Question about international PT

[wjs010]

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Hello, all..I have made this post on here before, but I have to ask again because the regulations may have changed. My wife was a Brazilian PT...her specialty was respiratory. I have a few questions regarding this, because she is currently in a group of similar people in similar situations, and she heard that it recently became even harder for her to become a PT here in the US.

1. Can she even be a PT who specializes in respiratory here in the US? Or here, is it only respiratory therapy who does that? - this would obviously be devastating if the answer is no, because that was her specialty ...she doesn't want to just be a respiratory therapist, and that would actually require her to go back to school.
2. What would you say is literally the first step she needs to take in order to proceed to becoming a PT here? Should she start gathering her transcripts? She has a green card, so I don't know if that means she does or does not need to retake the TOEFL ( she already passed but it was in 2011)

I appreciate any advice, because it seems like this is a very difficult process. My wife is very stressed about it because friends in her group who have come here have either a) tried the NPTE many times and failed or b) passed, gotten a license, but can't find a job...could this possibly be because they are a foreign PT? Again thanks...We have left this issue on the back-burner for the past few years and it is getting really frustrating, so I will follow the advice of whoever is in the know.

 

[AlanWattsBlues]

The first step is probably to contact your state board and ask about the process.

Regarding difficulty getting a job, I'm guessing that having to find an employer who will sponsor a visa makes things much more difficult. If she has a green card, that's a help.

Regarding areas of practice... There is a cardiopulmonary specialization, so some people out there are doing it, but there aren't a whole lot. I've heard RTs are less expensive to employ to do essentially the same thing, so the work tends to go there.

 

[wjs010]

The first step is probably to contact your state board and ask about the process.

Regarding difficulty getting a job, I'm guessing that having to find an employer who will sponsor a visa makes things much more difficult. If she has a green card, that's a help.

Regarding areas of practice... There is a cardiopulmonary specialization, so some people out there are doing it, but there aren't a whole lot. I've heard RTs are less expensive to employ to do essentially the same thing, so the work tends to go there.

Thanks for the reply. In her case, she shouldn't have to worry about the visa sponsor because of the green card, I think. I'm a Med student so I don't know where I'll be for residency, so I guess I could contact multiple state boards to start. That is good news that cardiopulmonary exists. Is it an actual specialty?

 

[jesspt]

Yes, it's a specialty -http://www.abpts.org/home.aspx

You're wife won't be eligible to become a board certified specialist because in order to sit for the exam she has to have 2,000 documented direct patient hours in the area of her specialty.

Very few certified cardiopulmonary specialists exist - there were only 17 certified in this area last year.

She may be able to find a job in an outpatient cardiac rehab facility that is affiliated with a hospital, but it's my understanding that respiratory therapists pretty much do all of the inpatient cardiopulmonary rehab. I could be wrong. I work in outpatient ortho.

It sound like neither you or your wife know much about US physical therapy. There are a lot of resources available to you (www.apt.org, individual state physical therapy associations, individual state boards of physical therapy). You both need to become better educated on the requirements, which shouldn't be hard after looking at a few of those sources.