Plan Ahead Before Going To Graduate School For Physical Therapy

A career in physical therapy is extremely rewarding for most professionals in this field. You will get to help others to improve their functioning, overcoming illness, injury, or disabilities. You'll get to see your patients regain their normal lives after traumatic experiences, and you'll help them to reach their full potential. Obviously, a career in this field is very demanding and requires a great deal of education and training to prepare you. You will need to go to graduate school if you want to become a physical therapist, but are you ready? You'll need to know the prerequisites for entering a graduate program in physical therapy before you begin the application process.

Physical therapy is generally not a career you can enter on the strength of a Bachelor's degree. In fact, only graduate programs in physical therapy are accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Physical Therapy Education. The majority of accredited programs are doctorate degrees, as this is the most desirable degree to hold if you would like to become a physical therapist.

It is not necessary to have completed an undergraduate degree in physical therapy before pursuing your graduate program. Rather, you should have an academic background that has prepared you for your rigorous graduate coursework. Most students who go on to graduate school in the field have an undergraduate degree in an area of science.

Many schools require students to have taken at least a year of anatomy, chemistry, biology, and even physics during their Bachelor's degree program. These classes will serve as a jumping-off point for the rigorous science courses you will be taking in graduate school. After all, you cannot succeed in a musculoskeletal graduate course if you do not understand the basics of human anatomy. If you are still working on your undergraduate degree, keep graduate school prerequisites in mind when you select your courses.

Many physical therapy graduate schools expect students to be certified in First Aid and CPR. These skill-sets comprise medical training at its most basic. If you are still working on your undergraduate degree, you may have a chance to take CPR and First Aid classes at your college. If your school does not offer these courses, or if you have already completed your undergraduate degree, you can likely pursue CPR and First Aid training at your local community college.

Something else that can help you to be accepted into an excellent physical therapy program is work experience. You will probably not have any direct work experience in the field of physical therapy. What a school may look for, however, is experience related to working with people in many capacities. For example, a volunteer position at a hospital or even a customer service job can demonstrate that you have a good work ethic and people skills.

Many physical therapy departments of hospitals or health care centers ask for volunteers, which would be the best choice of work experience for you. Seek whatever opportunities you can find to spend a day shadowing a physical therapist or even directly assisting him or her in her duties.