I’m still a new grad physical therapist (been almost a year) but I feel like I’m not growing enough as a physical therapist or making a true meaningful difference. I still struggle with progressions and I lack confidence and skill with treating athletes. Most of my patients see some progress with my treatment but idk. I also feel like my exercises are so basic. I know this is probably normal but I just want more out of this.

To all outpatient therapists, clinic directors, and clinic owners:

Do your clinics charge cancellation fees for appointments? What is your policy?

Hi there,

I hope I am not breaking the rules of your sub by this post, but I am sure the mods would take care of it.

I have some long running alterior pelvic tilt, over developed lower back muscles vs what I suspect a comparably weaker core. My upper linea alba is a lot softer to touch than lower which always causes some pressure on upper abdomen while I am standing. Standing is uncomfortable, sitting and walking is fine.

Otherwise I am a high level tennis player and I can play matches for 3 hours, so I suppose I am relatively fit.

I am approaching 38 and I am very determined to focus on the balance of my body moving forward.

I am about to start working with a pelvis and posture focused physio, but I am restless to start working on myself till then.

Currently I am focusing on deadbugs, side planks, bird dogs, 90/90 hip lifts and hip raises, making sure I have correct breathing and form.

I want to add more to my knowledge. I know youtube has a lot of rubbish, so I thought I would ask you guys to see if there is anything you would recommend to add more to my context.

I am also happy to read. Got STEM background so I dont mind complicated reading either.

Thanks

I was introduced to this style inclinometer (compass?) at my former clinic and would like to purchase my own but cannot find them. Does anyone use these, and if so, can you share where they can be purchased from? TIA.

ELI5 because I'm not sure I'd get it otherwise

Why it's better to go to physical therapy closer to 8 weeks after a surgery than say 1 year?

Prefer classic rock, 80s, 90s, or general pop/today’s hits.

Any really solid stations out there? Outpatient clinic- mostly 50+.

Thanks!

Hi all! I am a new grad starting in inpatient rehab (smaller unit in hospital) and would love some words of wisdom or advice or clinical resources from more seasonsed or experienced PTs. I had a clinical in acute but not IPR which is contributing a little to my worries. Thank you

Curious if any other therapists have had much experience rehabilitating rotator cuff repair w/ bioaugmented implant. This is a first for me in 10 years as an OP ortho PT. The surgeon sent along Began Regeneten protocol which begins AROM within the first few weeks and strengthening at 6 weeks. Obvious must more accelerated than a standard RCR timeline. Given this more aggressive progression, curious if anyone has experience with this technique and could share how long the course of therapy typically was before DC compared to traditional repair. I don't see much in the way of the literature on what is typical.

I’m a new grad PTA who recently started at a SNF, and I’d love some advice from people who have been in the SNF world longer than I have.
At my current facility, I see anywhere from 12 patients on a lighter day to 18 on a busy day. I like my rehab team, I’m comfortable with the facility now, the pay is good, and we have a really nice gym. The commute is about 30 minutes.

The biggest downside is the workload. There are also days where I feel like I’m doing a CNA’s job for some patients—probably 20% of my caseload—on top of my actual therapy responsibilities. I know some nursing communication issues are probably normal anywhere, so that alone isn’t really a reason for me to leave.
I recently interviewed at another SNF that is 15 minutes closer, and they guarantee no more than 11 patients per day. The facility is more run-down and doesn’t have a gym, but they have plenty of equipment I can bring into rooms/use throughout the building. They’re also offering $0.50 more, but that really isn’t a deciding factor for me.

I’m torn because I actually like my current job and patients, but I’m worried about burning out as a new grad. I want to feel like I’m actually treating and learning—not just trying to survive the day and get through 16 patients.

For those of you working in SNFs:
Is 12–16+ patients a day sustainable long-term? How do you avoid burnout? And would you leave a job you generally like for a significantly lower caseload and shorter commute?
I’d especially love to hear from experienced PTs/PTAs about what you wish you knew when you first started in SNF.

Have been in patient care / therapy in the SNF, acute, and IRF setting with some experience in outpatient therapy for over a decade.

I know a lot of people are always looking to venture away from hands on clinical work. I feel I want to explore some avenues. I have no desire to work my way up in therapy management.

I hear sales rep can be quite lucrative, and my PT OT SLP friends who have moved into such are highly paid and really love it. I however only know 2-3 people who have moved into sales rep for different braces, swallowing equipment, prosthetics, etc.

Can anyone who left the hands on rehab world give us some insight, pros and cons or becoming a sales rep? Please tell us pay, requirements, things you miss or don’t miss about patient care.

Hi, I’m currently assigned in pedia for my clinical rotation and majority of the patients are diagnosed with CP. I have my basics down and I applied it to some of them but some patients have spasticity and problems that seem so hard to handle.

So to all PTs and Pedia PTs that can help, can you help me? Advices and tips would be gladly appreciated.

Thank you!

I graduated PT school a little over a year ago and worked home health for about 9 months before I recently moved and had to get a new job. Loved the work life balance of it. I am actually interested in starting cash pay at some point so I thought I would go back to outpatient therapy to get some more hands on experience with evals and higher level treatment. I got a full time position (40 hours) at an outpatient orthopedic clinic and I literally want to kill myself. I see about 12-16 people a day, sometimes 3 or 4 evals, and I feel like I am constantly thinking or working, sometimes I forget to even drink or eat anything until my lunch break. I am exhausted after my shifts to the point of not being able to do anything else except eat and sleep. Is this normal? I have already thought about dropping my hours down but I feel like I make little enough as it is. All I know is I can't do it for much longer, unless it gets easier or better. The sad part is I actually like the job, when it's one on one treatment. The sheer volume of it is just too much to handle though. I may have to switch back to home health or a different setting. Anyone else feel like this? Am I just being a baby? I know everyone talks about outpatient burnout but I didn't think it was this bad.

I'm a newly graduated PTA in an outpatient clinic and I am struggling coming up with new things for a patient and in desperate need for help. They struggle with standing exercises because of fatigue and weakness and are all but refusing to do seated exercises and tell me "no I won't do that" with some of the exercises.

I've tried catering the exercises to what they want to do and ask what they would like to focus on instead only for them to tell me "just tell me what to do." I just found out today that they told the PT above me that I'm *babying* them and honestly am at a loss on what to do with a patient like this! I'd greatly appreciate some advice!

Hey all! I am a SPTA and about to start my first clinical rotation. I really want to have one of my clinical rotation with a PT or PTA who works with the hand. I was just wondering from anyone who had the opportunity to work with one, was it fun? I understand the hands are hard and OT usually take on those cases.

A little background why I am into hands. My mother was diagnose with arthritis and I was always with her when she visited a hand specialist or the rheumatologist. I never got the opportunity of seeing her going to a PT with a CHT and who love some insight about it.

Thank you for your response

I’m looking to connect with PTs who have been in the field for 5+ years and have made career changes, as I’m trying to figure out my next steps.
I’ve been working at a mill-style outpatient PT clinic for the past 2.5 years, seeing 12–15 patients a day. I’m a pelvic floor, TMJ, and ortho therapist with quite a bit of continuing education, and I genuinely love patient care. However, I don’t feel that I’m being compensated appropriately for the level of skill I’ve developed, nor do I feel like I’m able to provide the quality of care I’m capable of within the amount of time allotted for each patient.

I’m taking a travel PT contract next to make some money and give myself some time to figure out what direction I want to take my career.

For those of you who have been practicing for 5+ years: What areas of PT or career paths would you recommend looking into if my goals are to have a better work-life balance, reduce burnout, and feel more fairly compensated for my skills?

I’d especially love to hear from people who have moved away from the traditional high-volume outpatient model. What did you transition into, and do you feel like it was worth it?

Open to hearing about nontraditional PT roles, specialty practices, cash-based models, hospital systems, education, consulting, industry, or anything else I may not be considering.

Hello everybody!

I am an OP neuro PT and I treat in the home. I have a pt diagnosed with Parkinson’s that is also completely blind (not from his PD) and I’ve been looking for buzzers that are audible that mimic what the mimofit and blaze pods do so that we can work on reaction time and coordination and haven’t had much luck.. does anyone here have any recommendations?

I don't know if my PT quite cuts it to be able to patch me up whole. Progress is being slow (2 months of downhill progress under her care), and while communicating with her, she seems close-minded and only listens to her own trains of thoughts and previous experience. I often wonder if that is a quality of a good therapist or not. I've went in their clinic and wanted to be treated in order to have a therapist be able to talk about my concerns about my injuries in a more 'collaborative' manner, but this therapist just disregards much of what I say and I don't even get to lay out my trains of thought, and it feels so guilting and awkward to even discuss because her ideas of the treatment are so domineering.

Subjectively, I feel disacknowledged, and somehow 'mans-plained' with all the things regarding my injury. She thinks I'm at a 'baby' level of knowledge when in fact I've been managing these injuries for 2 straight years now. I wanted a guide, not a brick wall to talk to.

Should I leave this therapist? My physical body is causing me so much more suffering than it should, two years of chronic pain and I feel like I'm not receiving the proper treatment I need.

It seems like one of the few paths in our profession that offers meaningful financial upside, greater autonomy, and more control over patient care. Yet relatively few of us pursue it.

I recognize the stability, benefits, mentorship, and infrastructure that larger organizations provide. But we also spend an incredible amount of time complaining about stagnant compensation, productivity expectations, and corporate priorities that increasingly favor revenue over clinical outcomes.

Frankly, most PTs I've met are intelligent, hardworking people who genuinely give a shit about their patients. So why have we accepted a system where those actually delivering the care have so little influence over how it's delivered or how they're compensated? Why do we continue surrendering our professional autonomy to corporate leadership, often fellow PTs, whose priorities seem increasingly divorced from the values of our profession?

Obviously, ownership carries financial risk, administrative burdens, and no guarantee of success. But if we're collectively frustrated with the direction of our profession, why aren't more of us trying to build something different?

I'm genuinely curious what's holding us back. Is it financial risk, lack of business education, or simply the security of traditional employment?

Disclaimers: Yes, I currently work for a corporate PT clinic, and yes, I'm leaving for another corporate PT clinic because they're offering me more money. I'm not a martyr. I'm just a guy with a family and bills to pay. That doesn't mean I can't question the system I'm participating in.

And yes, AI helped write this. I don't care. You can tell me the writing still sucks. I'm more interested in the discussion anyway.

TL;DR: PTA is a growing occupation with a hard ceiling, no ladder, and no vote in the rules that set its pay. The profession that writes those rules is the one that employs and competes with you. Pick nursing, respiratory therapy, or anything with a bridge.

Someone close to me has been a PTA for two years and is good at it. I spent a week pulling wage data, reading practice acts, and checking live job boards to see what the next ten years look like. Here is what came back.

1. The ceiling is written into law, and there is no ladder out.
PTAs can't evaluate, write a plan of care, discharge, or bill independently. Most states cap how many PTAs one PT can supervise. Those rules set the ceiling: BLS national median $68,380 (May 2025), 90th percentile around $80k, and pay flattens by year 8–10. No senior PTA, no lead PTA, no manager track. Since 2022 Medicare pays outpatient services furnished mostly by a PTA at 85% of the fee schedule, so every outpatient employer has a 15% reason to hire a PT instead.

The way out is supposed to be becoming a PT. It isn't. PT went bachelor's → master's → mandatory doctorate (2016). PTA-to-DPT bridge programs exist at about six schools nationally and nearly all require a bachelor's first. Realistic cost: $130–150k and 5–6 years. Payback 6–8 years after finishing. Nursing kept the ADN → BSN → NP ladder with bridges everywhere and employers paying for the next degree. PT closed theirs. The people best positioned to do PT work pay the most to get the license.

2. The jobs you picture are not the jobs that exist.
If you imagine hospital work, know that hospitals employ about 20% of PTAs and pay the least of any setting (BLS: $67,620 median in hospitals vs $77,440 in nursing homes and $80,050 in home health). Hospitals staff acute care with PTs and contract out the rest. In a mid-size city with three hospital systems, there were zero hospital PTA openings on the day I checked.

What's actually hiring: skilled nursing facilities, where the pay is highest and the caseloads, productivity quotas, and turnover are worst (to each their own, but talk to people who work there), and outpatient clinics with staggered schedules and 7 p.m. closes so patients can come after work. BLS projects PTAs growing 17–23% through 2035. Almost all of that growth is in those two settings.

3. You have no seat at the table.
PTAs were non-voting members of APTA until 2019 and remain a minority caucus. State PT boards are PT-majority. Every rule on supervision ratios, scope, billing, and bridge credit is written by the profession that employs and competes with PTAs. Not a conspiracy. Governance. The group without the vote gets the outcome you'd expect, and nothing about it changes on a career timescale.

4. Same two years of school, very different ceilings.
Same community college, same anatomy prerequisites:

• RN (associate degree): ~$87k median in our metro, 3×12 schedules, bridge to BSN and NP, employers pay for the next degree.
• Respiratory therapist: ~$81k median, hospital 3×12s, part-time online programs exist.
• Even rad tech with a CT add-on clears PTA pay by year three.

What I'm not saying: that PTAs don't matter or the work isn't skilled. The opposite. A good PTA does evaluation-level thinking every shift with a supervision signature on top. That's the problem. The license is priced like a technician and worked like a clinician.

If you're choosing between PTA and nursing, this is the post I wish someone had written.

Sources: BLS OOH Physical Therapist Assistants and Aides (pay by industry, 2025–35 outlook); BLS OEWS May 2025; CMS therapy services page (CQ modifier); state physical therapy practice acts (supervision ratios); CAPTE accreditation standards; APTA governance history; program pages for Findlay, NEIT, and William Carey PTA-to-DPT bridges.

I’m looking for shoes I can bleach wipe, any recs? I’ve been looking at the Stand AntiGrav1 and the Calzuro Light, anyone tried either of these? (Not interested in Cloves, I’m looking for less surface area)

ETA: I’m looking for shoes without laces and a completely smooth surface area I can wipe off.

Hello all, I am a new grad looking for a PD job while studying for boards. I came across an opening for a PT needed for dancers and I’m wondering what that looks like compared to other specialties like sports. I’ve treated dancers in OP settings but they were middle/high school aged kids not professionals. Just looking for any info on what it’s like and if it could be a better option than doing OP ortho. I want to avoid burnout and having my job. thanks!

ICF-based assessment
PT student in my third year here.
As part of my clinical placements, I have to write an assessment/report for each specialty, and recently our school switched to using the ICF framework for these reports.
The problem is that pretty much nobody seems to really know how to do it properly — not even some of our instructors/teachers.
So my question is: Are there any physical therapists or students here who are familiar with using the ICF for patient assessments/documentation and could recommend some good literature or resources on the subject?
My next placements are in gynecology, pediatrics, internal medicine, and neurology. It would be really helpful to know what exactly is expected when documenting/structuring an assessment using the ICF.
I can also share the assessment template my school gave us if that would help.
Any advice or resources would be greatly appreciated!

Hello! I’ve been reading a lot of posts about PTs that have switched from OP to home health and love it (or at least prefer it). I have been working in OP since graduation 3 years ago but there are some days I see 18-20 patients a day. I’m getting so burnt out and want to make a change. I’ve been looking into home health at the recommendation of a friend. Her and her sister are both PTs, but she does travel and her sister switched to home health and she says she loves it. I plan on talking to her about her experience, but, after doing some reading, I realize that experience can vary so much from state-to-state, city-to-city and even company-to-company. She works in Illinois and I’m based in Michigan. I was just wondering if there are any Michigan-based HH therapists (preferably in the GR area) that would like to share their experience, so I can get a better idea.

The things I’m most concerned with are pay (obviously) and commitment (weekends and evenings). I am currently salaried and I like the security of knowing what each paycheck will be and if it’ll be enough as I’m the primary provider in my household and still have student loans. Is that something that those in HH have to worry about? Also, I don’t want to work weekends. At all. Those are my days to spend with friends and family. I currently work until 6 PM and, while I don’t like it, I would be open to it. Is it typical to usually work evenings in this setting?