Explore Careers in Health Care as a Physical Therapist
Physical therapy services are highly sought after these days with more than 50 million people in America alone making PT part of their recovery plans. If you’re considering entering this field, you’re sure to be in high demand. It’s an incredibly rewarding career with numerous potential paths to follow. No matter which direction you take, you’ll make a major difference in people’s lives. Consider some of the options awaiting you if you choose a career in physical therapy.
Orthopedic Physical Therapy
Orthopedic physical therapy is one of the possibilities. In this realm, you’ll focus on musculoskeletal conditions, such as broken bones and joint replacements. People often need to work with an orthopedic physical therapist after knee, hip, back, or shoulder injuries and surgeries. Those who suffer from arthritis may seek help from an orthopedic PT as well. You may even work with patients who are learning to use prosthetics.
You’ll be using targeted movements, exercises and equipment, strength training, heat and cold therapy, and other strategies to help people recover from surgeries and injuries or perhaps avoid them. As you can see via sites like comphealth.com, there are several job openings in this branch of physical therapy alone. That means you’ll have plenty of opportunities to help improve people’s quality of life.
Pediatric Physical Therapy
If you decide to become a pediatric physical therapist, you’ll be working with children. Those of all ages are living with developmental delays and congenital conditions. Additionally, it’s certainly not uncommon for children to sustain injuries while they’re playing or doing their part on their local youth sports teams. Of course, children often suffer injuries in car accidents and other situations as well. Regardless of the type of condition or injury they’re dealing with, they’ll need your help to overcome it.
When you work with children, you can make a difference very early on in their lives. That difference will last for decades to come. As a pediatric physical therapist, you might see patients in hospitals, schools, private practices, or at home. The need for pediatric PT services has been growing at a particularly rapid rate, and that’s expected to continue in the years to come.
Sports Physical Therapy
Sports physical therapists are in high demand as well. Recreation and sports-related injuries have seen a significant increase over the last few years, so physical therapists in this field are certainly needed. By some definitions, the main role of sports physical therapists is to help prevent injuries. They evaluate athletes’ flexibility, strength, endurance, and other factors to determine if they’re at risk of certain injuries. From there, they create plans to reduce those risks.
As a sports physical therapist, you’d also work with athletes who’ve sustained injuries or undergone surgeries. In these instances, your role would be to help them return to their normal activities and keep them from having to give up the sports they’re passionate about. Sports PT also revolves around improving athletes’ performance. Those in this branch of physical therapy can work in clinics, rehabilitation centers, or as part of a team’s dedicated medical staff.
Women’s Health
You could choose to specialize in women’s health. If so, you’ll help patients deal with an array of conditions that are unique to women. Those might include pregnancy-related musculoskeletal issues, pelvic floor dysfunction, and rehabilitation after certain types of surgeries. You could help women overcome some types of incontinence, prevent or recover from abdominal separation, and exercise safely during pregnancy. You might also aid them in dealing with pain, limited mobility, and scar tissue after surgery.
After entering the women’s health physical therapy field, you can further hone your specialty. Some in this field focus on PT for high-risk pregnancies, menopausal issues, or other specific problems. This is a relatively new branch of physical therapy, but it’s already gaining a great deal of attention. No doubt, there’s a considerable need for these services, and this could be considered an underserved niche at this point.
Geriatric Physical Therapy
In geriatric physical therapy, practitioners address the distinct needs of the elderly. As we age, we tend to lose muscle strength. Balance and coordination often suffer as well. That makes people in this age group more likely to fall and sustain injuries. Recovering from injuries is a slower, more arduous process too. In many cases, once this decline sets in, elderly patients begin to need help with even routine tasks.
As a geriatric physical therapist, you’d help aging patients regain their strength, endurance, and coordination or prevent them from losing them in the first place. You could help them maintain their independence for much longer than they’d be able to without your services. Geriatric physical therapists also help older patients recover from injuries and surgeries. They help prevent injuries from falls and provide a range of other essential services.
Neurological Physical Therapy
People who live with neurological injuries and conditions, like stroke, spinal cord trauma, and multiple sclerosis, often require physical therapy as well. This branch of the field is known as neurological physical therapy. If you choose this path, you’ll provide specialized treatments and rehabilitation programs to help patients maintain or regain their strength and coordination. You may be able to help them remain independent as well. You’ll undoubtedly help them achieve a higher quality of life.
Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Physical Therapy
Cardiopulmonary physical therapy is also an option. This entails working with patients who are living with or recovering from heart and lung conditions. Heart attacks, COPD, heart failure, asthma, and pneumonia are a few examples here. You’d help these patients improve their lung capacity, breathing, and stamina. Though cardiopulmonary physical therapists focus on problems that stem from heart and lung conditions, you’d have a hand in improving patients’ overall health by extension.
Physical Therapy: Finding the Right Path for You
If you’re interested in becoming a physical therapist, there’s a constantly growing need for your services. You’ll have endless opportunities to help patients and improve their quality of life. Physical therapy has branched out in several directions, so you have plenty of paths to choose from. Whether you want to work with children, the elderly, women, athletes, or people of all ages, your services will make monumental differences in your patients’ lives.
