Questions about Physical Therapy

[MrBiomechanic]

I am interested in Physical Therapy as a career but I have a few questions.

1) I have heard that OT's make significantly more money than PT's because there are fewer OT's than PT's, is this true? Is there any chance of making 6 figures while working as a PT?

2) I have not been able to find much about this on the internet, but I have heard many people discounting the effectiveness of Physical Therapy. Do you feel that you are making a difference in patient's lives and helping them to regain their mobility?

3) Are you able to have a life outside of PT or does a lot of work come home with you?

4) Is a direct-entry program a better idea than the traditional bachelors followed by DPT?

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[swolecat]

According to the bureau of labor statistics, average annual wages for PTs are about 5,000$ more than OT.

I don't think you bring much home with you as a practicing PT but I'm just a student (we obviously do)

 

[Schland]

I'm a new grad so I don't know a lot yet but I will answer the best I can.

1)I'm not aware of the salary difference between PT and OT. Making 6 figures right out of school is very unlikely. There are some PTs who do get into the 6 figures. Some examples: work 2 jobs (per diem some where or home health on the side are examples.. or even becoming an adjunct professor at a school is something I know people have done); become a director which generally means much more stress, less clinical work, but more money; work in a rural area.

2) Depends on the setting and on your skill. For example consider outpatient; there are PTs who do things that make patients "feel good" estim and ice everyone, never give them too much weight or they may get sore and not come back (from what I saw on my clinicals these people tend to be frequent fliers and keep going back to PT because the pain comes back)... but there are other PTs who challenge patients and educate them on why they have pain and give the patient more challenging but more effective exercises. There is still a whole section of outpatient which deals with post op patient and I would say the PT is very important in those patient's recovery. But there are still other settings. On the inpatient side the PT can be the first person to help someone out of bed, walk, regain mobility, etc after a major event (stroke, brain injury, surgery, etc). You better believe you make a huge difference in these patient's lives. Yet, there are still other settings. I would say how effective you are and how much of a difference you make is mainly up to what kind of PT you want to be and what specific facility you choose to work in (id say there are likely good and bad facilities for every setting).

3) I personally haven't started working full time yet so I will comment on from I know from others. Most PTs I know still have a life out of PT including time to see friends, work out, have kids, have hobbies, etc. I'm not aware of many PTs who bring work home with them. However, if you are a director you are more likely to have more work to deal with and more work (and calls from your employees) will come home with you.

4) As far as I'm aware most (if not all?) programs require a bachelors before a DPT unless it is one of those few schools that do a combo 3 yr undergrad 3 yr DPT which I know nothing about.

Hope I helped.

 

[DPTRVTCCRP]

I am interested in Physical Therapy as a career but I have a few questions.

1) I have heard that OT's make significantly more money than PT's because there are fewer OT's than PT's, is this true? Is there any chance of making 6 figures while working as a PT?

2) I have not been able to find much about this on the internet, but I have heard many people discounting the effectiveness of Physical Therapy. Do you feel that you are making a difference in patient's lives and helping them to regain their mobility?

3) Are you able to have a life outside of PT or does a lot of work come home with you?

4) Is a direct-entry program a better idea than the traditional bachelors followed by DPT?

1. It depends on the setting and area. Yes there is a chance to make 6 figures - go to an area most PT's don't want to go, for example a recruiter called me this week offering me $90,000/yr with a $14,000 sign on bonus - in El Paso, TX.

2. Physical Therapy can do a lot of good, but one must participate and follow the recommendations of the therapist, this is with any discipline, even OT

3. I have a great life outside of work, I'm building a house, going on vacations and volunteering in many activities

4. I don't know what you mean by "direct entry" all programs require a bachelor's degree - you will graduate a Doctor of Physical Therapy.

 

[CristianoParese]

I would not recommend an entry-level program, as I had no firm desire to apply to a DPT program until I had my bachelor's and got some industry experience in various settings (hospital, outpatient ortho sports clinic, aquatics, group exercise, personal training).
I also am just about to start working and can't comment on the other questions from direct experience, though I wouldn't encourage you to pursue the profession primarily due to having a 6-fig salary. You won't make it far and the APTA advocates for ethical standards that includes providing pro-bono services. The money is definitely there though. My goal for first year salary is over $80k before taxes.

 

[DesertPT]

1) I have heard that OT's make significantly more money than PT's because there are fewer OT's than PT's, is this true?

http://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/physical-therapists.htm#tab-5
http://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/occupational-therapists.htm#tab-5

If you want to be in any one of the medical professions, you should develop a habit of looking supposed "facts" up when people tell them to you. The fact that a statement sounds true or that the explanation "makes sense" means very little. In the age of Google there is really no need for a question like this.

 

[DesertPT]

2) I have not been able to find much about this on the internet, but I have heard many people discounting the effectiveness of Physical Therapy.

There are good treatments and bad ones. Lots of bad PTs waste peoples' time with things that don't work. Lots of great PTs know what works and change peoples' lives.

http://www.pedro.org.au/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed
http://scholar.google.com/

http://www.apta.org/
http://www.moveforwardpt.com/Default.aspx

As I can tell you from my own experience as an often less-than compliant PT patient, in a large majority of cases where people say PT didn't help them that much, its because they didn't follow their own plan of care when they weren't in the clinic. Obviously this is more prevalent in outpatient therapy than inpatient. And obviously there are exceptions where people really needed to be refereed for a different treatment, because PT is not what they most needed.

The things that PT most commonly treats are also often things that by their very nature take a long time to recover from. People, including myself, usually want a fast fix for physiological processes that there just isn't a fast fix for.

Like so many things of value life, both PTs and PT patients get out of therapy what they put into it.