Physical Therapy

Zachary Perkins

Mr. Alburger

English III Honors

22 January 2018
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Zachary Perkins

Mr. Alburger

English III Honors

14 February 2018

Physical Therapy

In today’s job market, many people struggle to find enjoyment in their profession. Most

people would like to feel that their job provides a positive impact on the people and in the

community they live in. Becoming a physical therapist not only offers an immediate impact on

people but also a job that someone can look forward too each and every day. It can appear very

interesting because therapists never know what they will walk into, something different everyday

makes the profession just that much more exciting. When coming to a physical therapist the

patient usually feels desperate and getting better makes the patient and the physical therapist feel

accomplished. Imagine being a patient going to see a physical therapist, the patient feels nervous,

scared, and hurt. A physical therapist must re-establish all of these things back inside of the

patient. Growing close to patients and watching them regain their confidence all while the

therapist makes money to provide for their family, act as some of the most inspiring things about

becoming a physical therapist. While ​physical therapy will always ​near​ in high demand it also

requires high education, sharp focus, and acceptable social skills.

Physical therapy, defined as ​“ the scientific physical procedures used in the treatment of

patients with a disability, disease, or inju​ry to achieve and maintain functional rehabilitation and

to prevent malfunction or deformity” according to the ​New World Encyclopedia ​(Funk &

Wagnalls, 2017). Physical therapy all started with the early Greek and Romans using their
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natural environment for health purposes. A treatment that still runs today known as heat, whether

they utilize wax, sunlight, hot rocks, or even insulated fur helps hundreds of people daily.

However, actual medical treatment and what everybody classifies as “physical therapy” did not

start until the early 1900’s. A large amount of women practiced physical therapy during this

time. As the ​New World Encyclopedia ​says, ​“Shortly thereafter American orthopedic surgeons

began to train young women graduates of physical-education schools to care for patients in

doctors’ offices and in hospitals” ​(Funk & Wagnalls, 2017). A large influx of therapists appeared

in the early 20th century when several outbreaks of diseases infested the population. Also, when

World War I broke out, they took hundreds of physical therapists and sent them in to work in the

military. Today, physical therapists use various types of treatments and get smarter and more

advanced each and every day.

When choosing a profession inside of physical therapy an individual may notice all the

different options they have to choose from. High demand and the growing populations need for

physical therapists seems overwhelming at times. Most people view physical therapy strictly as a

way to recover from injuries, but therapists actually do a variety of different things. Not saying

that therapists need to help patients recover from injuries and diseases, but people also go to

physical therapists to help keep themselves in shape. Mostly older people go to see physical

therapists as a workout and the amount of people doing so increases daily. Sports medicine,

demonstrates a popular choice over the past few years due to the rapid growth of different sports

throughout the U.S. As someone could imagine, with sports and workout activity increasing in

the U.S, this makes the need for physical therapists increase much more. A physical therapist in

this field knows how to train athletes not only to become better and stronger, but also how to
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train safely without getting injured (Institute for Career Research, 2007). People who get treated

by physical therapists typically have an injury that temporarily or partially handicaps part of their

body. This does not mean only injuries from accidents or sports, it can also mean injuries from

diseases as well. Sometimes, people with certain diseases cannot undergo normal treatment, so

physical therapy with a little bit of patience seems like the only thing that will make it better.

Physical therapy also plays an important role in recovering from common diseases. A few

examples are, Parkinson's Disease, Cerebral Palsy, Sclerosis, Alzheimer's, and many other

sudden diseases or attacks that take place inside the body.

As anyone could imagine, throughout different cultures and different countries physical

therapy changes in various ways. Physical therapists must adapt not only to their patients’ needs

and wants but also to match their cultural beliefs and values. The kids who cannot make

decisions on their own must go by their guardians ideals and beliefs, this can come across as a

big issue. A lot of times the patient feels like they have a strain on them and they do not like

going to therapy sessions. Therapists have observed over time that certain types of people

become less likely to engage in physical therapy due to certain qualities or restrictions they have

about themselves. For example, it says on page 113 of the Scandinavian Journal of Occupational

Therapy “According to some therapists, women who are uneducated and lead a traditional life

tend to be more difficult to engage in therapy (“I don't think they take the [therapeutic] as

seriously as Swedish clients do...” (Occupational Therapists). Language acts as just another

difficult thing someone must overcome while becoming a therapist. Some therapists may have to

deal with this daily, while some may never have to deal with it at all. It’s difficult to interpret and

understand certain words because in other languages they may mean completely separate things
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or just mean nothing at all. The key to helping them understand their patients suggests watching

their body language because it shows them the pain spots and also explains to them exactly how

they obtained the injury. This also includes physically showing them how to do something for

physical training. The use of imagery acts as another form of communication they must take part

in to understand each other. Examples of these include, maps pictures, materials, and also pen

and paper drawings (Occupational Therapists) However, some physical therapists enjoy these

language barriers because they see it as a fun challenge they get to overcome. Confusion, the last

thing that immigrants have a difficult time with when visiting physical therapists. Sometimes

they have uncertainty in what the physical therapists do and say. Attitude, culture, or their own

physical body pain affects the way they act while at physical therapy and it confuses many

therapists as to how they can help them. This typically occurs when the patient and therapist

barely know each other, as time goes on, they start to get more comfortable.

An individual can only do so much in college to become a physical therapist however,

many things they do in high school will influence how they do in college and overall in their life

if wanting to become a physical therapist. Getting into a good college and taking the right classes

in order to become a physical therapist plays a major role in how their future will develop. In

high school, getting good grades (most colleges like to see at least a 3.0 GPA) and scoring high

on the ACT and SAT will help their chances of getting in. Admission offices typically like to see

that you know a foreign language. Knowing a foreign language helps physical therapists relate to

their patients on a personal level. Volunteering or getting a part time job will dramatically help

them if they want to become a physical therapist later in life. It will help them understand the

profession more and will not make them completely oblivious to the subject when they get into
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college. Letters of recommendation provided by physical therapists could play a part in them

getting into the college of their choice because of how much colleges love to see them. Keeping

up with technology or just physical therapy in general like reading books and articles on the topic

can help them keep the information fresh in their mind and help them keep up with the latest

trends in physical therapy. Some physical therapists do it differently though, some go completely

through college with only a bachelor’s degree in physical therapy and then later apply for

physical therapy school. Physical therapy school, as you could imagine, represents strictly

physical therapy and nothing else. This acts as an alternative to getting their masters degree in

physical therapy or getting their doctorate degree and then specializing in physical therapy in

college. Some classes that will help them become familiarized with the subject more include

Physiology, Kinesiology, Anatomy, and Biology. Almost every college has physical therapy

classes but a few special one’s stand out more than others. University of Southern California,

Emory University, University of Pittsburgh, Northwestern University, and University of Iowa all

act as exceptional places to attend strictly for physical therapy.

An individual can go tons of different directions when becoming a physical therapist

because of the very wide variety of options to pick from. “You can have flexible hours and have

multiple avenues: pediatrics, geriatrics, sports medicine, outpatient, inpatient, etc. You can even

own your own business!”(Cox D). ​Physical therapists commonly work in hospital and doctors

offices however they work in other places people not might expect them too. These include,

rehabilitation centers, schools, research centers, and community health clinics. Not only do they

work in these places to treat individual patients, but they also treat school children, government

officials, and even themselves. However, some physical therapists may choose to run a private
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clinic meaning they themselves run everything and do not work for an organization. They rarely

ever work alone, even the private therapists usually will have a team of assorted doctors to help

them. Most physical therapists on average work full time anywhere from 40-50 hours per week.

For physical therapists who specialize in sports medicine they typically work weekends so they

do not miss out on any of their patients. As for normal physical therapists, it just depends on the

person and whether or not they work weekends. While most physical therapists enjoy their job, it

does put emotional and physical stress on the body. Physical therapists move constantly and tons

of pushing and pulling can make it hard especially for private therapists who do not have many

coworkers and see dozens of patients every day. from their early hours and physically

demanding job, they always think about their patients and work in the back of their head.

(Institute for Career Research, 2007). Their brain never rests especially at the end of a busy day

from all the reports, filing, and interacting they must do with patients.

Physical therapists have separate jobs inside their job, they do not just rehabilitate the

injured. First, they must find the problem. They need to figure what hurts, how it happened, what

the pain feels like, and how bad it hurts. Also, asking the patient if they have experienced pain in

that spot before from any previous injuries lets the physical therapist know about the condition of

the injured are. Next, if they need to take immediate action they will but if not, they will design a

treatment plan to help the patient. They occasionally send the patient to a specialist if physical

therapists cannot identify the root of the problem. Then, the patient will either come back and do

therapy directly or they do it at home or elsewhere if required. The physical therapist will most

likely continue with the therapy until the patient fully completes the assigned therapy or until the

pain fully goes away (Institute for Career Research, 2007). Unfortunately, sometimes the
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problem will not go away and can never get fixed. Physical therapists often do not see the same

exact injury, therefore their treatment plan always changes. There a four main types of treatment

plans for people, lifestyle modification, therapeutic exercise, external stimulation, and assistive

devices (Institute for Career Research, 2007). Lifestyle modification includes everyday functions

that ordinary humans need to live a normal life again. This could include basic functions like

walking, talking, and eating. Often times they involve injuries that nag people every time they do

something, so, they must avoid those functions or find a way to avoid it. Typically, most people

would associate physical therapy as a therapeutic exercise. Regaining balance, coordination, and

strength that somebody lost in the injury marks the main point of therapeutic treatment. External

stimulation exhibit the literal treatment used on the body. Examples of external stimuli include,

heat, cold, massage, and electricity. Similar to external stimulation, assistive devices also may

apply to patients directly. Examples of assistive devices include crutches, canes, and braces

People with disabilities see physical therapy in a much different way than most normal

humans both as a patient and a therapist. Strength training or physical therapy, still an ongoing

controversial debate over what has a greater outcome on kids with certain disabilities. One

experiment in particular played a very relevant role in the study between these two. They tested

30 young kids all of which had down-syndrome over twelve weeks to compare and contrast the

differences between strength training and physical therapy. Half of the kids did chest physical

therapy while the other half did strength training. During this experiment, they mainly focused

on the breathing patterns and abilities of the kids in which they called “pulmonary dysfunction”.

(Hussein, The Egyptian Journal of Medical Human Genetics, 35-39). They prefer having kids

with mental disabilities perform physical therapy so that in case anything goes wrong they will
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have therapists there to help. However, these kids may also work to become physical therapists

and take classes that give them extensive training that will help them in the future if eventually

they do end up working in the medical field. Since the kids with mental disabilities have

difficulties with specific things, physical therapy acted as exercise for these kids. These kids

have much difficulty with strength training which means that physical therapy acts as an

alternative way to exercise and keep good health. Physical therapists even recognize this and

they set up plans for kids with these disabilities to work out in different ways according to what

they need. Students with disabilities (SWD’s), these kids aware that they have a disabilities,

sometimes choose the medical field over other topics so they can learn about themselves and

other students similar to them.

“Pilates,” a certain type of physical therapy aimed to increase flexibility and postural

awareness. People who have already recovered from injury use this to help prevent themselves

from getting injured again in the future. It mainly strengthens muscles and increases flexibility to

become in better shape. They even completed an experiment studying the difference between

postural awareness and flexibility before and after taking these classes. They produced expected

results showing that people physical test scores significantly increased preceding the pilates

classes (Atilgan E, Tarkci D, Mutluay F). Pilates, originally created by Joseph Pilates (hence the

name) and only used by him at first, however dancers became the first people other than him to

use this strategy and then later it became a vital tactic to doctors. Certain focuses in pilates

include, concentration, breathing, centering, control, precision, flowing movement, isolation, and

routine. Pilates classes overall just make people feel better and make everything easier to move.

Unfortunately, when training to become a physical therapist, the curriculum does not include
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pilates therapy. They must teach it to physical therapists in post-graduate classes because of the

increased use of it and also the because it play a critical role in the body recovery and

maintaining body health (Atilgan E et al).

Occupational therapy, also another therapy often confused with physical therapy because

of the similarities they share. Occupational therapy, meant to help people recover from mental

illnesses and physical injuries through everyday activities. It can also mean learning how to

accomplish everyday activities a different way due to a temporary injury or permanent handicap

(Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia, 2017). Examples of these activities include,

walking, cooking, knitting, sitting down/standing up, and many more. Essentially, physical

therapy and occupational therapy accomplish the same thing but in separate ways. These patients

may also use problem-solving skills and cognitive development to help themselves. This

includes tests that help the brain develop like, riddles, crosswords, mind games, and various

other tests that involve complex thinking. Amputees often use occupational therapy to learn to

live abnormally, meaning learning to live without whichever limb they lost. They learn how to

adapt to their environment without regaining a limb whereas in physical therapy they would test

and train to regain something they lost before. Pilates, practiced throughout many different

hospitals, including Lake Norman Regional Medical Center (Lake Norman Hospital).

Lake Norman Hospital, a popular place for various different types of physical therapists,

only located about 5 minutes away from Pine Lake Preparatory. Lake Norman hospital has

hundreds of doctors that work with the hospital and quite a few physical therapists as well who

work on two main side of the building. They have two main sides of the building that physical

therapists work at in this hospital, “​One side is the ONS wing (O-orthopedics, N-Neurospine).
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These include the patients who have elective surgeries like total hip or knee replacements.

Neuro is the strokes or head injuries. Spine is the spine surgeries or paralyzed patients. The

other side is Med-Surg (Medical-Surgical patients). I treat patients with heart and lung disease,

accident victims, patients with generalized weakness following an illness surgery, or the critical

care patients as they get off the ventilators.”(Cox, D). This shows the broad range of things that

physical therapists do and how they always have to expect the unexpected. If a physical therapist

gets too comfortable, that may become dangerous because they should always prepare to spring

into action.

Overall physical therapy has a very wide variety of options to choose from. A physical

therapist must have great poise, patience, and quick instincts. They must maintain awareness at

all times and always prepared for anything to happen. They must treat their patients with great

dignity and respect and they will likely receive it back. Growing close with their patients and

watching them thrive and recover from injury puts a great label on their name. Knowing that

they help out greatly in the community must make one feel accomplished but also could appear a

little pressuring at times knowing that everyone relies and puts their full trust and faith into you.

However, the risk outweighs the reward in this situation because of the satisfaction therapists

feel when they accomplish something the way it meant to turn out. I highly recommend

becoming a physical therapist because anybody can do it if they really work hard at it and I know

they will grow to love the profession just like every other physical therapist out there.
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Works Cited

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Elam, Carol L., et al. "Preparation for Medical, Dental, Pharmacy, Physical Therapy, and
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Hussein, Zeinab Ahmed. "Strength Training Versus Chest Physical Therapy on Pulmonary
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