![]() No matter where your career path leads, you owe it to yourself to explore multiple careers, specialties, and settings. Rather, it could reinforce your conviction that physical therapy is the right career for you and bolster your commitment to the career later on. You might find that another career in medicine aligns better with your interests, and you’ll save yourself a lot of time, money, and soul-searching if you cast your shadowing net wide the first time.īut even if you’re a PT prospect through and through, this broad shadowing isn’t a waste of time. You know you’re interested in physical science and anatomy in some way, but the actual particulars of the PT career might not be quite what you think it is. Why should you shadow other professions? Because you just never know. Technically a physician, PM&R is a musculoskeletal specialty that focuses on helping patients recover through medical treatment and advanced therapy. Shadowing Multiple Professionalsīesides shadowing Physical Therapists, it’s a good idea to shadow professionals in related careers, such as a Sports Medicine Physician, a Physician’s Assistant, or even an Orthopedic Surgeon.īe sure to also check out a PM&R career, which stands for Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. If nothing else, they may be willing to jump on a call or answer a few questions via email. But if you’re interested in other unique jobs or specialties, reach out to PTs in those fields and ask if you can shadow them. These locales will give you a good idea of the most common settings for PTs, and where you’re most likely to begin your career. While it is possible to shadow a PT in all of these settings, you should start with your local outpatient clinic and maybe the rehabilitation department at your local hospital. Other settings for PT include skilled nursing facilities, schools, gyms, corporations, sports teams and even the military. ![]() In the home health setting, you’ll provide PT in the patient’s home, which is a grab bag of environments. By contrast, a hospital setting or inpatient setting offers physical therapy to current hospital patients. ![]() The most common setting for physical therapy is an outpatient clinic, to which many patients are sent following a hospital discharge. ![]() You may also specialize in a particular type of patient group, such as pediatrics or in a sports clinic. If you choose to specialize, you may end up working as an orthopedic PT or in a neurologically-focused PT clinic. But unlike other areas of medicine, you don’t need to spend multiple years in a residency in order to specialize as a PT. You’ll find over a dozen specialties and a flurry of settings in which to picture your future career. To get the most out of your shadowing experience, I recommend shadowing not one PT, but multiple PTs in multiple settings. If you really like the career so much, you won’t mind spending the time to do this vital step. The least you can do is shadow one first.Įven if you think you’re 100% set on the career, do yourself a favor and shadow multiple PTs in different settings to get a feel for it. Think about it: You’re about to spend 3 years and thousands of hours and dollars to become a PT. Many PT schools require a certain number of shadowing hours included in your application to their DPT program.īut you’ll inevitably come across some DPT programs that do not require any shadowing hours, which I think is a big mistake. In my book, yes, shadowing is a mandatory first step to becoming a PT. When you shadow someone in the medical world, your objective is to observe the environment, ask questions, and assess honestly whether the career is really something to pursue. Shadowing simply means following a health professional to see what their job is like. I’ll cover some questions to ask, expectations to have, and ways to make the most of your experience. Keep reading for my take on everything you need to know about shadowing. So you’re interested in becoming a Physical Therapist? Before you do anything else – finish undergrad, research schools or apply to DPT programs – you absolutely must shadow a PT. The path to Physical Therapy is long and costly, so before you decide to jump into this career, shadowing a PT will help you know it’s the right path.
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