How To Become A Geriatric Physical Therapist: What It Is and Career Path

What is a geriatric physical therapist and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

Quoted expert

Dr. Alvaro Gurovich PT, PhD, FACSM

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a geriatric physical therapist. For example, did you know that they make an average of $33.08 an hour? That's $68,810 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 17% and produce 40,400 job opportunities across the U.S.

What general advice would you give to a geriatric physical therapist?

Dr. Alvaro Gurovich PT, PhD, FACSM

Professor, The University of Texas at El Paso

Find a job with solid mentorship and professional development opportunities. You still need to learn a lot. We educate entry-level generalist Physical Therapists that embrace life-long learning as the field is constantly changing. Ten years from now, ~50% of what you learned won’t be that accurate anymore; the main problem is that we don’t know which 50%. Your DPT degree is not the finish line, it is the beginning of your professional career. Your DPT degree is the launch pad to “the infinity, and beyond”.

ScoreGeriatric Physical TherapistUS Average

Salary

5.4

Avg. Salary $68,810

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

8.2

Growth rate 17%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.7

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.47%

Asian 12.85%

Black or African American 3.90%

Hispanic or Latino 7.78%

Unknown 3.78%

White 71.22%

Gender

female 78.57%

male 21.43%

Age - 40

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 40

Stress level

8.2

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

10.0

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

6.7

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a geriatric physical therapist

Explore geriatric physical therapist education requirements

Most common geriatric physical therapist degrees

Bachelor's

51.2 %

Master's

38.8 %

Doctorate

7.5 %

Start to develop specific geriatric physical therapist skills

Skills	Percentages
Rehabilitation	40.04%
Home Health	33.02%
Social Work	6.86%
Family Therapy	4.37%
Discharge Planning	3.73%

Complete relevant geriatric physical therapist training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New geriatric physical therapists learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a geriatric physical therapist based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real geriatric physical therapist resumes.

Research geriatric physical therapist duties and responsibilities

Demonstrate working knowledge of community mental health services identify in the Medicaid guidelines and attain contractual outcomes within designate time frames.
Care for veterans in both independent and SNF environments.
Screen, evaluate and treat residents with diverse disease processes in multiple SNF's.
Provide rehabilitation services as per patient requirement.

Prepare your geriatric physical therapist resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your geriatric physical therapist resume.

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