Who’s A Physical Therapist?

A physical therapist is a professional who helps those with who suffer disabilities caused by injury or disease stay fit and healthy. They work with their patients to help them learn how to use their own bodies to regain strength, balance and coordination.

Professionals in this field are required to be licensed in their state of practice after graduating from an accredited physical therapist program. They will also be required to attend a certain number of hours of physical therapy continuing education classes in order to keep their license.

Many physical therapists work closely with doctors, implementing treatment plans to bring patients to a level of full functioning as much as possible after illness or injury. This means they must have an understanding of biomechanics, neuroanatomy and human growth and development.

Importantly, they must also be able to communicate with not only doctors, but patients and their families and have the capability to advise them on their treatment.

Why Take Physical Therapy Continuing Education Classes?

Physical therapy continuing education classes are a necessary part of training and development. Not only do they help to continue in professional development, the classes help them to keep up with changing rules and guidelines of the state as well as issues pertaining to insurance guidelines and regulations. A career in any branch of the medical field dealing directly with the health of another human being naturally requires ongoing learning.

Physical therapy continuing education courses are offered by reputable and accredited institutions.

What are some of the topics covered in continuing education classes?

• Vestibular Rehabilitation: as in therapies for dizziness and imbalance
• Managed Care: focus on quality and accessibility of practitioners
• Rotator Cuff Rehabilitation: physical strengthening exercises for injured shoulders
• HIPPA: regulation compliance and certification
• Stress Management: stress reduction techniques, including for the workplace

Getting And Maintaining Your License

For persons who practice physical therapy, continuing education classes are usually provided by the hospital, clinic or practice in which they are employed, often as lectures or seminars.

However, it’s easy to find online sources for physical therapy continuing education classes that are conducted by accredited and reputable schools, hospitals and other institutes. These flexible online classes are designed so that state requirements can be met.

Credits obtained through lectures, seminars and online courses are measured in credit hours which are then reported to the state by the continuing education provider and documented under the licensee’s name. Many states now also allow for physical therapists to renew their licenses online.

While many schools and colleges offer physical therapy continuing education, did you know that there a number of alternative and complementary medicine schools that provide supplementary training in the healing arts as well? For example, physical therapists who are seeking new ways and holistic approaches to physical therapy treatments are pleasantly surprised that some learning institutes offer Tai Chi, Qigong and massage modalities as an alternative to mainstream medicine therapies.

Additional advanced physical therapy continuing education programs for the professional include certification courses in lymphedema therapy, functional orthopedics, neuromuscular facilitation, connective tissue disorders, neuromuscular rehabilitation, stroke rehabilitation, Trigger Point Therapy, Myofascial Release, Craniosacral therapy, and numerous others.

Physical therapy continuing education programs typically include course outlines that list educational objectives and will usually qualify as CEUs, or advanced training modules that enhance professional occupational outreach and services. In many cases, physical therapy continuing education courses include basic instruction in epidemiology, pain management, anatomy and biomechanics, as well as hands-on training.

There are also several physical therapy continuing education programs that are geared toward specific health conditions and business topics like healthcare management and marketing, fractures, chronic pain, functional maintenance programs, geriatrics, infection control, Pilates, and soft tissue mobilization, among many others.

Though there are quite a few physical therapy continuing education programs from which to choose, there a number of training options that are provided through health seminars, online seminars, distance education/home-study, workshops and short courses. Thus, practicing physical therapists are not limited to physically attending local colleges or universities for supplementary training.

If you (or someone you know) are interested in finding physical therapy continuing education, let professional training within fast-growing industries like massage therapy, cosmetology, acupuncture, oriental medicine, Reiki, and others get you started! Explore career school programs near you.

It didn’t take long for educators to see that the vast network of interconnected computers, databases, archives and individual users could offer more than dictionaries and encyclopedias, not to mention cartoons and the modern version of “French postcards.” Some people are content to be entertained and titillated by the Internet while, fortunately for society, many others are interested in continuing their education via online colleges – and the medical profession has, as expected, been one of the biggest adopters of this “high-tech” distance learning.

Web classrooms

By the late 1990s, the World Wide Web – the “layer” of the larger network with a graphical user interface (GUI) and new, powerful tools for “data mining” – had matured to the point where it was stable, reliable and powerful enough to host “virtual classrooms.” There followed an explosion of Web-based colleges, seminars and training programs. For medical professionals, the ability to go online for continuing education (and earn college credits as well as state certifications) was a tremendous breakthrough.

Existing “brick and mortar” colleges were joined by new Internet-only educational enterprises as continuing education for such medical professionals as doctors, dentists, nurses and physical therapists went online in a big way. The various state and professional oversight agencies wasted no time certifying the curricula and awarding Continuing Education Units (CEUs) for study. People who were previously unable to attend on-campus classes because of busy work and family schedules could now do so.

Various approaches

Some courses might require lab time or a few on-campus sessions, but for many requirements a medical professional can earn CEUs, enhance existing expertise or even become certified in new specialties through online continuing education. The professionals climb the career ladder, get advanced degrees and certificates, and increase their salaries, while society as a whole benefits from better-trained doctors, nurses, therapists and paramedics. And that’s a classic “win-win” situation, without a doubt.

Costs, of course, vary. However, for working medical professionals, there are usually employer-funded plans for continuing education, and all it takes is a trip, call or online visit to Human Resources to find out. Online education is also being used at various colleges and universities for students in all majors to get class time in a variety of categories, and there are full-scale online college programs with accreditation (and degrees that are actually respected in the real world). The use of the Internet for education is a trend that will continue to grow and mature.