Career Overview
This licensed healthcare professional helps patients of all ages recover from injuries, restore range of motion, and reduce pain.
What is a Physical Therapist?
This type of physical therapist enjoys the highest level of scheduling flexibility compared to their inpatient or outpatient peers.
What is home health PT?
At $99,710, this statistical midpoint represents the exact middle annual salary for physical therapists nationwide.
What is the median annual salary?
Because patients ultimately decide whether to follow treatment recommendations, a PT must show this trait by accepting the patient's final decision.
What is respectful?
To legally practice as a physical therapist in the United States, you must graduate with this specific doctoral degree.
What is a Doctor of Physical Therapy?
(DPT degree)
When an athlete tears a muscle or a worker strains their back, they see a PT to bounce back from these physical setbacks.
What are injuries?
While 80% of a PT's day is spent hands-on with patients, the remaining 20% is split between creating treatment plans and doing this tedious task.
What is filling out paperwork?
(documentation)
If a PT climbs to the highest 90th percentile of earners nationally, they can expect their hourly wage to rise to roughly this amount.
What is $62.92 an hour?
A patient who understands their care plan is more likely to succeed, making this two-way, clear-language skill one of the most essential PT traits.
What is communicative?
Joining your local state chapter of this national organization is a great way for PTs to access networking events, research, and conferences.
What is the APTA?
( American Physical Therapy Association)
PTs design custom exercise programs to help stiff or frozen joints regain this essential ability to move freely.
What is range of motion?
Outpatient PTs usually work a standard 40-hour week, but inpatient PTs frequently work shifts of these three different hourly lengths.
What are 8,10, and 12 hours?
A physical therapist starting out in the 10th percentile nationally will earn an annual wage of this amount.
What is $72,260?
This trait requires a kind bedside manner that inspires comfort in patients who are dealing with pain and rehabilitation.
What is compassionate?
Earning a specialized professional certification not only improves a PT's clinical skills but also boosts this financial aspect of their career.
What is earning potential?
(salary/pay)
From pediatric toddlers to geriatric grandparents, this phrase describes the diverse patient population a PT serves.
What is all ages?
Constant standing, manual labor, and repetitive motions make up the physical demands, while dealing with this kind of patient behavior poses a mental hazard.
What is patient unpredictability?
The median annual salary for a PT in Alabama is roughly 5% lower than the national average, landing in this specific thousand-dollar range.
What is $97,000 to $99,500?
Since patients with the same injury respond differently, PTs must use this trait to closely observe small details and adjust care plans on the fly.
What is astute?
(attention to detail)
After getting a degree, this is the final mandatory step a graduate must pass before they can officially treat patients.
What is a state licensure exam?
Instead of focusing only on quick fixes, physical therapists guide patients toward this overarching, big-picture wellness goal.
What is long term health?
Chronic movement limitations treated by PTs are usually caused by the natural process of aging or by these medical disruptions.
What are illnesses?
Depending on experience, a physical therapist working specifically in Alabama can see their annual salary span from a low of $68,000 up to this top tier amount.
What is $128,000?
(or more)
Healing comes with many ups and downs; a PT needs this specific trait to adapt positively to change and help patients push through adversity.
What is resilient?
Because different medical facilities use unique titles for their "levels" of therapists, a PT should do this to understand their specific career growth path.
What is talk with their facility?