Career Search

Career search - the big picture of physical therapy

Are you in the midst of a career search? One of the best careers - untouched by recession - is waiting for you!

With so many different niches WITHIN the field of physical therapy, home health care has got to be the best! OK, I'm sure I'm a bit biased but, after 16 years of home health care physical therapy, you benefit from my experience!

Why home health care? Why not? Well, that's not fair...yet. You've done some research, haven't you? Whether you have or not, the big picture deserves recognition.

What's cool about the big picture is that you can tuck it away for the next 40 years and pull it out when you need get bored or burned out.

How Do I Know?

does 16 years in the field count?

When it comes to a career search, that's a great question! No, a crucial one! Basically, short of taking some career tests and all... you need to know what fits you and what you have to offer an employer. Know about yourself and about your career choice before setting off on your career search.

This will likely change over the years as you learn and experience physical therapy, but for now it will provide you with focus. And focus can tell you what career niche in physical therapy is best for you right now.

Home Health physical therapy is not for everyone...

I spend most of my days driving, sometimes walking across the assisted living facility hallway, sometimes an hour and a half between patients. I live an hour away from my office so that adds more drive time. If you like to be by yourself, listening to music or books on CD, day in and day out, home health physical therapy may be for you!

I need my social time but I do enjoy time alone to think and dream, plan and such. I love learning too, so if I'm not listening to a book on CD or my iPod, I'm deep in thought about my next invention. I manage to sneak my social time in when I stop by the office to finish up paper work. But, for me, it's still not enough time with co- workers! Home health PT is a lonely job - not for you if you are a social bird!

Despite some of the drawbacks, this niche has turned out to be the best career niche I've found with PT! Nice thing is that I'm not stuck here. I could change job focus tomorrow without having to go back to school for career change learning. Why should I? I've found the best career. I can hop from specialty to specialty if I get bored or burned out.

Home health care allows you to start out with the basic things you've learned in school, but you find out real quick that innovation is the key. Besides a few pieces of theraband, theratube, ankle weights, maybe a therapy ball if it fits in your car, you don't have much at all! You've got, well, you and the patient... BUT, you've got a ton of options in every home, you just need to learn how to spot them.

My secret?

Every patient weighs something! That weight is my weight stack! By using their body weight as resistance, you can turn many exercises into progressive resistive ones AND make them functional! That's all I need!

OK, some motivation would help! A huge frustration of mine is a generation or perhaps a socio-economic status of people who are happy to become one with their couch. This is why I have deviated from the typical home care that I used to implement.

Subscribe to our e-zine and discover what patients are expecting from their home health physical therapist.

If you are a mother or already working full time or even a student going back to school, home health care Physical Therapy offers you the flexibility and the pay that you may be looking for to keep up the bills, pick up the kids, attend classes, etc! Find out what kind of PT requirements you'll be looking at in your career search.

Keep dancing! You are one of millions looking to fulfill a niche, need and passion in your life. Physical Therapy is a great option for your career search - home care Physical Therapy is even better!

Make a monumental difference for your patients, their caregivers and you! See what others are saying about home care PT!