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What Does It Take to Have a Career as a Physical Therapist Assistant?

By Kim Johnson

Republish: EasyPublish™ Published: 18Mar2012 Word count: 413 Viewed: 56 time(s) Get Free Content For Your Site

A physical therapist assistant works alongside physical therapists. They help patients to improve mobility through exercises and other therapeutic treatments. Their patients include injured athletes, disabled children, and accident survivors. However, a career as a physical therapist assistant is not a stepping stone to become a physical therapist. A physical therapist would need a minimum qualification of a Master's degree.

To become a trained physical therapist assistant, one would need to enroll in an accredited physical therapist assistant program recognized by the American Physical Therapy Association. Besides universities and colleges, there are online physical therapists assistant colleges for those who wish to study part time. Many people choose to enroll in an online program because college fees are becoming too expensive.

In the United States, there are many top online courses for physical therapist assistants. Before enrolling in either a college or an online program, you need to research on the reputation, the alumni, and job prospects of recent graduates. This is because there are many scammers out there that offer non-accredited programs. The best schools for physical therapist assistants are found in the states of California and Texas.

To ensure that your career as a physical therapist assistant continues to develop and grow, you will need the right personality and motivation besides the qualification. A physical therapist assistant needs to have a compassionate heart. This is because physical therapist assistants play a crucial part of a healing team where they help patients recover and improve from an illness of surgery. Besides that, a good physical therapist assistant would be one with high Emotional Quotient (EQ). This is because the job requires interaction and communication with patients who are constantly in pain or frustration during their treatments.

According to the Labor Department, the demand for physical therapist assistants will continue to grow from now till the year 2018. Therefore, physical therapist assistant's salary is also expected to increase over the years. At current, physical therapist assistants working at general hospitals earn an average annual income of $40,670. Those working at nursing facilities and home health care centers can earn an average annual income of $44,000 and $46,000 respectively.

Physical therapist assistants with more years of working experience will also receive a higher salary as compared to those who just graduated. Besides that, those who graduate from an accredited and well known school will be offered a higher salary as opposed to those who graduate by doing an online program.

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