Career Plan 2

JOB ANALYSIS AND CAREER PLAN

Immediate Career goal:

I want to become a Physical Therapy Assistant, helping to assist physical therapists in providing treatments and procedures.

Requirements and Job Skills Needed: (Use your skill assessment from week 1, research from week 2, and syllabi outcomes from your previous classes to help you identify skills).

· Training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience or an associate’s degree.  Some require a bachelor’s degree.

· Excellent communication skills

· Critical Thinking

· Being able to monitor and assess situations

· Time management

· Service oriented

· Learn strategies and procedures quickly and precisely

· Writing skills

Personal motivation and abbreviated Career Description:

Helping people to attain or regain the ability to walk and carry out daily life gives me a great feeling of personal satisfaction. Physical therapy is an essential element of patient care to promote the patient's ability to move, reduce pain, restore function, and prevent disability. Depending on the particular needs of a patient, physical therapists may choose to utilize a PTA to provide therapeutic exercise, functional training, or soft tissue massage. PTAs may also provide electrotherapy, ultrasound, and other treatments when included in the physical therapist's plan of care for the patient.

Labor Market Prospects, Work/Life &and Financial Expectations.

Median Pay : $48,940 a year (US Bureau of Labor Statistics)

Job Outlook : $41% (this number of PTAs is growing much faster than other jobs, US Bureau of Labor Statistics)

Becoming a Physical Therapy Assistant will help me earn enough money to support my family. The likelihood that I will be able to find a job is extremely high, more than 15,900 new PTAs will be added to the labor market from 2012-2022. PTAs are hired by multiple different types of healthcare employers (hospitals, PT centers, doctors’ offices, nursing homes), which further increases my chances of getting a good job. My wife and I want to have children; earning up to $23.53 an hour to start will give us the resources we need to start a family and have a small house. I will be able to earn enough money to start my family and save up for a bachelor’s degree in the future (moving into more specialized PT). This should increase my income and opens up the possibility of opening up my own physical therapy center in the future.

My Current Skills and Interests:

· Summer work for ABC Nursing Facility and Rehab

· Volunteer at XYZ Special Learning Center

· Served as class vice-president for 3 years

· College biology courses-4.0 grade point average

· College geometry and algebra classes-3.75 grade point average

· College speech and debate class-3.80 grade point average

· Played basketball/softball throughout junior high/high school

Plan to reach career goals:

· Current Education : Associates degree, UMUC (Assistant)

· Future Education : Bachelor’s Degree, UMUC (Specialized PT/Sports Science), Master’s Degree if I decide to open my own practice.

· Work with UMUC mentor to help with informational interviewing at local PT centers.

· Research professional PT organizations to join and conferences to attend for networking.

· Change my social media presence, especially my Facebook.

· Volunteer/Intern as PT at ABC Nursing Facility and Rehab.

· Complete two 40-hour observation sessions of physical therapy

· Additional Job experience needed (short term):

· Continue as a volunteer at XYZ Special Learning Center

· Work directly with PT at ABC Nursing Facility