Colleen Said:

Physical Therapist help for school?

We Answered:

Your best bet would be to contact a local physical therapy office and ask to come in and shadow for a day. It is quite common and highly recommended by many PT programs. A lot of students will even have a letter of recommendation from a PT they have shadowed extensively.

You can then answer a lot of these questions yourself and through your own experiences and be able to talk face to face with real PTs.

Sara Said:

Pros and Cons of Physical Therapy?

We Answered:

The pros for me outweight the cons

The cons

the paperwork is an important part of the job
salaries have not caught up with the degree requirements
high copays for treatment
doing more with less
shortage of PT-means we need to pick up the slack

Franklin Said:

IS NAVY AO (AVIATION ORDNANCE) A GOOD JOB FOR A FEMALE?

We Answered:

Why not enlist in the Army as a Physical Therapy specialist?!

Sara Said:

Questions about physical therapy.?

We Answered:

You ask a loaded question and my answer is IT Depends on what you do with your PT degree. I would visit www.apta.org for a ton of info. Your job depends on where and what you choose to do. That what makes PT a wonderful profession in my estimation. You can work in hospitals, rehab facilities, nursing homes, out patient facilities, schools, home care and much much more. Hourly schedule depends on where you work. I work in the public schools system, I work 8-330 and off summer and all major school holidays. Others may work 3 12 or 4 10 or 2 12 and 2 8. If you work in a hospital or nursing home, you will likely have to work occasional weekend/holiday days. In private practices, you may need to work some evenings but probably no weekends or holidays.

2. You are currently required to get a graduate degree from an accredited PT program in order to sit for the national exam. Of the 200 PT schools all but 10 are DPT programs and the other 10 are MPT programs. The MPT programs must convert to DPT by 2020 but in my estimation, they will convert in the next year or two.

3. Entry level salary varies from location to location and specialty to specialty. The apta can give you some ranges.

4, Benefits again vary for employer to employer and depending if you are salaried or per diem. Health care, time off, and continuing education, sign on bonus are negotiable with some employers.

5. There are PT jobs across the country. Relocation generally is not required but available depending on where you would like to live.

6. You are generally required to earn continuing education credits to maintain your license. This is generally where you begin to specialize.

7. I have been a PT since 1991 and there has always been jobs open. Around 1999, where I live, 3 local PT schools within 15 minutes of each other graduated 300 students and there was only 3 acute care positions in the area. I heard that there was 100 applications for each of those positions. Where I worked, we had part time positions. For people with experience, there were jobs. I have not seen this since and I do not think it will happen again. The new DPT programs only graduate 30-50 PTs a year. There is at least 5 openings in the paper on Sundays. I get a weekly PT magazine and there are 1000s of jobs advertised. Many positions go un advertised because of the cost of advertising. Most graduates have offers before they graduate. Since the inception of the DPT, many people have decided against PT and gone in to PA, and Pharm D programs. For the same education, you can make more money. So to answer your question, it is a stable career choice.

8, Professional affiliations vary depending on specialty. The national PT association is APTA. But there is the NDTA, varies manual therapy programs, lymphadema society, Some are members of the ones you list. Some people hare in the hippotherapy association. But there are hundreds of affiliations


Hope this is helpful.

Henry Said:

which do you think is the best medical course in this recession? physical therapy,pharmacy or nursing?

We Answered:

Nursing. By far.

Here in New York, my physical therapy and pharmacy friends have been having difficulty with their jobs. However, nurses are all doing well and is th only field the hospitals are actively hiring during the hiring freeze.

Douglas Said:

What exactly does a Physical Therapy Assistant do?

We Answered:

It will vary a little bit from state to state as to what the laws are, but in general, a PTA designs and implements treatment programs after a physical therapist has assessed the patient as to what functional deficits need to be addressed and how. For instance, a physical therapist may evaluate a patient who has shoulder pain and has determined it is due to an inefficient rotator cuff. It has been found that suprasinatus is the mainly affected muscle, but that muscles that control the scapula such as lower trapezius has also been affected. The patient is also having a lot of pain and swelling. The physical therapist is recommending a course of strengthening exercises to the affected muscles as well as electrical stimulation to address the pain and swelling.

At this point, the job of the PTA would be to come up with specific exercises to address these muscles and apply the modality. They will also be responsible for teaching the patient what exercises to complete at home.

This is an over-simplified version of what a PTA does as it will vary between setting to setting. The will be directly involved in teaching pateints how to regain their mobility and funciton such as learning how to walk, get out of bed, how to help their back pain.

In a nutshell, a PTA does just about everything that a PT does, except for assessment.

The PTA has to have strong interpersonal skills and knowlege about anantomy and physiology. The program heavily emphasizes excersise sciences and patient care techniques. The physical therapist does this as well, but also learns how to evaluate the patient. Both are licensed professionals, but the PTA degree is an associates level degree and the PT degree is now either an MS or doctorate level degree.