Will “Physical Therapists” be Replaced By Robots? 🤔

Job Description

Assess, plan, organize, and participate in rehabilitative programs that improve mobility, relieve pain, increase strength, and improve or correct disabling conditions resulting from disease or injury.

Job Details

• The SOC (Standard Occupational Classification) code is 29-1123.00
• The Mean Annual Wage in the U.S. is $ 87,220.00
• The Mean Hourly Wage is $ 41.00
• Currently, there are 216,920 people on this job

Also Known As…

• Staff Physical Therapist (Staff PT)
• Rehabilitation Services Director
• Registered Physical Therapist (RPT)
• Physical Therapist, Director of Rehabilitation
• Physical Therapist (PT)
• Per Diem Physical Therapist
• Pediatric Physical Therapist
• Outpatient Physical Therapist
• Home Care Physical Therapist
• Chief Physical Therapist
• Treatment Coordinator
• Sports Physical Therapist
• Pulmonary Physical Therapist
• Physiotherapist
• Orthopedic Physical Therapist
• Kinesiotherapist
• Geriatric Physical Therapist
• Cardiopulmonary Physical Therapist

Tasks for “Physical Therapists”

• Administer manual exercises, massage, or traction to help relieve pain, increase patient strength, or decrease or prevent deformity or crippling.
• Test and measure patient's strength, motor development and function, sensory perception, functional capacity, or respiratory or circulatory efficiency and record data.
• Discharge patient from physical therapy when goals or projected outcomes have been attained and provide for appropriate follow-up care or referrals.
• 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.
• Teach physical therapy students or those in other health professions.
• Refer clients to community resources or services.
• Direct group rehabilitation activities.
• Record prognosis, treatment, response, and progress in patient's chart or enter information into computer.
• Direct, supervise, assess, and communicate with supportive personnel.
• Inform patients and refer to appropriate practitioners when diagnosis reveals findings outside physical therapy.
• Confer with the patient, medical practitioners, or appropriate others to plan, implement, or assess the intervention program.
• Evaluate effects of treatment at various stages and adjust treatments to achieve maximum benefit.
• Review physician's referral and patient's medical records to help determine diagnosis and physical therapy treatment required.
• Participate in community or community agency activities or help to formulate public policy.
• Provide information to the patient about the proposed intervention, its material risks and expected benefits, and any reasonable alternatives.
• Conduct or support research and apply research findings to practice.
• Provide educational information about physical therapy or physical therapists, injury prevention, ergonomics, or ways to promote health.
• Instruct patient and family in treatment procedures to be continued at home.
• Construct, maintain, or repair medical supportive devices.
• Identify and document goals, anticipated progress, and plans for reevaluation.
• Obtain patients' informed consent to proposed interventions.
• Administer treatment involving application of physical agents, using equipment, moist packs, ultraviolet or infrared lamps, or ultrasound machines.
• Perform and document an initial exam, evaluating data to identify problems and determine a diagnosis prior to intervention.
• Evaluate, fit, or adjust prosthetic or orthotic devices or recommend modification to orthotist.

Related Technology & Tools

• Inversion physical therapy tables
• Digital video cameras
• Infrared lamps
• Neurological hammers
• Moist hot packs
• Personal computers
• Training stairs
• Rebounders
• Goniometers
• Isotonic exercise equipment
• Electronic blood pressure units
• Sliding boards
• Adjusting tables
• Lumbar pivots
• Phonopheresis equipment
• Diathermy equipment
• Exercise bicycles
• Surface electromyography equipment
• Balance beams
• Stepper exercisers
• Orthotics
• Massagers
• Transcutaneous electric nerve stimulation TENS equipment
• Force sensors
• Isokinetic upper body testing/rehabilitation equipment
• Digital video equipment
• Hydrocollator heating units
• Neck braces
• Muscle strength dynamometers
• Digital cameras
• Axial-resistance shoulder wheels
• Personal digital assistants PDA
• Laser printers
• Babinski hammers
• Hydraulic hand dynamometers
• Aquacisers
• Hospital roto beds
• Electronic manual muscle testers
• Ultrasound machines
• Walking braces
• Hoyer lifts
• Percussion hammers
• Isokinetic lower body testing/rehabilitation equipment
• Computerized dynamic posturography (CDP) balance test systems
• Sacro-illiac joint lumbar corsets
• Interferential electrical stimulation machines
• Exercise balls
• Arm prosthetics
• Swiss exercise balls
• Fluidotherapy equipment
• Above-the-knee prosthetics
• Blood pressure cuffs
• Parallel bars
• Occipivots
• Cryotherapy equipment
• Powder boards
• Tilt tables
• Therapeutic treadmill exercisers
• Neuromuscular stimulation equipment
• Weights
• Canes
• Walkers
• Cervical pivots
• Wall pulleys
• Balance boards
• Biomechanical ankle platform system BAPS systems
• Whirlpool therapy baths
• Digital inclinometer range of motion measurement instruments
• Laptop computers
• Pulley exercise systems
• High-voltage Galvanic stimulation machines
• Standing tables
• Gait belts
• Traction belts
• Ultraviolet UV lamps
• Shoulder wheels
• Ice packs
• Heart rate monitors
• Otoscopes
• Fitness machines
• Functional electrical stimulation FES equipment
• Iontophoresis equipment
• Traction equipment
• Low volt muscle stimulators
• Knee braces
• Portable cardiac monitors
• Paraffin baths
• Multiaxial exercise equipment
• Resistive tubing
• Thoracic pivots
• Compression garments
• Upper body ergometers
• Below-the-knee prosthetics
• Electromyographs EMG
• Traction and mobilization physical therapy tables
• Shoulder finger ladders
• Wheelchairs
• Rowing machines
• Muscle testing equipment
• Pelvic traction equipment
• Resistive exercise bands
• Reachers
• Mechanical stethoscopes
• Total lift chairs
• Continuous passive motion CPM machines
• Bolsters/wedges
• Crutches

• MediGraph
• MEDITECH software
• Cedaron Dexter Evaluation & Impairment Rating
• SpectraSoft AppointmentsCS
• Recordkeeping software
• Hands On Technology TheraWriter.PT
• Microsoft Office
• Biometrics video game software
• Microsoft Word
• Advantage Software Physical Therapy Advantage
• Clinicient Insight
• Rehab Documentation Company ReDoc Suite
• Microsoft Excel
• Exercise routine creation software