccupationData&Clusters=&OccID=29-1123.00