Dpt or np?

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contemplating2005

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So I was interested in physical therapy and was working in pt office in the beginning. Now couple of things that got me dissuaded from the profession was the debt to income ratio and some negativity with coworkers about the profession. The PTs I worked with said do something else because of the lack of reimbursement with the profession and how when you add in all the time spent with paper work etc.. They don't make much. One PT actually said there is no money in the field. In terms of the work it was okay. The field seems pretty low stress which I really like. So began exploring my options.

Now for nursing. Do I want to be a nurse? No. I figure I will work as a nurse for one year and then go to nurse practitioner school. So about the field is I like how there is plenty of specialties I can work in. Lots of job opportunities, high potential salary, more states allowing autonomy. Great demand for providers. So everything from an objective standpoint sounds good. Obviously this is a bit higher stress career and it also can be hard depending on the environment you work in. I really like the difference in specialties so I figure I would go into a field like dermatology. The debt to income ratio is pretty good with the nursing route while PT route is questionable.

It is hard to make a decision. I spent many years just working exploring my options pay down my loans and make a decision. I still can't decide since there is pros and cons with both. Any disgruntled or happy PTs and why?

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Every professional except maybe Dentists have said negative things about each field I’ve shadowed, from podiatry to Pharmacy, to optometry or even becoming a physician. What matters is that you do your research, understand what kind of debt you are expecting, what you can expect to make, budget out how much you plan on living on, ability to pay said debt off, and that you actually like the field you are going into. You don’t have to be in love with your field, but you have to be willing to wake up every morning wanting to go to work.

To me, physical therapy was great, but I was disapointedd with how restrictive the field was in terms of treatment options. If a patient needs medications to ease the pain, PTs cannot write them, if a patient needs corrective surgery, the PT cannot perform them.

Why not look into MD or DO school with the option of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation? Either that or if you can’t get into MD/DO, podiatry school, which has a big emphasis on lower extremitites and biomechanics. There is a lot of extra stuff that comes with being a pod, but you can choose to ignore it if you make a name for yourself in sports medicine.
 
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So, my concern is that you said you don't want to be a nurse point blank. So becoming a nurse seems like a weird choice for a career? There are lots of jobs that look great on paper but are going to be terrible for an individual if they don't like it. Looking past that, I have met numerous PTs and the debt is stressful, but they all seemed to be living pretty comfortably. I'm a pre-PT student so obviously I don't have as much insight into the issues of the profession. However, after I graduated from college I was looking at going into things like social work and public health (community wellness). I would get a master's (less debt anyway) to potentially earn like 30k a year. So, I get the angst from the PT community (it is totally valid) but if you go to a reasonably priced school, you can live comfortably off a PT salary. Honestly, there are so many professions that get paid worse and don't have the job availability PT does. In my opinion, a career needs to have the objective things you like about it (such as pay, work environment, etc.) but you also need to like what you do. There are a myriad of healthcare professions--I would recommend looking at being a PA if you haven't already, if you want to avoid doing nurse-y stuff.
 
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It seems like you are very focused on pay and not focused at all on what you want to do every day. PT and nursing are worlds apart, yet you are considering both. Decide what you’d rather do every working day, then worry about salary. You can make plenty as either an NP or a PT, so the debt shouldn’t be your deciding factor.
 
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I'll raise my hand as a disgruntled PT. I like being a PT, please don't misunderstand that. Was is worth a doctorate level of education? Heck no. I'm not sure most days why we left the bachelor level for this field. Sure, maybe it will change in the future, but right now we are kind of at the bottom of the pile. Direct access isn't really happening in my world, I can't prescribe pain meds, I can't refer for imaging, I can't put someone on work restrictions, for many of my patients I am handed a document of post surgical rehab that I must follow pretty closely. The reimbursement is fair for the work I perform but not fair for the education level and time I put in.

If I had a do over, I would consider being a PA with an orthopedics speciality or MD/DO.
 
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If you like biomechanics and lower extremity, you could have also do DPM (podiatry). They can do everything you mentioned, but just with foot and ankle.


I'll raise my hand as a disgruntled PT. I like being a PT, please don't misunderstand that. Was is worth a doctorate level of education? Heck no. I'm not sure most days why we left the bachelor level for this field. Sure, maybe it will change in the future, but right now we are kind of at the bottom of the pile. Direct access isn't really happening in my world, I can't prescribe pain meds, I can't refer for imaging, I can't put someone on work restrictions, for many of my patients I am handed a document of post surgical rehab that I must follow pretty closely. The reimbursement is fair for the work I perform but not fair for the education level and time I put in.

If I had a do over, I would consider being a PA with an orthopedics speciality or MD/DO.
 
I can’t wait for the flood of NPs to drive down their own salary to $95k, then $90k, then $85k. It’s just way too easy to “upgrade” from RN to NP.
 
If you like biomechanics and lower extremity, you could have also do DPM (podiatry). They can do everything you mentioned, but just with foot and ankle.
Agree! I would have liked podiatry too.
 
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SDN (and the internet in general) will talk you out of literally every health profession in existence. It is important to be informed, but realize that all but a few hundred million of the approximately 100 billion people that have lived on the earth chose their field of labor without the internet and they all worked every day until they got old or died, just like you will.

Forums are a place for disgruntled people to air their grievances, and a very large percentage of the population dislikes their job so there is no shortage of posters with keyboards at the ready. Forums also feature a lot of people who don't actually know what they are talking about acting like they know what they are talking about (myself included). On the other hand, people who are content with their job typically spend very little time telling others on the internet how generally content they are.

Thus when one is at a stage in life of needing to choose a profession, as a general rule of thumb I'd say forums should be avoided, or if you must read, considered with a very large grain of salt.

I will say it seems that Facebook groups related to physical therapy are generally much more positive than other forums. So probably good to spend some time there as well to balance things out if you are unable to resist the allure of message boards.
 
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If I had to do it over a third time, I’d go into software or data science.
 
I currently practice as an orthopedic physical therapist and a nurse practitioner. The one thing to keep in mind is that both professions will provide you a fairly good amount of debt. I practiced as a PT for 5 years and decided to go into nursing for primary care (with an end goal of primary care sports medicine). PT is a fantastic profession; at the end of the day, while I LOVED orthopedics and sports medicine, I loved primary care and emergency medicine even more. Being able to treat patients on both ends of the spectrum (rehab <-> primary care <-> emergency care) has been phenomenal. Though, grass is always greener on the other side. A 2009 Medscape survey revealed that ~60% of physicians would not do it again. They have the highest level of autonomy and the highest level of pay and more than half would do something different. That speaks volumes. PT has one of the highest job satisfaction ratings out of any profession and there is a reason why: solid patient to patient interaction, good hours, usually don't work weekends, decent pay, etc. Sometimes that's worth more than autonomy depending on what you value.
 
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I can’t wait for the flood of NPs to drive down their own salary to $95k, then $90k, then $85k. It’s just way too easy to “upgrade” from RN to NP.
Not going to happen to someone like myself my friend... Unfortunately with this opioid epidemic I will be employed for quite some time. As a psychiatric nurse practitioner and addiction specialist I make $150 per hour approximately 300k/annually...
 
If I had to do it over a third time, I’d go into software or data science.

eh, I actually did that instead of going to PT school a few years back, and I'm considering reapplying this year (got into several programs in 2015 but couldn't justify the cost, in a much better position now). The money is good but the mental/physical grind of software development is brutal.
 
The money is good but the mental/physical grind of software development is brutal.

Good to see you back... I made that journey (software to PT) in 2010 and have not regretted it one bit, esp. when I meet my former colleagues for lunch. They all look haggard and stressed. What good is $$$ in the bank if you're dead, or in a wheelchair because of a heart attack or stroke?
 
Good to see you back... I made that journey (software to PT) in 2010 and have not regretted it one bit, esp. when I meet my former colleagues for lunch. They all look haggard and stressed. What good is $$$ in the bank if you're dead, or in a wheelchair because of a heart attack or stroke?

Nice to hear from you! So many familiar usernames on this forum (I spent a lot of time on it back in 2014 and 2015). That's good to hear, and I am glad you are happy you made the switch.

The ironic part of my journey from matriculating pt student to software development was that my first job was for a standing desk company. And to twist the knife a little bit deeper, my second job was for a home health software company where I spent many hours developing the UI for skilled nurse notes, therapy notes etc.

Software development has been a grind, and while I enjoy coding...I'm just not sure if I can keep it up for another 20 years (management doesn't appeal to me as software development, in general, is grindy no matter what way you slice it). Anyway, I'll be taking a fairly substantial pay cut but I'm still very interested in the field and still find myself intrigued (I've also been in PT twice since I gave my seat up, to add to the irony). What are your thoughts?
 
What are your thoughts?

For me, the "burning bush moment" came in 2009 when I realized that the software I was working so hard on, would be obsolete in 5 years' time. Case in point: WordStar was the king of word processors at one time. Now, nobody remembers it, let alone uses it. At least with PT, I have the opportunity to make a small but lasting difference in people's lives. It's quite satisfying when a patient tells you that s/he now can walk or do some activity with no (or with less) pain.

But don't delude yourself, the pay cut will be significant. Mine was halved. So plan for it carefully: save like crazy, explore grants/scholarships/forgivable loans from your state, etc. I used that last avenue, and only had to pay about $16K total for my degree. Also try to develop alternate streams of income that you can continue to do while in school.

Nothing says we have to be a PT for the rest of our lives. So far I am still enjoying it; the day I get tired of it, I'll explore other careers. Life is short, and I don't want to have any "what if" thoughts when I lay on my deathbed. ;-)

One more thing: the anatomy and physiology knowledge you'll gain through PT school is extremely valuable when it comes to your own health. I have been injury-free when doing workouts. Several of my high school classmates and I had a reunion this past weekend; let's simply say that none of them would be able to run 400 yards even if chased by a hungry lion...
 
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For me, the "burning bush moment" came in 2009 when I realized that the software I was working so hard on, would be obsolete in 5 years' time. Case in point: WordStar was the king of word processors at one time. Now, nobody remembers it, let alone uses it. At least with PT, I have the opportunity to make a small but lasting difference in people's lives. It's quite satisfying when a patient tells you that s/he now can walk or do some activity with no (or with less) pain.

But don't delude yourself, the pay cut will be significant. Mine was halved. So plan for it carefully: save like crazy, explore grants/scholarships/forgivable loans from your state, etc. I used that last avenue, and only had to pay about $16K total for my degree. Also try to develop alternate streams of income that you can continue to do while in school.

Nothing says we have to be a PT for the rest of our lives. So far I am still enjoying it; the day I get tired of it, I'll explore other careers. Life is short, and I don't want to have any "what if" thoughts when I lay on my deathbed. ;-)

One more thing: the anatomy and physiology knowledge you'll gain through PT school is extremely valuable when it comes to your own health. I have been injury-free when doing workouts. Several of my high school classmates and I had a reunion this past weekend; let's simply say that none of them would be able to run 400 yards even if chased by a hungry lion...

Great points. I really do enjoy "coding" but the software development aspect of programming just makes me want to die a little inside. Agile this, waterfall that...endless emails from product owners asking for x feature to pushed in on a Friday at 5pm. I work almost every weekend, so thank god I am a contractor at the moment.

I'll be able to head into PT school with a paid off car and much smaller debt profile than back in 2015 (no cc debt, and about half of the undergraduate debt I had owed previously). And thankfully I'm in Texas now, so I could potentially attend Angelo State for somewhere in the mid to late 20k range for tuition. Anyway, I'll stop hijacking this thread and will keep you updated on what I end up doing. Appreciate the advice either way.
 
Scrum... agile... waterfall... use cases... error-handling... I am so glad I don't have to deal with that stuff any more!
 
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