Physical Therapy

Written by Lillian Martin and Jocie Pruitt

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: What Is Physical Therapy?: Pages 6-11

Chapter 2: Education, Training and Salaries: Pages 12-17

Chapter 3: Work Enviornments: Pages 18-21

Chapter 4: My Experience with Physical Therapy Part 1: Pages 22- 30

Chapter 5: My Experience with Physical Therapy Part 2: Pages 30-37

Chapter 1: What is Physical Therapy?

What is Physical Therapy?

Have you ever gotten hurt or injured? If so, you may have gone to physical therapy. What is physical therapy you ask? Physical Therapy is a form of treatment used on injuries to help heal them. The form of treatment used on the injury depends on what and where the injury is located. People who work in Physical Therapy are called Physical Therapists. Physical Therapists have many jobs.

In Physical Therapy, you are asked to do a many tasks. Many Physical Therapists begin their sessions with asking you how much pain you are in on a one to ten scale. Then they give you different exercises using the injured body part and try to work it in ways that will heal it. They may give you balancing exercises, strength exercises or even exercises that simply move the area in pain. To finish a session, you may ice or heat the injury or just go home.

What do Physical Therapist do?

Physical therapist help mage people’s pain and/or improve their movement.  People that work in Physical Therapy are known as Physical Therapist or PTs. PTs are often and important part of rehabilitation, and treatment of people with injuries, illnesses, and chronic conditions. Rehabilitation is the action of restoring someone to health or back to a normal life with therapy or training after an illness, injuries, or more. Physical Therapist work with patients by stretching, exercising, hands on therapy, and more.

On a day to day basis Physical Therapist work with patients whether it is exercising, stretching, or more to reviewing patient's medical history and evaluating/keeping record of a patient’s progress. When working with patients PTs are trained to be able to work with equipment such as canes, crutches, walkers, wheelchairs, and more to improve movement and decrease pain. Some PTs specialize in one type of care being geriatrics or orthopedics. Geriatrics are the branch of medicine that deals with the health care of the elderly. Orthopedics are the branch of medicine that deals with the correction of deformities of bone or muscle.

Chapter 2: Education and Traning, and Salaries

Education

When working as a Physical Therapist you will need a lot of education. As a Physical Therapist you will need a professional degree or a doctorates degree. These degrees typically take 7 years of college and possibly more when studying physical therapy. A professional degree is a degree that prepares someone to work in a particular profession. A doctoral degree is the highest degree you can get in college.

In order to work in this field, you must have a license in Physical Therapy. A Physical Therapy License is a license you get after you graduate from the physical therapy program you attended in college. When attending this program, you will learn how to care for patients with different issues whether it is an injury they have or an illness they have. When in college for this career, you will learn many techniques and methods. Two techniques they use are exercising and hands-on therapy.

Salaries

Becoming a Physical Therapist requires a lot of education. It takes hard work and determination. With that said, the salaries of a Physical Therapist differ from place to place. The median salary of a Physical Therapist in 2017 ranged from $40.60 to $41.76 an hour. Physical Therapists often work eight hour days as well.

Using the median salary, Physical Therapists make abut $41 a day. Using this number, Physicial Therapists make $328 in a eight hour work day. This also means that they make $1640 in a five day work week. Yearly, Physical Therapists can make near $86,000 a year! As you can see, Physical Therapy is a job that pays well.

Chapter 3: Work Enviornments

Work Enviornments

Many Physical Therapists work in one of of many places. They could work in

• Hospitals
• Outpaitent Centers- a place where people who went to the hospital for diagnosis, but do not require a bed or overnight stay, get their treatment
• Private Centers- Usually places designed only to provide Physical Therapy
• Nursing Homes- Place where elderly stay
• and more.

My Experience With Physical Therapy

Lillian Martin

Part 1: The Beginning