5 Steps to Becoming a Physical Therapist

Becoming a physical therapist is a brave decision. It is brave because it is different from the popular choices of becoming a doctor or an engineer, a sportsperson or a musician. Having said that, the profession of physical therapy is no less lucrative compared to others and a good physical therapist can make a lot of money. Besides, a physical therapist has the ability to bring about a genuine change in others’ lives. This could be by restoring the daily life activities of a child with delayed developments, helping out a pregnant woman during her stress periods, helping seriously injured sportspersons make a strong comeback or help restore normal functioning of people who have met with serious accidents. Here are the steps to becoming a physical therapist.

Get your degree

Getting a degree in physical therapy is the first step to becoming a physical therapist. You could start with a bachelor’s degree in physical therapy and then move on to Transitional Master’s degree in physical therapy. There are some people who have a bachelor’s in a different stream and then opt for the Direct Entry Master’s in Physical therapy, where they will go through one year of classroom training and one year of practical training. A good physical therapist also usually has a Doctorate degree in physical therapy.

Volunteering in a clinic

This gives you a real opportunity to see things up close. Sometimes it is mandatory to spend certain number of hours in a clinic or hospital with an acclaimed physical therapist, assisting them and learning the tricks of the trade. Besides it will give you a real feel of what you are getting into. This is the time when your prejudices for example, touching other people’s feet or anything else related to your work, will vanish.

Pass the State Exams

For practicing as a physical therapist, you need to pass a state license examination. Passing NPTE or National Physical Therapy Examination is also necessary along with the state license exam. So you need to pass these examinations depending on the state you are in before you can consider yourself a professional physical therapist.

Get a Specialization

Just like any other stream, some people want to learn more. There is indeed, scope to learn more in physical therapy. You can go for your specialization courses, if you have thought about the field you want to make a name for yourself, as a good physical therapist. There are various branches of physical therapy. Neurological therapists, specialize in treating signs of neurological disorders while geriatric therapists are specialists in treating disorders which are related to ageing. Heart related problems are handled by cardiovascular therapists, while paediatric therapists are experts at treating children and adolescents with developmental delays or other such issues. A physical therapist is also required for sports and you can train accordingly based on your interests.

Employment

You can choose to practice in your own clinic or get a job in a hospital, clinic, a rehabilitation centre or with a sports team. At the end of the day, it depends on where you love working the most.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, December 16th, 2010 at 9:26 am and is filed under Physical Therapist General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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5 Steps to Becoming a Physical Therapist

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