-: A physical therapist has to have a clinical doctorate
in order to practice and a board certification
and so a lot of our prep work is done while we're in school.
Depending on your program,
we have a three-year set structured program,
post graduate or post undergraduate,
and it requires you to go through
certain classroom education skills
which also encompasses lab exercises
to learn different skills for clinical settings
and then to go in and do actual clinical rotations.
So you're out in the field
with an already licensed physical therapist
and you're practicing out these skills and techniques
that you're learning or you have learned in the classroom.
And you have to do so many of those
and clock so many hours prior to graduation
from the graduate program.
A lot of times with the degree that we have,
we are sought after.
So because of the way you take your boards
and you have to go through the state website,
your name is automatically included in a database.
And so depending on how much information you're getting,
you will have people calling you all the time
because they've accessed that you have that degree.
You do have internships
and those are what are considered clinical rotations
and so you actually go out and you practice under a PT.
And so your goal in each of those rotations
and for my school,
I was required to work in all the settings
that are available
so I was required to actually work
in an outpatient clinic for one rotation,
an inpatient facility for another
which could mean a hospital
or what we consider a post-acute stay
and then in addition to that in a neurological facility
which could service adults or pediatrics.
And so the goal for each of those rotations
is by the end of the rotation,
you're able to manage that PT's caseload.