Physical Therapy Students Can Look Forward to a Bright Future

In general, a health care degree is an excellent investment for the future these days. The market is huge, and capable hands are majorly in demand. That said, some fields of study are even more promising than others: among these is the field of physical therapy.

"The job outlook is very, very good for people in that field, for both physical therapists and physical therapist assistants," says Carrie Utic, human resources manager for Puget Sound's Apple Physical Therapy, to the NW Jobs blog. Education hurdles have made obtaining a degree more difficult, but have also by nature thinned out the herds of students competing on the job market afterward.

The most significant hurdle for students pursuing a physical therapy degree is the increased amount of education needed to practice. "Just a decade ago," states the article, "a bachelor's degree and licensing were enough for a physical therapist to get started." In 1999, master degrees became the norm, and by 2003 the requirements had shifted still further to doctorates. The extra schooling is not unwarranted: those three years of study help students to better understand practice law and even learn how to smoothly open and run a private practice.

Still, important or not, the extra study time has made many students less interested in pursuing physical therapy as a career path. Claude Ciancio, president and chief operating officer of Apple Physical Therapy, tells the article, "It's no longer as enticing as it used to be. It's actually a little harder to get people as interested in being physical therapists because of the financial realities."

However, for those students who do stick it out, the rewards can be great. Not only are employers quick to hire properly educated physical therapists, but signing bonuses and other incentives are not uncommon as "some of the ways that employers attract physical therapists." So what does this all mean? If you have the patience and the means to work through several years of training, you can expect to come out the other side with a very bright career path ahead.