How To Become A Physical Therapist Assistant (PTA)

Welcome everyone to the OneDegree Careers Career Chat™ with Antonio Sanson! Today we are going to talk about what it takes to become a Physical Therapist Assistant — so Antonio was a PTA for 4 years, and he has his own YouTube channel where he encourages folks to learn a little bit of what the career entails and helps them answer any questions on what it takes to get in, what certifications they need, and what the general pathway looks like.

So let’s start off — tell me your story? When did you get into Physical Therapy Assistance? When did you know it was something you wanted to do?

— So for me I have a little bit of a different type of story than most who enter this field. Most of my friends, or anybody who was in my class with me attending the program, a lot of their stories were how when they were little they got hurt and ever since they knew that rehab was the career choice for them. That wasn’t really the same common path that I found myself going down. To me, I enjoyed a lot of the perks behind it. I enjoyed being active, it was a very physical job, you’re up you’re moving, you’re exercising. For me it seemed like a very fulfilling career that I’d be helping people. One of the huge benefits for me of why I decided to go after Physical Therapy, the Assistant program, was because it was just a short time frame. I was 19 at the time when I started, and I was like “ Oh it’s only a 2 year program, this is perfect for me!” since I wasn’t really sure what career I wanted to get into so it was just a way for me to get my foot in the door somewhere, start working, save up some money, and start my career.

You mentioned this was a 2 year pathway — how long is the program to become a Physical Therapist?

— That can go into 8 years to become a Physical Therapist, so for that program you’re actually getting your doctorate. There’s a ton of schooling, you have to get your Bachelor’s, Masters, Doctorate degrees, and then you also have to train under somebody for a little bit. So that was a lot more extensive and I didn’t know if I loved the career that much to just go the full time so I just started somewhere in the middle.

Walk me through what a typical day looks like?

— The way I would describe a typical day, first of all, in the field of Physical Therapy — I don’t know if a lot of people know this — but it’s not all encompassing. It’s kind of like saying you work in construction. So someone who works in construction can be a laborer, they can be a foreman, they can be a carpenter; there’s so many different avenues under the same umbrella. That’s kind of what it’s like in Physical Therapy as well. So a typical day could definitely range. I’ve worked in a bunch of different settings — I’ve been in a hospital, home healthcare, an outpatient clinic, sports rehab etc. I’ve seen a lot of different areas, and they all vary on what a typical day actually looks like.

The career that I was in the longest was outpatient. Between all the different types of fields that you can get into in Physical Therapy, they’re pretty similar as far as what a typical day looks like. Usually at the start of your day you’re working with schedule and seeing who is coming in that day, looking over your checklist of who is coming in, your patients and their diagnoses they have, what can you prepare for, and just knowing our game plan. Maintenance can also be part of your day such as folding towels that we had to use simple things like that and then a lot of your day consists of treating patients and finally documenting what you did. We’re providing skilled care to help them with rehabilitation activities, wether they had a total knee replacement, in here for dizziness, or issues with vertigo — we’re providing treatment throughout the day and documenting along the way.

Where does your responsibility pick up and leave off with the Physical Therapist? What role as an Assistant are you doing in conjunction with the Therapist?

—Most typically what I see is that the physical Therapist is responsible for evaluating and discharging the patients. So they’re the one who kind of kicks off care — if you’re new and you have an injury and you don’t know what’s wrong, you go see the Physical Therapist and they’ll give you a diagnosis. Then they’ll talk to me and give me the details to which I go in and create a game plan of what we’re going to do. Can be anything from exercise based, stretching, strengthening, range of motion activities. I’m the one actually providing the care throughout the treatment. A lot of times the Physical Therapist are doing evals all day and discharges, and then us PTA’s are balancing the actual care with patients.

Every once in a while you’ll see Physical Therapists actually jump in with the care of the patients, but most of the time that’s a big responsibility of the PTA.

What has been one of your favorite moments on the job?

— The best moments that I’ve come across is when you see somebody who came in defeated because of an injury or they just don’t think they can get back to a normal state of life. We’ve had patients with total knee replacements and they can’t walk. They’re knee is swollen and they don’t think they’ll ever be able to walk again. When you see the first time that they’re able to go up the stairs or walk without a walker, the excitement that they have and to be pain free as well, it makes it such a fulfilling career when you get to experience that.

Those parts of the job really light you up because you’re truly making a difference in peoples lives. You get to see the progression of it — I see them right when they get out of the hospital and I work with them until they can get on their feet again. Seeing that change and their emotions that makes them feel like their getting lifted up since they’re seeing the benefits of it is one of the best things about the job.

So you and I know that there isn’t a perfect job out there where every moment is amazing — what have been some of your more challenging moments?

— A big part of the career as a PTA is documentation. So you have to log everything you’re doing not only for the patients benefit but also for insurance companies and liability. This is where it becomes very cumbersome, especially if you’ve already had a long day of actual patient care. At least for me this was the worst part about the job because the reason you get into the field of Physical Therapy is to work with people and be active and help them, but the downside is you’re documenting everything you do along the way.

In the first 6th months one of the biggest challenges was being pretty young. I went into the program when I was 19 and graduated when I was 21. All my coworkers were in their 40s so I just seemed like a kid there. A lot of the times the patients wold ask who I was but I was part of the staff! Another thing that was a challenge to overcome, is going from a schooling mindset to an applied mindset. In school they drill into you that safety is number one so all of the precautions — but going from that into the real practice is totally different. You obviously still have to follow all the precautions but it’s totally different actually applying it. That transition from school to actual patient care definitely has a bit of a transition.

Everyone is curious about financial opportunities — How much does a PTA make starting out? What does that growth look like?

— This again, depends on so much. What state you live in, what setting you work in — if you work in home health care, that’s going to be the highest paying job you can get, then a skilled nursing facility is right up there as well. Outpatient is a little bit lower and that’s what I did. The pro is I get to work with more athletic patients here for sports injuries and it’s a little more up pace, but then you don’t get paid as much. So I started out making $19/hr, but some of my friends initially got $25-30/hr no problem at all. They worked in a city as well as home health care as well.

The thing with the career when we’re talking financials is that being a PTA, there’s not these huge pay advancements. Unless you switch companies and ask for more, the only way up would be actually becoming a Physical Therapist. You can do advancement training as a PTA, but a lot of times that doesn’t even influence your pay all that much. On average after the first 3-5 years you can be making $50-60k/year and could be higher depending on circumstances. I know that with COVID there has been a bigger need for home health care so I know that that pay has gone up significantly to $70k/year.

Where do you see opportunities in this industry? If you could tell your younger self what steps to take to become a PTA what would it be?

— If it’s for financial reasons I would suggest that yes, going into a skilled nursing facility is flexible and gives you a lot of room to make good money. You can always pick up extra shifts, or work PRN — I have a friend who does that on the weekends and she makes double the pay. A lot of times when a company is looking for a PTA to fill in, they are willing to pay a lot more for it which is a good way to take advantage of open shifts.

There are so many possibilities in this field. One of the cool things is you can see any time of patient demographic and customize your practice. Experience every time of group and from there niche down to what you love doing. Do whatever you can to build your resume up and get as much experience as possible.

Listen & Watch the complete Physical Therapist Assistant Career Chat below!

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