I posted previously about CareerJournal.com’s Best Careers List, for which they used their powers for good and not evil, to obtain. They surveyed career-focused people to find a list of common attributes people who are most satisfied with their jobs:

-Good intellectual stimulation
-Strong job security
-High level of control and freedom in what to do
-Extensive direct contact with customers / clients

I already wrote about management consultants / analysts and what made that particular job so dang cool. Physical therapists are on the list as well. Why are those guys so satisfied?

First of all, they don’t have to sit at a desk all day. Yes, they have paperwork, but a major portion of their job is dealing with patients one-on-one. In a nutshell, physical therapists:

Evaluate the patient: physically, how far from “normal” is the patient due to illness or injuries sustained, and how close to “normal” can the patient hopefully return to?

Map out a plan of attack: create an individual therapy plan for that particular patient consisting of strength-building and mobility-increasing exercises.

Work one-on-one with the patient: usually several weeks or months on the therapy exercises, recording progress and modifying the plan accordingly.

Physical therapists work with patients and any number of medical professionals who may be involved with the treatment of a given patient. So, clearly, being a people person is necessary. But a PT also gets to be pretty autonomous, which is a plus if you dislike taking orders.

If you loathe repetition, then you may enjoy being a PT. No two humans are exactly alike, and neither are their illnesses / injuries. Which means every patient is new and different.

Physical therapists get pretty up close and personal with patients, often needing to lift or support them during an exercise. If you prefer to maintain your personal space, then no PT career for you. Also, PT’s need to be in decent physical shape themselves, as the job requires the aforementioned lifting and supporting.

All in all, a career in physical therapy looks to be pretty rewarding. You get to take a broken person and use your knowledge of the human body (structure, function and mechanics) to get them as close to an independent and “normal” state as possible.

There’s a lot of problem solving, inventing, and thinking on your feet involved. And it’s not all “Regarding Henry” and Harrison Ford all the time either. Nor is it one hottie with a sports-related injury after another. I did some volunteering at a hospital while I was in college, and the majority of in-patient folks receiving physical therapy were stroke patients. No less rewarding, but just so you’re warned; real life isn’t as pretty or romantic as Hollywood makes it look. And that demographic would certainly have been different had I volunteered at, say, an outpatient sports injury clinic.

How do you become a physical therapist?
To become a physical therapist you’ll need to go to PT graduate school and earn either a master’s in physical therapy or a doctorate, which will take 2-to-4 years to complete. According to AllAlliedHealthSchools.com’s Physical Therapy Training Resource Center: “While physical therapists are only required to have a master’s degree, most people entering the field today choose to earn a doctorate in physical therapy.”

Posted by Alexa Harrington