What does a staff physical therapist do?
Staff physical therapist responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real staff physical therapist resumes:
- Achieve high level of patients satisfaction due to sound clinical management, quality of care and compassion.
- Provide inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation services for adult and geriatric patients and establish appropriate individual treatment plans for optimal patient care.
- Perform physical therapy evaluations and treatments in sub-acute and long-term setting with patients of various neurological, med-surgical, orthopedic diagnoses.
- Provide direct outpatient orthopedic/sports medicine rehabilitation services
- Facilitate open communication with members of interdisciplinary rehabilitation team.
- Facilitate open communication with members of interdisciplinary rehabilitation team.
Staff physical therapist skills and personality traits
We calculated that 31% of Staff Physical Therapists are proficient in Patients, Rehabilitation, and Occupational Therapy. They’re also known for soft skills such as Detail oriented, Dexterity, and Physical stamina.
We break down the percentage of Staff Physical Therapists that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Patients, 31%
Provided inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation services for adult and geriatric patients and established appropriate individual treatment plans for optimal patient care.
- Rehabilitation, 11%
Assessed need for additional rehabilitation services, including occupational and speech therapies, in order to maximize patient's functional capacity.
- Occupational Therapy, 10%
Developed and implemented physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy programs for Adult Day Health Care centers throughout California.
- Physical Therapy Assistants, 6%
Supervised Physical Therapy Assistants with implementation of plan of care as established by the Physical Therapist.
- Direct Patient Care, 4%
Dedicated roughly 80% of daily responsibilities to direct patient care and 20% to managerial duties.
- Acute Care, 3%
Performed evaluations for acute care patients with neurological, orthopedic, post-surgical and cardiopulmonary diagnoses.
Most staff physical therapists use their skills in "patients," "rehabilitation," and "occupational therapy" to do their jobs. You can find more detail on essential staff physical therapist responsibilities here:
Detail oriented. One of the key soft skills for a staff physical therapist to have is detail oriented. You can see how this relates to what staff physical therapists do because "like other healthcare providers, physical therapists should have strong analytic and observational skills to diagnose a patient’s problem, evaluate treatments, and provide safe, effective care." Additionally, a staff physical therapist resume shows how staff physical therapists use detail oriented: "perform new patient evaluations and establish patient-goal oriented treatment plans. "
Dexterity. Another essential skill to perform staff physical therapist duties is dexterity. Staff physical therapists responsibilities require that "physical therapists must use their hands to provide manual therapy and therapeutic exercises." Staff physical therapists also use dexterity in their role according to a real resume snippet: "provide in services to community assisted living facilities to educate staff on safe body mechanics, lifting and transfer techniques"
Physical stamina. This is an important skill for staff physical therapists to perform their duties. For an example of how staff physical therapist responsibilities depend on this skill, consider that "physical therapists spend much of their time on their feet, moving to demonstrate proper techniques and to help patients perform exercises." This excerpt from a resume also shows how vital it is to everyday roles and responsibilities of a staff physical therapist: "staff physical therapist in hospital-based home health agency. ".
Compassion. staff physical therapist responsibilities often require "compassion." The duties that rely on this skill are shown by the fact that "physical therapists spend a lot of time interacting with patients, so they should have a desire to help people." This resume example shows what staff physical therapists do with compassion on a typical day: "demonstrate sensitivity and compassion for all ethnic, religious, and socioeconomic backgrounds. "
Communication skills. Another skill commonly found on staff physical therapist job descriptions is "communication skills." It can come up quite often in staff physical therapist duties, since "physical therapists must clearly explain treatment programs, motivate patients, and listen to patients’ concerns in order to provide effective therapy." Here's an example from a resume of how this skill fits into day-to-day staff physical therapist responsibilities: "direct communication with doctors and patients was made through in-house email. "
The three companies that hire the most staff physical therapists are:
- Memorial Healthcare System9 staff physical therapists jobs
- University of Rochester8 staff physical therapists jobs
- North Shore High School8 staff physical therapists jobs
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Compare different staff physical therapists
Staff physical therapist vs. Manipulative therapy specialist
An in-home therapist provides case management, counseling, resource system development, support system development, and crisis intervention services for family members and children. They provide goal-oriented and structured therapy on referral issues for families that help recover from neglect, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, or physical abuse. Also, they provide time-limited, goal-oriented, and structured therapy in the families' natural environment for families that need help to recover from neglect, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, and physical abuse.
These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of a staff physical therapist are more likely to require skills like "occupational therapy," "physical therapy assistants," "direct patient care," and "physical therapy." On the other hand, a job as a manipulative therapy specialist requires skills like "gmp," "patient care," "t-cell," and "cell processing." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.
Manipulative therapy specialists tend to make the most money working in the education industry, where they earn an average salary of $51,149. In contrast, staff physical therapists make the biggest average salary, $73,479, in the health care industry.The education levels that manipulative therapy specialists earn slightly differ from staff physical therapists. In particular, manipulative therapy specialists are 5.9% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree than a staff physical therapist. Additionally, they're 14.6% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Staff physical therapist vs. Child life therapist
A therapist is responsible for improving the patients' health conditions by evaluating their needs and providing physical and mental support. Therapists are licensed, medical professionals who specialize in different areas to perform treatments and bring relief to patients. Some of their duties include diagnosing patient's problems, performing counseling services, monitoring medication progress, customizing therapy activities for pain management, and consulting other health professionals as needed. Therapists must have extensive knowledge with the medical industry to detect patients' conditions easily and provide effective medications.
While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, resumes show us that staff physical therapist responsibilities requires skills like "physical therapy assistants," "direct patient care," "acute care," and "discharge planning." But a child life therapist might use other skills in their typical duties, such as, "direct care," "social work," "therapeutic recreation," and "emotional support."
Average education levels between the two professions vary. Child life therapists tend to reach lower levels of education than staff physical therapists. In fact, they're 5.1% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 14.6% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.What technology do you think will become more important and prevalent for staff physical therapists in the next 3-5 years?
Dr. Todd Roach D.C.
Assistant Professor of Biology, Aurora University
Staff physical therapist vs. In home therapist
The required skills of the two careers differ considerably. For example, staff physical therapists are more likely to have skills like "rehabilitation," "occupational therapy," "physical therapy assistants," and "direct patient care." But a in home therapist is more likely to have skills like "social work," "community resources," "community agencies," and "substance abuse."
In home therapists make a very good living in the government industry with an average annual salary of $52,546. On the other hand, staff physical therapists are paid the highest salary in the health care industry, with average annual pay of $73,479.Most in home therapists achieve a higher degree level compared to staff physical therapists. For example, they're 24.3% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 15.9% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Staff physical therapist vs. Therapist
Types of staff physical therapist
Updated January 8, 2025
