Starting a career in physical therapy is like\nclimbing a tree. Everyone starts with the same trunk, but quickly, you have to\nmake some decisions about which way you are going to go. What kind of people do\nyou want to work with? Where do you want to practice? And how far up the tree\ndo you want to climb? You will get to grow professionally – learning more and\nmaybe even improving your sales and business skills, but that’s not all.\nPhysical therapy gives you a chance to grow personally too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pick\nyour people<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n You can pick the type\nof people you want to work with – sports physical therapists work with\nathletes, helping them recover from injuries and improve performance through\nexercise and hands-on techniques. Geriatric physical therapists work with seniors\non mobility problems, pain or managing chronic conditions. Pediatric physical\ntherapists work with infants and children providing developmental assessments\nand helping them improve their gross motor skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pick\nyour place<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n You can also pick where\nyou work – there are physical therapy jobs in nursing homes, hospitals,\noutpatient clinics and schools. Physical therapists provide care wherever\npeople need it. So far, we have only mentioned the more common places you will\nfind physical therapists – if you want to specialize further, you may find\nyourself working only in the ICU with critical care patients, in a factory\ndoing industrial rehabilitation and ergonomics, in a women’s health clinic, or\neven working in a preventative, public health role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Grow\nprofessionally<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Most physical therapy\ncareers start in a general role, working with all types of different patients.\nIf you work in a large health system, you may even rotate between settings. But\nas you find the type of people you like to work with and the setting you\nprefer, you have the option to improve your skills and focus on a specialty\narea of practice. Again, you have lots of options on how to do this. You could:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Grow\npersonally<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Your clinical skills\nare not the only thing a career in physical therapy can grow though \u2013 you will grow\npersonally as well. You have to learn to have compassion and empathy when you\nwork with ill or injured people. You have to work as a part of a team. You need\nsales skills – most people are not going to want to make changes in their routines\nor do the exercises you prescribe at home. You will learn to work with people\nwho have different opinions and different viewpoints from all kinds of cultures\nand backgrounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You may also have a chance to improve your\nbusiness skills. You could advance out of the clinical setting and into a\nmanagement role. Some physical therapists start their own practices, or a\ncompany in a field related to physical therapy like wellness, performance,\ninjury prevention or population health for large corporations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wherever you start in physical therapy, you\nwill have a lot of options on where you end up. Chances are you will explore\nmore than one branch of the physical therapy tree. That is not a problem,\nhaving the chance to grow and change is part of what makes physical therapist\nso exciting! Visit the apta.org to learn more about this wonderful profession.\nYou will love it!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Starting a career in physical therapy is like climbing a tree. Everyone starts with the same trunk, but quickly, you have to make some decisions about which way you are going to go. What kind of people do you want …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":5431,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,32,63,87,95,123,164,165,181,243,246,251,2,257,276,278,304],"tags":[607,842,881,971,1052,1130,1211,1390,1415,1643,1710,1972,2005,2032,2082,2640,2752,2857,2993,3015,3073,3174,3274,3544],"yoast_head":"\n