Physical Therapists
"I remember that day as if it were yesterday, not ten years ago. I was playing a soccer match with my friends and injured my knee — I couldn't move, and I thought it was just a simple sprain, nothing more. I never expected to be diagnosed with a complete tear of my ACL. At the time, I didn't really understand the nature of my injury, and I was shocked when the ER doctor at the hospital told me I'd need surgery in a few months." That's how the young Canadian Keith O'Connor described his ordeal with his torn ACL and the severe pain he felt in his knee after the injury — to the point that he could no longer move without crutches. But all of that changed completely after a doctor advised him to visit a physical therapist. O'Connor said the physical therapist was the only one who explained to him the nature of his injury and what he'd need to become fit enough for surgery. O'Connor then underwent a number of physical therapy sessions that helped him build up the strength he needed in his knee before the surgery and reduce the severity of the pain, until, a few months later, he was able to walk on his own again and live his life normally. When we talk about physical therapists and what their work involves, we're talking about the medical specialty concerned with reducing the severity of pain felt by patients suffering from acute and chronic conditions like cancer, allergies, obesity, bone pain, digestive or heart diseases, and other troubling illnesses. Physical therapists put patients through certain types of natural treatments, such as: herbal remedies, massage, acupuncture, exercise, and dietary programs. These treatments help the body regain its health and reduce feelings of fatigue and exhaustion, and in many cases they can be the only path to recovery without the need for surgery. In the paragraphs ahead, you'll learn more about the nature of the physical therapist profession, and what you'd need to do to one day become like the doctor who changed young Keith O'Connor's life.
Meet the Writer: Waleed Abo Omiraa
What You'll Actually Do
The core tasks and responsibilities that fill a typical day.
- Plan, prepare, or carry out individually designed programs of physical treatment to maintain, improve, or restore physical functioning, alleviate pain, or 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, or appropriate others to plan, implement, or 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.
- Obtain patients' informed consent to proposed interventions.
- 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, or respiratory or circulatory efficiency and record data.
- Identify and document goals, anticipated progress, and plans for reevaluation.
- Provide information to the patient about the proposed intervention, its material risks and expected benefits, and any reasonable alternatives.
- Direct, supervise, assess, and communicate with supportive personnel.
- Administer treatment involving application of physical agents, using equipment, moist packs, ultraviolet or infrared lamps, or ultrasound machines.
- Teach physical therapy students or those in other health professions.
- Evaluate, fit, or adjust prosthetic or orthotic devices or recommend modification to orthotist.
- Provide educational information about physical therapy or physical therapists, injury prevention, ergonomics, or ways to promote health.
- Refer clients to community resources or services.
- Conduct or support research and apply research findings to practice.
- Participate in community or community agency activities or help to formulate public policy.
- Construct, maintain, or repair medical supportive devices.
- Inform patients and refer to appropriate practitioners when diagnosis reveals findings outside physical therapy.