physiotherapy assistant

You don't have to be a full-time employee in a hospital or fitness center to work as a physiotherapy assistant. As an independent contractor, your hours are more flexible. You can also charge a higher hourly rate, and you'll have fewer extra responsibilities. On the flip side, your paycheck will be variable. You'll also be self-budgeting for taxes and will have no benefits package.

As a home health physiotherapy assistant, your job will be to visit patient homes to implement various treatment procedures as directed by a physical therapist. You'll help patients with daily activities and encourage them through challenging rehabilitation programs that will restore or improve their physical functioning.

When patients injure themselves, they must often work out the affected region to improve functionality. As a physiotherapy assistant, you'll help patients perform a set of exercises, which can include stretching, strengthening, and range of motion (ROM) activities. You must be highly observant of how your patients perform the drills because you'll need to monitor and report their progress.

Often, when someone has an injury or illness, they're concerned about how they can recover quickly so that they can resume their day-to-day routine. If the patient needs physiotherapy, your duty will be to help them understand their injury. What's more, you should prepare yourself to answer basic questions about the patient's treatment from relatives and friends. Finally, you’ll need to explain to the patient and their caregiver how to perform various workouts at home.

As a physiotherapist, you’ll play a crucial role in the treatment plan. You’ll have to help the patient with whatever physio treatment they need whether it's massage, stretching, or heat/cold therapy. Often, you’ll have to massage and stretch patients to reduce their pain and help them recover after vigorous workouts. The best part is that you’ll have help from a physiotherapist, and your role will be to follow their guidance and administer treatment plans accordingly.

Another one of your responsibilities as a physiotherapist will be monitoring and recording your patient's progress when they begin a treatment plan. Often, your job will be to read the patient’s body language and jot down your conclusions. Documenting your patient's treatment information is crucial to the treatment, as it builds baseline data on how your patients respond over time. What's more, the physiotherapist also relies on this data to recommend the patient's most suitable course of treatment.

As a physiotherapy assistant, be prepared to occasionally double as the physiotherapist's assistant. This means performing clerical duties like filing patient records, setting appointments, updating patient records, answering calls, receiving payments, and replying to emails.

Finally, you might need to help with other administrative or general tasks like cleaning or equipment maintenance, among others.

Your job as a physiotherapy assistant significantly relies on your ability to listen and communicate effectively. Day in, day out, the physiotherapist will give you instructions, which you'll convey to your patients and make sure they understand. Your job will also include explaining procedures to patients and their home caregivers.

As a physiotherapy assistant, you should find joy in helping others. This quality is critical as you will often be working with people who are in pain. As such, you must be empathetic at all times to give the best care.

As a physiotherapy assistant, you should be detail oriented. Your role requires you to be systematic, keep accurate records, and follow instructions (oral and written) to the letter to uphold quality care.

Physiotherapy assistants must often do multiple tasks simultaneously. Since you’ll be dealing with many patients at the same time, you must know how to prioritise your duties.

Most of the treatment procedures you’ll be administering to patients will require dexterity. As a physiotherapy assistant, you’ll be using your hands to give therapeutic exercises and manual therapy.

Your job as a physiotherapy assistant will involve a lot of interaction with people, including patients, their families, or colleagues in the workplace. You must be friendly and courteous, making people feel better whenever you can.

A physiotherapy assistant's job requires you to constantly be on your feet, working with patients. You'll also be kneeling, bending, stooping, and lifting. Since you’ll be administering treatments and setting up equipment, you’ll need physical strength and stamina.

A physiotherapy assistant helps therapists as they treat patients with physical limitations to help them regain movement capabilities like walking or getting up from a chair independently. The therapist creates the treatment plans, and the assistant implements the activities that promote the healing of different body parts using equipment like weights and pulleys.

The average pay for a physiotherapy assistant in the United Kingdom is £20,814 per year or £10.67 per hour. Entry-level positions start at around £18,671, and experienced workers make up to £31,000 annually.

The national average salary for a Assistant Psychologist is £22,931 in United Kingdom, according to glassdoor.

Physiotherapy assistants in the United Kingdom receive payments using the Agenda for Change system. As an entry-level physiotherapy assistant, your salary will start on band 2 and increase as you gain more experience.

Working as a physical therapist assistant in the United States requires that you graduate from a Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education-accredited education program and pass state-administered national exams. To become a physiotherapy assistant in the UK, you need excellent literacy and numeracy skills. While there are no set entry requirements, employers expect proper literacy and numeracy and some experience or qualification in social work or healthcare.

If you're a compassionate person who enjoys helping others, working as a physiotherapy assistant will be the perfect career for you. You'll do much more than provide relief to patients' pain or help them recover. You will also offer mental support and encouragement throughout the patient’s recovery process. What’s more, their success will feel like yours because both parties put in all the time and effort.

As the population becomes more and more sedentary, there will naturally be a higher demand for physiotherapy assistants. With arthritis being such a crucial health issue today, it's no wonder that these professionals are in high demand.