Have you ever experienced the work of a physical therapist, also called a rehabilitation physical therapist? It is a miracle how this profession works. All sorts of things can happen to humans physically, such as a car injury, a stroke, or a fall at home. Each of these things could seem very minor, but each has the ability to turn a life around. Coffee making is a simple task, taken for granted, but perhaps today your hands do not want to cooperate and you cannot make it. Yesterday you could walk and today the right leg just does not get the message because you have had a stroke. Walking is not happening. The doctor might have determined you will never walk again. Therapists will help you say you can. There is not doubt in their eyes.
Believing in the patient might be one of the easier parts of a therapist's job, but it is very important. The therapist believes in the day-to-day work he or she does and somehow gets the patients to believe it too. Therapists have watched people improve and know that it can happen. The exercises your rehabilitation therapist gives you seem very simple until the process starts. Seven steps with the walking bars could now be as difficult as a one-mile run. The progress is so small, but the therapist sees every improvement and is there with a word of encouragement when it is needed most.
It would be easy to say a rehabilitation therapist provides services that help restore function where there is none. He does it with much work and patience from the patient. The therapist helps his clients improve mobility and even helps relieve pain. The repeated task of rolling balls around, so simple, can prevent permanent disability. A rehabilitation therapist restores what was lost, maintains the recovery, and promotes an overall healthy condition for patients. Patients on the list include accident victims, individuals who have disabling conditions like low-back pain, arthritis, heart disease, fractures, and cerebral palsy, to list just a few. Basically, this profession takes on what medicine cannot restore. You can learn to walk again. It is a very amazing profession.
Now when you read that rehabilitation is a series of treatments designed to promote a patient's recovery from disease or disability to as normal a condition as possible, the words have more impact. They really help you get there. Therapists work with clients to help with physical, sensory, and mental capabilities. It is a long list of duties to work with everyone, no matter how they got there, and bring them back day by day to normalcy. This profession helps patients compensate for lost motor skills or lost limbs that cannot be restored with surgery. It is estimated that at any time, 14 people out of every 100 suffer from a disability.
Always work with a certified therapist.
Rehabilitation should be performed by therapists with certification. Physical therapists are trained to measure strength, range of motion, balance, and coordination. They can assess muscle movement and increase flexibility, posture and, even respiration. Their goals are to increase patients' functionality at work and at home, which is a welcomed task for people who enjoy the simple movements in life and get better at them with work.
Where do therapists work daily?
Therapists work in hospitals, private clinics, and offices, and these facilities always have equipment specially designed for physical therapy. They also see patients in hospital rooms and at nursing homes. Therapists' jobs can be physically demanding with stooping, kneeling, and lifting. They must stand for long periods and move heavy equipment as well as lift patients and help them stand. The Bureau of Statistics recorded that rehabilitation therapists worked forty hours per week, plus some evenings and weekends to be available for their patients. While most work full-time, about 20% of them work part-time.
Physical therapists need a graduate degree beyond the four-year college degree. Every practicing physical therapist needs a state license and must take both state and national required testing. The salaries for rehabilitation therapists vary greatly from state to state, so choose your work location well. Know the average pay, because the range is quite broad. In Oklahoma a physical or rehabilitation therapist makes $23,000 per year on average, but in other states you can see positions offering $62,000 to $65,000 per year. Most states do require a master's degree for therapists, so negotiate for your worth in a state where the pay is excellent.
