Physical Therapist Salary

A physical therapist – also called a physiotherapist, is a professional health care provider whose job is to develop, maintain or restore functionality and movement to the body, relieve pain, and prevent permanent loss of movement and functionality through the use of a rehabilitating program. When movement is being lost or has been lost because of a person’s age, injury, or a disease, a physical therapist will provide treatment to strengthen the problematic area so that it can properly function.

Physical therapists can dedicate themselves to any one of several specialty physical therapy areas including:

• Cardiopulmonary – Treatment and rehabilitation for those that have had heart or lung surgery.
• Geriatric – This focuses on problems faced by the elderly such as arthritis, osteoporosis, etc.
• Neurological – Deals with the problems of the nervous system, and brain or spinal cord injury.
• Orthopedic – Aids the rehabilitation of the muscular and skeletal systems from disorders, surgery and injuries.
• Pediatric – focuses on the early detection and treatment of problems that may face infants, children and teens.

The requirements for become a physical therapist will vary from place to place; some countries will accept basic education gained from working in a hospital or clinic, while others will require a doctoral degree; of course the position that a physical therapist is qualified to work in and will be hired to work in will vary depending on the kind of certification he/she has. In the U.S. persons will often require a doctoral degree as well as a license that is issued upon successful completion of the National Physical Therapy Examination.

A physical therapist’s salary ranges from $50,000 to $81,000 per year. The amount that a physical therapist is paid will be determined by his/her qualifications, years of experience and place of employment; naturally a person with a Doctoral degree will earn more than a person just leaving school with an Associate’s degree, and first-world countries will pay more than a second or third-world country. Even within the same country we know that wages will vary from one employer to the.

Physical therapists can find jobs in a company, private practice, hospital, non-profit organization, school, sports team, government or self employment. In the sports industry especially, physical therapists are very important; major sports personalities and teams will typically have their own physical therapist on hand at all times to treat any injuries the instant they occur since early treatment can decrease the degree and impact of any injury received.

Compared to other careers such as marketing, physical therapy is definitely not the most rewarding where money is concerned but for a person whose desire and purpose is to help develop, improve or restore a person’s quality of life, the money is secondary as the reward of helping another person far exceeds everything else. However, physical therapists do make more than some – for example nurses, as physical therapy is considered a specialized area and specialists in any line of work earns more than their counterparts in non-specialized areas.