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Ariana Garcia

Ms. Amanda Tibbits

Language Arts 12

8 March 2019

Physical Therapy

I have been around physical therapy ever since I was young. Growing up, my sister and I

have been involved in many sports and have been injured numerous times as well. Injuries take a

lot of time to heal and a lot of treatment to regain mobility, which had my sister and I being

around physical therapy clinics very often. Being around the clinics so often, had me gaining

interest in what they do, and how they do it. Physical therapy is variety of treatments used to help

those who have been injured and lost mobility. The treatments help you move and feel much

better.

In this research paper I want to go over and discuss the things that people who are

interested in physical therapy should know before deciding on this occupation. Things that will

be discussed will be, the schooling required, the skills and qualities needed the different type of

settings physical therapists work in, PT job outlook, and lastly; the salary of a physical therapist.

Physical therapy schooling requires many years, but it is worth it. Those who are

interested in doing PT as an occupation may or may not already know the time it takes to become

a licensed physical therapist. According to the article “Colleges for Physical Therapy”, It is not

common for undergraduate programs to have a bachelor’s degree program specifically for

physical therapy. This typically has those who are interested in this occupation, take different

courses for a bachelor's degree in pre-physical therapy, athletic training, exercise science along
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with a few more. As long as any of those undergraduate programs are completed, you are able to

graduate with a bachelor's degree. If you want to become a licensed physical therapist, you must

complete a Doctor of Physical Therapy program. DPT programs normally last up to 3 years.

Many of the DPT programs require all applicants to apply directly through the Physical Therapist

Centralized Application Service, also known as (PTCAS). Schooling is the most important

information to know for any occupation, especially Physical Therapy. The more knowledge you

have on the schooling required for your career, gets you much more prepared for what the next

few years are in store for you.

You must apply what you have learned such as the skills and qualities needed. The

Bureau of Labor Statistics states that the top qualities needed for this occupation are;

compassion, detail oriented, interpersonal skills, physical skills, and time-management. Physical

therapists commonly have compassion naturally, they go into the work filling willing to help

those who are in pain and have empathy for each of their patients. You must be detail oriented.

With each patient comes much observation and information, details make much more effective

care. PT’s must use their hands to provide therapeutic exercises and massages. Each patient

should feel comfortable with the PT doing any exercises on them. PT’s spend so much time with

their patients that they must learn to have interpersonal skills. The patient and PT should enjoy

their time interacting to create a successful session.​ PT’s are constantly spending time on their

feet working on their patients and performing exercises, having each PT create and maintain

physical stamina. Lastly, the most important skill to have is time-management. PT’s are dealing

with many patients each day, and they must provide attentive care to each and every single

patient. It is these skills that will give you a long lasting and successful career. ​Knowing the
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amount of schooling, the money going into the education for this occupation, and the qualities

and skills needed, affect your decision on whether or not this is the right fit for you.

The settings of a physical therapist are a bit scattered. According to M​eredith Castin, ​A

licensed Physical Therapist,​ the most common settings including hospitals, schools, private

practices and sports and fitness facilities, nursing homes. A state licensure is required in every

facility or setting you choose to work in. PT’s are constantly on their feet and using their bodies

to move and lift their patients. Meredith Castin also points out that this requires a bit of strength

and a lot of patience. Working in private practice has a variety of patients, from young children,

to elderly people. You are typically giving these patients a variety of simple exercises to gain

back their strength and movement. Schools will be focused only on high school athletes. High

school athletes are constantly getting injured from their activity, this is when those PT’s are

helping figure out what the injury may be, and giving stretches to alleviate the pain and have

them ready to be performing back to their maximum potential.

Some settings such as nursing homes and hospitals require a bit more patience because

you are using your body and lifting much more than other patients. Meredith Castin lastly points

out that, “​A PT can help to improve the functions and the lives of everyone from children with

developmental disabilities to active older adults. They treat people with everything from sprained

ankles to acute heart conditions.” ​There is many more settings PT’s are able to work in but these

are the most common areas. This information is useful and should be carefully applied in your

thoughts on the area and setting you would like to practice in.

A job outlook in any occupation is a very important detail to go over. In the article “By

the numbers”, it states that the job outlook is expected to grow up to nearly 46.2% in Utah. There
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are 2 states that is expected to grow largely; Colorado with a percentage of 43.4%, and Oregon

with a percentage of 35%. Utah is one of the few states that has the largest amount of successful

PT’s and PTA’s. Job outlook is a very useful resource to look into before choosing your career.

With a low job outlook in your career, it is unlikely you will have a long lasting job with many

opportunities​. ​An outlook that is dropping over time typically has those working in that career,

looking into working in a different field. It is best to go into a career that has lasting

opportunities and a growing job outlook. With PT having such a well job outlook, the demand

for ​PT’s continue to grow, having many people become more interested in this occupation and

likely having many more opportunities.

Lastly, this may not be the most important detail to find out about your future career but

to some it is; and that is salary. The Bureau of Labor Statistics, states that the median annual

wage for physical therapists was $86,850 in May of 201​7. In the article Physical Therapist

Salary, this annual salary can be affected by many things such as your location, years of

experience, your specialization in the field, types of certifications and many more. The cost of

living in your are will change your outcome of your average salary, causing it to rise or lower.

Salary will affect your living situations, and future, so with all this being inserted into your

research; it will have you reconsidering if this is the right career path for you.

Out of an extensive research, the most important thing I have learned from all sorts of

different sources and researches, schooling is the most important information I found. The

schooling for PT is a bit more different than schooling for different majors and occupations,

which requires much more attention on the school you go to and the courses you take. It takes

many years to become licensed in this profession and even much more money. If I go into this, I
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wouldn’t want to waste my time and money if I wasn’t sure that this was the career I wanted to

go in. I believe that schooling is one of the biggest factors in choosing whether this career is a

right fit for you. If I go to school and learn and enjoy the material that is being taught, then I

think I will feel much more confident going into this profession..

I would like to have more even questions answered on the courses and schooling all

required for a PT. With all the research, I would still like to have even more information on even

the smallest details in schooling. It is stressful for anybody, any age, or any background, to jump

in and put themselves into a more challenging setting of schooling without having very in depth

information of what you are going to put yourself through. Going over all the research, it has

given me a stronger opinion on whether or not this is profession will be the right fit for me. The

only way this evidence has affected me has been by encouraging me to pursue this career choice

of mine.
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Works Cited

“By the Numbers.” ​PT in Motion,​ vol. 10, no. 9, Oct. 2018, p. 26. ​EBSCOhost,​

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hch&AN=132390292&site=ehost-live.

TEPPER, DONALD E. “Where Do You Want to Practice?” ​PT in Motion,​ vol. 10, no. 9, Oct.

2018, pp. 24–30. ​EBSCOhost​,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hch&AN=132390291&site=ehost-live.

“Summary.” ​U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics,​ U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 13 Apr. 2018,

www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/physical-therapists.htm.

“Summary.” ​U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics,​ U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 15 Feb. 2019,

www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/physical-therapists.htm#tab-5.