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

What is a pulmonary physical therapist and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

Quoted expert

Sumer Samhoury

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a pulmonary physical therapist. For example, did you know that they make an average of $34.18 an hour? That's $71,088 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 pulmonary physical therapist?

Sumer Samhoury

Pelvic Physical Therapist and Board Certified Women’s Health Specialist, University of South Florida

The best way to maximize your salary potential is to specialize and get board certified in a specific area or population and if you’re passionate about a specific area of expertise, apply for a 1 year residency program. You will learn one on one with board certified experts and save a lot of money on continuing education and be able to sit for a board certification exam by the time you finish it. You will also learn so much more in a short period of time than if you decide to take multiple continuing education courses.

ScorePulmonary Physical TherapistUS Average

Salary

5.6

Avg. Salary $71,088

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

8.2

Growth rate 17%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.7

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.46%

Asian 12.12%

Black or African American 2.58%

Hispanic or Latino 5.66%

Unknown 3.51%

White 75.67%

Gender

female 78.79%

male 21.21%

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 pulmonary physical therapist

Explore pulmonary physical therapist education requirements

Most common pulmonary physical therapist degrees

Bachelor's

46.2 %

Associate

38.5 %

Master's

7.7 %

Start to develop specific pulmonary physical therapist skills

Skills	Percentages
Respiratory Care	57.31%
CPR	12.49%
EKG	10.79%
Critical Care	9.55%
Function Test	5.99%

Complete relevant pulmonary physical therapist training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New pulmonary 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 pulmonary physical therapist based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real pulmonary physical therapist resumes.

Research pulmonary physical therapist duties and responsibilities

Achieve high level of patients satisfaction due to sound clinical management, quality of care and compassion.
Improve patients ADL thru exercise and education.
Perform EKG on patients per doctor's orders.
Set up various kinds of O2 to patients.

Prepare your pulmonary physical therapist resume

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

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a pulmonary physical therapist resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

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