Physical Therapy Jobs - Reasons to Become a Physical Therapist

Physical therapy jobs can prove to be very fulfilling for most people. Not only do you get paid well, as most physical therapists make somewhere in the range of $65,000 to $85,000 on average, but you also get to make a difference in someone's life. Not everyone, including regular doctors and nurses, can go home at night and say that they got to help someone learn to walk again. Physical therapist jobs are not only beneficial in these regards, as there are many other reasons why someone should look into becoming a physical therapist.

Perhaps the biggest reason why therapy jobs are so loved is that you get to spend more time with each one of your patients. One of the biggest complaints from doctors that work for a typical HMO is that, on average, they only spend about 10 to 15 minutes talking with each of their patients. Physical therapists, on the other hand, usually will spend anywhere from 40 minutes to 1 hour, if not more, with each of their patients. Part of this has to do with the nature of physical therapy jobs. Since you are working primarily with a patient's muscles, trying to work them out enough to relieve stress and such, that type of work cannot be performed quickly.

Not only do physical therapy jobs allow you to spend more time with each of your patients, but there are plenty of other benefits that the job can offer. One of which is the fact that the job outlook for this is only going to go up as the years go by. With a bigger and bigger percentage of the baby boomer generation reaching their elder years, more physical therapists will be required to help alleviate things like back pain, muscle cramps and issues in these older patients. The Bureau of Labor estimates that employment prospects for therapy jobs are likely to increase 30% from 2008 to the year 2018.

Another benefit of physical therapy jobs is that you will have a lot of flexibility in your career choices. To start, you will likely end up working at a hospital or some other medical establishment, but as your experience increases, you can eventually branch out.