A Career in Physical Therapy

Are you interested in working in health care? Helping people? Making a difference? Do you like to be active? Do you participate in sports, dance, or cardio workouts? Perhaps a career in physical therapy is right for you.

Physical Therapy is a field of medicine whose philosophy, quite simply, is that maintaining a person’s physical ability to stay active and participate in life is what is important. In that philosophy is the idea that a strong, active, and flexible body is a healthy body. That philosophy is also not only about getting the body stronger after injury, but also about keeping the body healthy and strong to prevent injury. The field of physical therapy is all about fitness for all.

Who becomes a physical therapist? There are all sorts of people, short and tall, lithe and strong, who become physical therapists. Many physical therapists were, at one time, high school students who had injured themselves and went to see a physical therapist to get better. Many physical therapists were high school student whose parent or grandparent had been helped by a physical. Some physical therapists were high school students who have, or who had a friend with, a disability and were made keenly aware of the value of human movement. But all physical therapists are intrigued by the workings of the human body, appreciate health, and are usually active, energetic, and enjoy their careers helping others.

Who receives physical therapy services? People who receive physical therapy services are people who are having trouble moving around their living or workspace, doing their daily tasks because of pain, weakness, or disease. Physical therapy helps people by studying the issues, treating the problems, strengthening the body, lessening the pain, and, in essence, bettering the body to better take care of itself. Physical Therapists work with people in all stages of their lives and with all sorts of movement dysfunctions: infants to help them develop skills such as standing and walking, toddlers in early education programs; teenagers with sport related injuries; adults with cardiovascular disease; and elders with degenerative diseases.   Physical therapists work in all sorts of settings: acute care hospitals, rehabilitation hospitals, outpatient clinics, home care, school settings, industrial settings and hospice care. Some physical therapists work with horseback riding programs for children, or in adaptive ski programs for persons with amputations, while others work in research finding answers to questions about spinal cord injury or Parkinson’s Disease; some teach in physical therapy programs at universities.

Becoming a physical therapist means going to college. There are 6 year accelerated physical therapy programs at some universities where you can enter as a freshman and finish 6 years later with a doctor of physical therapy degree. Another more common option is to go to undergraduate school at a chosen college or university, earn a baccalaureate degree in 4 years, and then apply to physical therapy school as a graduate student. The undergraduate degree will likely be in the science field as there are science courses, such as chemistry, physics, anatomy, and physiology - that you will need to take for entrance into physical therapy programs. Undergraduate majors such as exercise science, health science or biology usually include most of these needed courses in their degree programs.

So, are you interested in working in health care? Helping people? Making a difference? Do you like to be active? Perhaps a career in physical therapy is right for you.

Editorial provided by Julie Ann Starr, PT, MS, CCS, Program Director and Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Physical Therapy and Athletic Training, College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Sargent College, Boston University.