In our next article in this series, we will discuss salary, which can help you decide whether the cost of tuition, including loans, is worth it for you. So, now you know a bit more about the educational requirements. If you had to give a quick summary of the difference what would it be? I would like to reference you on our PTA guide here —. I have a bachelor degree in Kinesiology but since I graduated in I would have to take a lot of the prerequisites over.
Hi Stella, Thanks for your comment. Sounds like PTA would be a great path for you. Your starting salary as a PTA is great, and your student loans are low. It might be difficult, but nothing is impossible! Have you checked out the bridge programs? Thank you so much for posting this. But i am being discouraged because of people saying being a nurse is better for the pay and because there will always be jobs.
Any insight would help. I agree that there will always be jobs for nurses, but that is true for physical therapy as well! We have a very low unemployment rate, which is projected to either stay low or go lower. Another thing to consider is the length of education required.
Your salary will not go as far if you have more loans to pay off. One last thing you might consider is the typical schedule of each profession. Nursing care occurs around-the-clock in inpatient settings, whereas almost nobody gets physical therapy before 7 am or after 7 pm. Therefore, you will find that overnight shifts are common with nursing positions, and virtually non-existent with physical therapy jobs.
Jennifer — this is a very good article. It has helped put things into perspective a little more. I already have a BA in Fine Arts Graphic Design but am making a career change at the age of 26, still pretty young in my book.
Any insight or suggestions on this? Hi Josh- Thanks! My first question is whether or not you have student loan debt from your undergraduate degree, or any other debt for that matter. If it is a significant amount, personally, I would lean toward a PTA degree.
If you have no debt, then give serious consideration to the DPT. Either way, choose one or the other, but not PTA to PT, unless you have a really compelling reason to do so. I hope that helps! Let me know if you have any other questions. All the best, Jen. I hope you find the answer you need, but it was helpful seeing that someone else was in a similar situation and had the same BA as me.
Hello Jen, First I want to thank you for this article, the breakdown helps so much. I have an Associate in Applied Sciences. My question is, how long would it take me to get the proper degree to become a PTA? And where could I take the classes needed to make this happen near Shawnee, Oklahoma?
In general, you can expect most general education courses English, Math, Psychology, Sciences, etc. Hello Jennifer! My interest is with those who are athletic and helping them with their injuries and recovery process.
My target group being primarily professional dancers, gymnast, cheerleaders, etc is ideal. For DPT, I see how intense the school load is and the time needed to invest. I dread the idea of going through years of schooling while throwing a family in there later on and how it could weigh me down. Or my background and thought process and interest, could pursuing my DPT be a better path?
Thank you! Your insight has been great so far. Rehabilitation administration could be in a hospital, skilled nursing facility, corporate- or hospital-owned outpatient clinic, or home health care agencies, among others. The clinic ownership refers to opening your own physical therapy clinic. Keep in mind that there are folks who specialize in health care administration who have never earned a clinical degree, and vice versa PTs without business or finance degrees that run departments and own clinics.
One difference between personal training and physical therapy is that insurance pays for patients to get physical therapy. As a personal trainer, your payment base is almost exclusively people who can afford it. As a physical therapist your payment base is people with insurance. There are some PTs that operate on a cash-only basis, but even then, some of those patients will still submit paperwork for reimbursement after paying cash to the PT.
When the economy is in a downturn, or you operate in economically depressed areas of the country, it can be difficult to earn a living as a personal trainer. This means that personal training ends up being more of a want, and physical therapy more of a need. If your doctor prescribes medication, you feel compelled to take it; same with physical therapy. If you take a look around, there are probably a lot more physical therapy clinics in your area than personal trainer clinics owned by individuals.
Most people find personal trainers at their gym. But, there is a huge and growing need for physical therapy clinics in most areas of the country, as more people are added to insurance rolls under the Affordable Care Act, and physicians need places to refer them to. Additionally, most folks with injuries seek out, or are directed by their physician, to a physical therapist.
Insurance will not reimburse and laws generally do not allow a personal trainer to diagnose and treat a musculoskeletal disorder; that function in the health care system falls to the PT. This is not to say that one profession is better than the other.
In fact, this combination you alluded to wellness, total health, rehabilitation, etc. Having a PT degree in addition to massage therapy, for example, means that you can extend your payment base by offering both. Once physical therapy insurance benefits are exhausted, the patient can become a self-pay personal training or massage client. If you feel that obtaining a PT or PTA degree is out of your reach for financial or other reasons, maybe you can seek to partner with a PT clinic.
They provide the physical therapy, and you provide the personal training wellness, total body fitness, etc. So my question is that having bachelor degree of Exercise science have advantage when i getting a job as PTA? The answer is … it depends! Each employer will have different qualifications that they look for. The advantage is that you have additional depth of knowledge in the exercise physiology portion of physical therapy treatment.
I advise you to speak with employers in your area that you would be happy working for and getting some opinions on how they see your degree. I hope you can help with my situation. I want to be personal with patients and hands on.
So PTA sounds more appealing but I also am indecisive because might as well Persue pt doctorate if it means being able to provide my future family. I would greatly appreciate your opinion thank you. I think the best way for you to find out what you want to do is to experience it first hand. I pursued a business degree, because I know how versatile it is, that it can even be applied in the medical field.
My questions are: 1 Assuming I wanted to pursue in PT School, with my poor grades in my previous science classes that I took back in , do they still matter? I ask this third question because I know that some nurses go into the field, then go back to school to become a Nurse Practitioner almost the same as a Doctor. Even if I had that information, much of the answers to your questions would still depend on the school you want to apply to. My best advice is to keep digging and doing a little more research.
Start with the schools you are interested in and check their websites for requirements. Also, spend as much time as you can in multiple physical therapy environments, speaking with PTs and PTAs about this career path. If you keep reading the articles in this series, you can find answers to some of your other questions i. Hello, This is a great site! I have a situation for which I need your expert advice, please. I have a Kinesiology undergrad degree.
Currently, I am enrolled in the DPT program. I successfully passed three trimesters. What could be my options now? Please advice. Hi Al- What are the options are you considering?
Starting over at a new DPT program? A PTA program? Trying to transfer credits to another DPT program? This article has been very helpful and I appreciate you taking the time to write it. I had never heard of PTA until the end of my Junior year and by then it was too late.
So I just finished my degree and decided not to go onto graduate school because I was ready to be done with school for a little bit and I wanted to start working to pay off some of my debt. During those next few months after graduation when I was working at a bank, doing nothing what I went to school for, I started thinking more and more about the PTA program.
I thought I could complete the program in a shorter period of time just because a lot of the classes I took in undergrad were also required in the PTA program but the couple schools I talked to said that I would still need the full 2 years to complete their program.
I am really passionate about Physical Therapy and helping people but I am concerned about the DPT program because of all the debt. Just wanted to see if you had any other advice you could send my way. Just trying to learn more about it and the different programs. If I could go to school and still work that would be ideal! The only way to find them is to look up the curriculum at each school and see how their courses are arranged.
Yes, PTAs are employed in the school system. But, I believe there are more occupational therapy OT assistant positions than PTA positions in most school districts. So, if you really want to be in the school system, I would advise checking out OT too. Hi Jennifer! This is an amazing life changing article for myself. When I moved I waited out a whole year to avoid the out of state tuition. Anyway, I am now about to enter my last 30 credits beginning this spring so I will be graduating in Spring , ill be 30 then.
I will also have about k in undergraduate debt :. I do need to work to make ends meet as I live with my GF and we split bills so it does help. Which is absolutely affordable however, as you said I would still need to make some type of money to make ends meet but my gf is on board following me so again it does makes thing less expensive.
I figure pulling out about k in loans for 3 years plus cheap tution and my current loans would all amount to approx. By the time I am done with the program I will be about The demand for physical therapist assistants is increasing due to an aging population baby-boom generation. Many baby boomers are entering the age for heart attacks, strokes and mobility-related injuries that require physical therapy and rehabilitation. Speaking of…. Getting into PTA school is therefore much easier to get into than PT school, which is a notoriously difficult nut to crack given the fierce competitiveness, requirements and the incredibly strict limits that colleges place on the number of students they can take per class.
Nebraska Methodist College recently unveiled a state-of-the-art lab for physical therapist assistant and occupational therapy students. PTAs interact regularly with clients. It takes a special kind of individual to be a PTA , someone who can talk freely with just about everyone and really listen when clients express their hopes, frustrations and doubts.
That compassion component is critical for PTAs to put into practice on a daily basis while following the plan of care prescribed by the Physical Therapist.
While a PT will speak with a client near the start of the process and check in at certain key points to monitor progress, patient interaction time is actually far below that of a PTA. If working with people is what drives you to this industry, then becoming a PTA might be your best choice. You may not be making all of the decisions about therapy, but you will often be the one putting that therapy into practice. PTs, on the other hand, trade a longer time in school, including much heftier student loans, for a higher salary, and getting into that school is tougher.
You will be entrusted with making decisions regarding optimal therapy for patients and running a clinic that conforms to modern healthcare best practices. You act as a manager, with all the attendant benefits that typically confers. I have heard about awesome vacation destinations and campground recommendations, and even donut shop recommendations!
We discuss if the Lions will win a Super Bowl in my life time or when the Tigers will win another World Series to the highs and lows of our Fantasy football season. During hunting season, it is fun to see patients light up as they talk about the huge deer that was just out of range and all the other wildlife they saw that day.
These are just some of the things that bring me joy in doing my work and I hope through these conversations and encouragement we are able to ease some of fearfulness and discomfort that goes along with recovering from an injury.
0コメント