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Job Definition
View MovieAssess, plan, organize, and participate in rehabilitative programs that improve mobility, relieve pain, increase strength, and decrease or prevent deformity of patients suffering from disease or injury.
Job Zone

Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed

A bachelor's degree is the minimum formal education required for these occupations. However, many also require graduate school. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D. (law degree).

Interests
Social - Social occupations frequently involve working with, communicating with, and teaching people. These occupations often involve helping or providing service to others.
Realistic - Realistic occupations frequently involve work activities that include practical, hands-on problems and solutions. They often deal with plants, animals, and real-world materials like wood, tools, and machinery. Many of the occupations require working outside, and do not involve a lot of paperwork or working closely with others.
Investigative - Investigative occupations frequently involve working with ideas, and require an extensive amount of thinking. These occupations can involve searching for facts and figuring out problems mentally.
Knowledge
Medicine and Dentistry - Knowledge of the information and techniques needed to diagnose and treat human injuries, diseases, and deformities. This includes symptoms, treatment alternatives, drug properties and interactions, and preventive health-care measures.
Therapy and Counseling - Knowledge of principles, methods, and procedures for diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of physical and mental dysfunctions, and for career counseling and guidance.
Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
Education and Training - Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
Biology - Knowledge of plant and animal organisms, their tissues, cells, functions, interdependencies, and interactions with each other and the environment.
Psychology - Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.
English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
Sociology and Anthropology - Knowledge of group behavior and dynamics, societal trends and influences, human migrations, ethnicity, cultures and their history and origins.
Skills
Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
Instructing - Teaching others how to do something.
Time Management - Managing one's own time and the time of others.
Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
Learning Strategies - Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things.
Science - Using scientific rules and methods to solve problems.
Active Learning - Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
Monitoring - Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
Reading Comprehension - Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.
Tasks
Participate in community and community agency activities and help to formulate public policy.
Construct, maintain and repair medical supportive devices.
Direct group rehabilitation activities.
Obtain patients' informed consent to proposed interventions.
Plan, prepare and carry out individually designed programs of physical treatment to maintain, improve or restore physical functioning, alleviate pain and 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 and appropriate others to plan, implement and 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.
Discharge patient from physical therapy when goals or projected outcomes have been attained and provide for appropriate follow-up care or referrals.
Test and measure patient's strength, motor development and function, sensory perception, functional capacity, and respiratory and circulatory efficiency and record data.
Identify and document goals, anticipated progress and plans for reevaluation.
Wages

In 2008, the California average annual wage was $83,180.00.

Most people employed in this occupation were paid between $53,950.00 and $111,560.00.

Outlook

During 2006, there were approximately 14,800 people employed in this field in California. It is projected that there will be 19,200 employed in 2016. This occupation will have about 440 openings due to growth and about 180 replacement openings for approximately 620 total annual openings. This occupation .

Colleges and Training
Below are college programs that are generally associated with this occupation. To view colleges that offer these programs, click on the titles below.
Physical Therapy/Therapist - A program that prepares individuals to alleviate physical and functional impairments and limitations caused by injury or disease through the design and implementation of therapeutic interventions to promote fitness and health. Includes instruction in functional anatomy and physiology, kinesiology, neuroscience, pathological physiology, analysis of dysfunction, movement dynamics, physical growth process, management of musculoskeletal disorders, clinical evaluation and measurement, client assessment and supervision, care plan development and documentation, physical therapy modalities, rehabilitation psychology, physical therapy administration, and professional standards and ethics.
Similar Occupations
Child, Family, and School Social Workers - Provide social services and assistance to improve the social and psychological functioning of children and their families and to maximize the family well-being and the academic functioning of children. May assist single parents, arrange adoptions, and find foster homes for abandoned or abused children. In schools, they address such problems as teenage pregnancy, misbehavior, and truancy. May also advise teachers on how to deal with problem children.
Respiratory Therapists - Assess, treat, and care for patients with breathing disorders. Assume primary responsibility for all respiratory care modalities, including the supervision of respiratory therapy technicians. Initiate and conduct therapeutic procedures; maintain patient records; and select, assemble, check, and operate equipment.
Athletic Trainers - Evaluate, advise, and treat athletes to assist recovery from injury, avoid injury, or maintain peak physical fitness.
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