Physical Therapist Job Description
By A Nutt
Physical therapists assist patients with debilitating conditions such as back pain, arthritis, fractures, sports injuries, head injuries, strokes, and cerebral palsy. They provide therapeutic services to improve a patient's mobility, alleviate pain, and help them cope with permanent physical disabilities. They may use therapeutic equipment and techniques such as massage to improve muscle strength, whirlpool baths, ultrasonic machines, and ultraviolet and infrared lamps. They teach patients how to do exercises to improve their physical health.
Physical therapy has many specialties such as cardiopulmonary, geriatrics, neurology, orthopedics, and pediatrics. Physical therapists practice in many areas that can include outpatient clinics or offices, inpatient rehabilitation facilities, extended care facilities, private homes, education and research centers, schools, hospices, industrial workplaces or other occupational environments, fitness centers, and sports training facilities. They are usually part of a health care team that creates programs for patients based on their particular needs and condition. They can also teach patients and their families how to use such medical devices as wheelchairs, braces, canes and crutches, and artificial limbs. Typical duties can include measuring a patient's motor function, balance and coordination, muscle strength and performance, range of motion, creating and implementing treatment plans, assessing a patient's ability to function independently, and writing progress reports for doctors.
According to the World Confederation for Physical Therapy, physical therapists are qualified and professionally required to:
Undertake a comprehensive examination/assessment/evaluation of the patient/client or needs of a client group
Formulate a diagnosis, prognosis, and plan
Provide consultation within their expertise and determine when patients/clients need to be referred to another healthcare professional
Implement a physical therapist intervention/treatment programme
Determine the outcomes of any interventions/treatments
Make recommendations for self management.
Physical therapists should have strong interpersonal skills to effectively educate patients about their physical therapy treatments and to work together with the patient's family. Therapists should also be compassionate and have a strong desire to help people in need.
Educational Requirements
A physical therapist must have completed a physical therapy program with a master's or doctoral degree. Courses will include biology, chemistry, and physics. They will also be required to complete specific courses such as therapeutic procedures, biomechanics, neuroanatomy, human growth and development, and disease pathology. To be a licensed therapist, graduates of accredited programs must pass national and state licensing exams. In order to maintain their licenses, many states require that physical therapists take continuing education programs and participate and complete therapy workshops.
Work Environment
Physical therapists normally work in large areas due to the physical therapy programs. They are involved with a team of health professionals. Most physical therapists work forty hours per week. Physical therapists can also work as independent contractors.
Salary
Salaries vary according to education and experience. In 2004 the median salary of physical therapists was ,180 per year. Benefits for salaried physical therapists included paid holidays and vacations, health insurance, and retirement plans.
Job Outlook
Employment of physical therapists is expected to grow much faster than the average for all occupations through 2016. Facilities and clinics are now making more use of the expertise that physical therapists can provide.
Due to an increased interest in exercise, high risk sports, and an aging population, physical therapists will continue to be in great demand. Future medical achievements will also increase the survival rate of trauma victims, therefore causing an increase demand for rehabilitative care. Growth may also result from advances in medical technology which will allow for more innovative treatment of serious disabling conditions. Physical therapy can be both a rewarding and challenging and career.
Did CCNA but getting a job as an IT Executive?? What to do?? Please help.?
Hi,
I am a fresher with CCNA training and a plain BCA graduate (distance education). I just got a job as a Trainee – Executive IT at small firm in noida. I am confused whether I should join it or not. I wanted a job in networking (and preferably in cisco equipments networking and configuration) so that i can do the next level ccnp.
what you think should i join this company with the aforementioned profile. or keep on applying elsewhere for networking or network troubleshooting job.
One more thing: is it a good idea if i join a very small company with responsibilities of physical connectivity of cisco routers and doing no configuration at all (basically layer one engineer, all physical layer work like physical cable connections and all that). and alongside complete ccnp. Is it going to help me?? Even though its a very small company?? Actually I have been shortlisted for this one too. wondering whether proceed with it or not. Please comment on this too.
Please reply asap.
Thanks!
PS: Thanks for replying to all those who are actually helping a fresher like me to get into industry. I actually posted a number of questions in the past two days on job help like resume making tips. With the help of the responses and tips that i got here, I even got a job using them (that am referring in this question) and also got shortlisted for another one (this is too in question above). Thank you all yahoo answerers. Thanks a ton.
i think you should join the smaller company that is providing the exposure that you require for your career growth… you can join the company, which is offering Executive IT opening to you, if you feel comfortable about it and are aware of the job responsibilities coming with it. again its a matter of personal choice and career focus that you need to see.
go with the one that fill best fit your career..
good luck.
Mechanical engineers: would my idea improve your skills?
Did you feel like you did not get adequate hands-on training in school or from employers?
I have an idea that might really help engineers get that. Please let me know how helpful it would be.
Implementing this idea would greatly enhance employers’ ability to find qualified engineering talent, and help the world economy in general, I hope.
My idea essentially is to create one of the conditions that exist in the American software industry: ease of market entry and innovation. Having low barriers to entry has worked reasonably well for the US in software. I’m guessing that it would also work well for small scale manufacturing.
My idea would reduce barriers to innovation and quality for companies.
We need a national program that walks mechanical and manufacturing engineering university graduates through design and manufacturing case studies, with hands-on experience with a variety of manufacturing processes.
I wish I could have participated in such a program when I graduated college. My mechanical engineering university education was much too theoretical. Frankly, my ability to do real-world design engineering is limited.
Undergraduate engineering degrees are professional degrees in reality, if not officially. Other professional schools (e.g. law, business) use case studies, but engineers are expected to function without the benefit of a similar collection of experience. This must change.
Unlike software engineering university programs, mechanical engineering curricula typically offer inadequate chances for hands-on learning. I’m guessing that’s due to the cost of equipment, energy, materials, and liability insurance.
There is a TV show on the Discovery Channel called How It’s Made. Have you seen it? If so, imagine actually visiting the factories they show, instead of watching it on TV. Imagine being coached and doing each step of the process, singlehandedly manufacturing the product as much as possible. That’s basically what I’m looking for, for the manufacturing part of the training anyway. A discussion of the history and evolution of that process would be a really helpful addition, to understand why the process is set up the way it is.
It seems unlikely that private enterprise factory owners would permit students to actually handle their equipment. They sometimes will allow factory tours, but that’s not enough. Also, I suspect that few, if any, universities could afford to maintain their own set of factories. If I’m right, then this makes it very difficult for people to get the broad experience that would make them highly effective innovators.
We need one separate educational organization, funded by the U.S. government. That organization should purchase appropriate factories or equipment, and move them to suitable locations. It then would take American graduates and students from any U.S. university, and let students visit the factories that interest them. Each student would be trained to do each step of the manufacturing process.
Beyond that, the ideal institution I’m envisioning would also have physical specimens of various devices or parts, some being exceptionally well designed and some having flawed design. Each item would be accompanied by discussion of its history and the decisions that led to the design.
Likewise, describing examples of exceptionally good and bad manufacturing processes would be very enlightening.
Where applicable, students should also see examples of finished products that are very easy to maintain, as well as some that are difficult to maintain.
I don’t believe anything like this exists. I’ve been searching, and I haven’t found anything remotely like it.
Would this really help?
Many thanks for any replies you give here.
A lot of large corporations have a similar type of Intern Programs to help introduce Juniors and Seniors in school to the various industries.
Many large corporation provide “recruitment” type of tours for juniors and seniors where take them through their operations to see what is done and how they do it.
I am all in favor of any on-the-job training. This is where the students actually learn operations.