Physical Therapist Essay, Research Paper

Physical Therapist A physical therapists job is to improve mobility , relieve the pain, and prevent or limit the permanent physical disabilities of patients with injuries or diseases. They also evaluate patients medical history and test and measure their strength, range of motion, and ability to function. They develop written treatment plans, describe the treatments to be provided, their purpose, and their anticipated outcomes. Providing treatments, such as passive exercise, electrical stimulation, traction, and deep massage is another job a physical therapist has to do. They also teach patients how to use crutches, wheelchairs, and prostheses. A physical therapist has to be able to operate medical diagnostic equipment at a high level. They also need to be able to instruct people on health care at a high level, treat physical and mental problems at a high level, work as a member of a health services team, and planning and arranging health care treatments at a high level. The education needed to be a physical therapist is a Bachelor degree and a licensure exam. The licensure exam is an exam that you take after graduating from an accredited physical therapy program. All states require the licensure exam. All accredited physical therapy programs will be at a master level by the year 2001. The general educational development needed by a physical therapist is a high level. In reasoning development a physical therapist should be very high. The ability to understand concepts and systems, solve problems, use your judgement, understand and carry out instructions, and adapt to social and work environments is the reasoning development. A physical therapist should be at least a level five in reasoning development. In mathematical development a physical therapist should be at a medium level. Attaining basic math skills such as solving arithmetic, algebraic, and geometric problems is the mathematical development. A physical therapist should be at a level four for mathematical development. The last educational development is language. A physical therapist should also have a high level of language development. Acquiring language skills such as mastery of an extensive vocabulary and use of correct sentence structure, punctuation, and spelling is Language development. A physical therapist should have a level five in language development.

The temperaments of a physical therapists job are taking responsibility, dealing with people, influencing people, and making judgements. Those are the temperaments of a physical therapists job. A physical therapists aptitudes should also be very high. Their general learning ability should be in the top one-third. General learning ability is significant to the job. Verbal aptitude, spatial perception, form perception, eye-hand coordination, finger dexterity, and manual dexterity all should be in the top one-third. Numerical aptitude and clerical perception need to be in the middle one-third or higher. Verbal aptitude, form perception, finger dexterity, and manual dexterity are significant to the job. About 102,000 jobs were held by physical therapist in 1994. About one in four were part time. The competition to get into physical therapy programs is very intense. One-third of the physical therapists were employed by hospitals and about a quarter of them were employed by offices. Offices of physicians, home health agencies, nursing homes, and schools employed the rest. Physical therapists are sometimes self employed in private practices. In the U.S. the middle 50% of physical therapists earn between $31,200 and $52,000 a year. The median annual earnings of salaried physical therapists who work full time was $39,364 in 1996. The top 10% of salaried physical therapists earned $61,776 or more a year. In Florida, physical therapists made $50,000 dollars and above a year. The U.S. employment in 1996 was 106,514. From 1996 to 2006 the employment change is estimated to be +71.1%. In 1996, the Florida statewide employment was 6,823 and in 2006 the projected Florida statewide employment is 11,476. Employment is expected to grow much faster than average. Rising number of elderly people who are vulnerable to chronic and debilitating conditions requiring therapeutic services is what will be the cause of the employment growth. Another cause of the employment growth will be the baby-boom generation. The baby-boom generation will be in the prime age for heart attacks and strokes.