3 answers
Isabella
Student
Elk River, Minnesota
3
Questions
Asked
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How much free time do you have outside of work as a physical therapist?
I am a sophomore in high school. I am thinking about being a physical therapist and wondering about the job details.
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3 answers
Andrea C Wooldridge White, PT, DPT, FPHC, cert. HGP-I
Physical Therapist
7
Answers
Northport, Alabama
Updated
Andrea C Wooldridge’s Answer
Physical Therapy is an extremely varied field. A PT working fulltime in an outpatient clinic often has to work varied hours or even Saturdays, adding up to 50+ hours a week. Other Outpatient clinics are closed part or all of Friday or offer flexible scheduling (work 4 days at 10 hours instead of 5 days at 8 hours). Consider other aspects of the clinic culture (mandatory "lunch-and-learn", where you must stay in clinic and eat while attending in-services, required pre-office-hour prep time, etc) that make an 8-hour day closer to 10 hours.
Acute Care, SNF, and In-patient rehab pay more, but also require working weekends (usually on a rotation).
Home Health also tends to pay more, but be aware of whether they provide a gas card, pay for drive time, reimburse for wear-tear on personal vehicles, etc. Often Home Health seems to have flexible scheduling, but when you look at the logistics of patient care time, drive time, team meetings, etc, your day disappears quickly. Home Health requires high levels of time management skills.
Schools and Early Intervention are probably the most "user friendly" in regards to working full time while also having a lot of personal time. The culture for Schools and EI is more family-oriented in most organizations, meaning the staff team respects each others' needs for life:work balance.
Post-COVID era hiring process is much more flexible than before. Which means, during the interview/hiring process, there tends to be more room for negotiating a schedule that meets both the clinic's needs and your needs as an employee.
Acute Care, SNF, and In-patient rehab pay more, but also require working weekends (usually on a rotation).
Home Health also tends to pay more, but be aware of whether they provide a gas card, pay for drive time, reimburse for wear-tear on personal vehicles, etc. Often Home Health seems to have flexible scheduling, but when you look at the logistics of patient care time, drive time, team meetings, etc, your day disappears quickly. Home Health requires high levels of time management skills.
Schools and Early Intervention are probably the most "user friendly" in regards to working full time while also having a lot of personal time. The culture for Schools and EI is more family-oriented in most organizations, meaning the staff team respects each others' needs for life:work balance.
Post-COVID era hiring process is much more flexible than before. Which means, during the interview/hiring process, there tends to be more room for negotiating a schedule that meets both the clinic's needs and your needs as an employee.
Donna Calvert, PT, PhD
physical therapist
62
Answers
Mission, Kansas
Updated
Donna’s Answer
The answer above has some good tips/advice to consider.
Overall, PT's can work in hospitals, outpatient clinics, skilled nursing facilities, health, school systems, etc. The various settings require varying coverage of patient care. For example, a hospital PT will probably rotate through weekend coverage and many outpatient clinics are open on weekends or evening hours. Depending on how your department is set up, you may work five 8 hour days, four 10 hour days or three 12 hour days per week.
That said, you need to be prepared to work for as long as needed to complete the patient care for the day and finish up paperwork, too. So it is not unusual that a PT works more than 40 hours a week on a regular basis, as do most health care workers.
If your position as a PT is categorized as “salaried”, you will likely not be paid for any overtime that your job requires—the idea being paid as a professional and you will work for as long as is needed. If you work at an hourly pay rate, you would have to learn about the possibility of overtime pay from your supervisor, depending on the standards of the organization where you work.
Overall, PT's can work in hospitals, outpatient clinics, skilled nursing facilities, health, school systems, etc. The various settings require varying coverage of patient care. For example, a hospital PT will probably rotate through weekend coverage and many outpatient clinics are open on weekends or evening hours. Depending on how your department is set up, you may work five 8 hour days, four 10 hour days or three 12 hour days per week.
That said, you need to be prepared to work for as long as needed to complete the patient care for the day and finish up paperwork, too. So it is not unusual that a PT works more than 40 hours a week on a regular basis, as do most health care workers.
If your position as a PT is categorized as “salaried”, you will likely not be paid for any overtime that your job requires—the idea being paid as a professional and you will work for as long as is needed. If you work at an hourly pay rate, you would have to learn about the possibility of overtime pay from your supervisor, depending on the standards of the organization where you work.
Harman Khokhar
Resident ER physician
6
Answers
Port St. Lucie, Florida
Updated
Harman’s Answer
As far as free time goes, it depends what kind of environment you choose to work in, yes a lot of the job is patient care, paperwork/notes/customer service to an extent, you can go private/outpatient or work in a hospital. For example if you work in a hospital you may be able to do shifts/a few times a week or you may cover a lot more shifts if the hospital is smaller or has fewer PTs working. If you choose outpatient, you may have a large workload, and other things come into consideration-like putting in extra work if you are a partner, or helping to pick up the load if it is you/a few partners, and of course there are the financial/legal aspects of going private as well. It truly depends on you and what kind of lifestyle you want. Initially you will do an undergrad degree then a 4 year graduate degree (there may be combine programs now, so I suggest you take a look into that), and some form of clinical training. During these years you may not have as much free time as you like BUT remember it is ultimately up to you to choose what you want to do, how much free time you want. Explore your options, about different schools, programs, and especially about scholarships.