What You'll Do

  • Plan, prepare, or carry out individually designed programs of physical treatment to maintain, improve, or restore physical functioning, alleviate pain, or prevent physical dysfunction in patients.
  • Perform and document an initial exam, evaluating data to identify problems and determine a diagnosis prior to intervention.
  • Evaluate effects of treatment at various stages and adjust treatments to achieve maximum benefit.
  • Administer manual exercises, massage, or traction to help relieve pain, increase patient strength, or decrease or prevent deformity or crippling.
  • Instruct patient and family in treatment procedures to be continued at home.
  • Confer with the patient, medical practitioners, or appropriate others to plan, implement, or assess the intervention program.
  • Review physician's referral and patient's medical records to help determine diagnosis and physical therapy treatment required.
  • Record prognosis, treatment, response, and progress in patient's chart or enter information into computer.
  • Obtain patients' informed consent to proposed interventions.
  • Discharge patient from physical therapy when goals or projected outcomes have been attained and provide for appropriate follow-up care or referrals.

Essential Skills

Reading Comprehension 4.0/5
Active Listening 4.0/5
Speaking 4.0/5
Critical Thinking 4.0/5
Social Perceptiveness 4.0/5
Service Orientation 4.0/5
Writing 3.88/5
Monitoring 3.88/5
Judgment and Decision Making 3.75/5
Time Management 3.62/5
Instructing 3.38/5
Complex Problem Solving 3.38/5

Career Fit Overview

Use this summary to understand the kind of profile this role rewards. It helps you judge whether this career looks like a stronger match than your current role, a nearby move worth exploring, or a broader path to compare more seriously.

Top passions

  • Helper: Supporting people and making a difference matters to you.
  • Analyst: Investigating problems and finding patterns keeps you engaged.
  • Maker: Building and fixing energizes you. You like tangible results and practical tools.

Common styles

Empathy, Cooperation, Attention to Detail, Dependability, Optimism

Want a personal read on fit? Take the free assessment and compare this career to your current role, nearby alternatives, and broader stronger-fit options.

Key Abilities

This career demands strong capabilities in the following areas:

Oral Comprehension 4.0/5
Written Comprehension 4.0/5
Oral Expression 4.0/5
Written Expression 3.88/5
Problem Sensitivity 3.88/5
Deductive Reasoning 3.88/5
Inductive Reasoning 3.88/5
Information Ordering 3.88/5

Technologies & Tools

Advantage Software Physical Therapy Advantage Biometrics video game software Cedaron Dexter Evaluation & Impairment Rating Clinicient Insight eClinicalWorks EHR software Exercise routine creation software Hands On Technology TheraWriter.PT Medical condition coding software Medical procedure coding software MediGraph MEDITECH software Microsoft Excel Microsoft Office software Microsoft Outlook Microsoft Word Patient charting software Prognosis Innovation Healthcare ChartAccess Recordkeeping software Rehab Documentation Company ReDoc Suite SpectraSoft AppointmentsCS

Work Environment & Strengths

Common Strengths for This Career

  • Empathy (High importance: 4.88/5)
  • Cooperation (High importance: 4.76/5)
  • Attention to Detail (High importance: 4.69/5)
  • Dependability (High importance: 4.69/5)
  • Optimism (High importance: 4.51/5)

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How to Become One

This career requires extensive preparation, typically including a graduate degree (Master's or Doctoral) and several years of experience. Most professionals in this field have invested significant time in education and training.

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Also Known As

This career is known by many different job titles across industries. Here are all the variations:

Acute Care PT (Acute Care Physical Therapist) Acute Physical Therapist (Acute PT) Cardiopulmonary Physical Therapist (Cardiopulmonary PT) Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) Geriatric Physical Therapist (Geriatric PT) Home Care Physical Therapist (Home Care PT) Home Health Physical Therapist (Home Health PT) Inpatient Physical Therapist (Inpatient PT) Kinesiotherapist Orthopedic Physical Therapist (Orthopedic PT) Outpatient Orthopedics Physical Therapist (Outpatient Ortho PT) Outpatient Physical Therapist (Outpatient PT) Outpatient Travel Physical Therapist (Outpatient Travel PT) Pediatric Physical Therapist (Pediatric PT) Physiotherapist Pulmonary Physical Therapist (Pulmonary PT) Registered Physical Therapist (RPT) Skilled Nursing Facility Physical Therapist (SNF PT) Sports Physical Therapist (Sports PT) Therapist Travel Physical Therapist (Travel PT)

Career Fit FAQs

Is this career a good fit for me

This page shows the role itself. To see personal fit, use the assessment to compare your interests, motivations, and strengths against this career and against the role you are in now.

Can this help if I want to stay in my field

Yes. Many people use career pages like this to compare nearby roles in the same field and see whether they need a full switch or a better-fit version of the work they already know.

What should I compare first

Start with the daily tasks, the preparation level, and the work-style signals on this page. Then use the assessment to see whether this role looks like a stronger fit than your current role or just a different title.