What I Love About Being a Physical Therapist

I am a Doctor of Physical Therapy. I have been in practice for over three years and I have loved every minute of it. There are many aspects of my job that I love, and I am finding new things about it that I love all the time. It is a career that has allowed me to combine many of my interests into one: helping people, fitness, healthcare, anatomy and much more. I have even had the opportunity to help students with their therapy careers and serve as a clinical instructor. Everyone has different reasons for why they love being a PT, and here are mine.

Helping People

This is the top of the list for a reason. I get the opportunity to see multitudes of patients every day and they are coming to me to get themselves better. How cool is that? Whether post-surgical, acute injury, even falling from a two-story building, these patients are here to use my expertise to get better and seeing the milestones they hit throughout their plan of care are some of the most internally rewarding things I can think of. It makes the job worth doing. I get to make connections with people that are different from anyone else and each one of them is unique. It means a lot when patients feel they can open up to me, it really does make each session memorable.

Fitness

Among a few other things, exercise is great medicine for each patient and they all will get their dose when they come to physical therapy. I love being able to share my passion of fitness with them and helping them understand how to increase their strength and improve their vitality for life. Exercise is one of the best courses of action that a person can take to improve almost all aspects of their life and I make it a point to get them to enjoy it on their own to keep up the progress they make in therapy. Fitness has always been a passion of my own for many years and I love getting a chance to share it with others in a meaningful way; a way meant to help heal.

Variety

Sure, there are the common ailments that are seen in an outpatient therapy clinic, but each one is unique in their own right. Getting a chance to work with patients with different injuries helps keep every day fresh. In addition, I get to be upright and moving around, working with patients that challenge my abilities as a physical therapist. I have worked with patients that have had life-altering strokes, patients that have been involved in head-on collisions with semis, and even patients that twisted their ankle on a walk with their dog. While the severity of injuries have a large range, they all want to get better and back to their normal day-to-day life and I think it’s wild that I get to be the one honored enough to help them.

I fully believe that being a physical therapist is one of the most rewarding careers one can choose and I’m glad I did. There’s a reason why it is consistently ranked in the top 10 for job satisfaction in the United States. There are many reasons why I love being a PT, much more than what I could possibly list. It’s a job I look forward to doing for many years to come.

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Physical therapy is usually the thing you are told to do after medication, x-rays or surgery. The best way to fix your pain is to start where you normally finish – with physical therapy at Athletico. Schedule a free assessment in-clinic or virtually through a secure online video chat where our team can assess your pain and provide recommended treatment options.

The Athletico blog is an educational resource written by Athletico employees. Athletico bloggers are licensed professionals who abide by the code of ethics outlined by their respective professional associations. The content published in blog posts represents the opinion of the individual author based on their expertise and experience. The content provided in this blog is for informational purposes only, does not constitute medical advice and should not be relied on for making personal health decisions.