Physical Therapist Education Requirements

Nine years ago, APTA’s "Vision 2020" established a series of goals for the physical therapy profession to achieve by the year 2020. One of the goals encourages physical therapists to pursue doctoral-level studies. When all physical therapists are doctors of physical therapy, APTA believes that physical therapists will be recognized as “practitioners of choice” to whom consumers have “direct access” for diagnosis and care.

Perhaps in response to APTA’s goal, of the 211 accredited physical therapy education programs, only 13 are still at the master’s level (MPT, MSPT, MS), while 198 are doctoral (DPT). As a result, more and more physical therapists are entering the workforce with their doctorates, and employers hiring physical therapists increasingly expect them to be Doctors of Physical Therapy.

The significant shift to the doctorate over the master’s degree certainly reflects the efforts of APTA and Vision 2020. Likewise, a legislative push incited by Vision 2020 currently has 44 states offering direct access to physical therapists without a referral from a physician. The movement will hopefully result in physical therapists’ gaining the same privileges of other medical professionals in autonomous practice, but how are physical therapists without their DPTs feeling about the directive?

Fortunately, it’s not exactly a mandate. While it is APTA’s vision that all physical therapists will be doctors of physical therapy by the year 2020, there has been no indication that a doctorate will be mandatory to remain in practice. According to APTA’s former Sr. Vice President of Education, Dr. Joe Black, “Your right to practice is assured by licensure.” However, he warns, “the critical mass of DPTs will be significant; therefore, the PT without the degree will be in a relatively small group. What affect will that have on compensation, job opportunities, and one’s role and responsibilities is simply impossible to determine.”

One way physical therapists in current practice can avoid being left behind is by participating in a transition DPT (t-DPT) program. According to the APTA website, the transition DPT program “allows the US licensed physical therapist to obtain the clinical doctorate by demonstrating knowledge commensurate with that of current professional (entry-level) DPT outcomes.” The transitional program also takes into account a therapist’s knowledge and experience. While the programs vary in coursework and in length, one commonality is a focus on information that has been significantly augmented over the past 5-10 years. This is done in an effort to “fill in any gaps” between a PT’s baccalaureate or master’s degree education and the current DPT program.

APTA strongly encourages practicing PTs to acquire the t-DPT. The organization unequivocally believes that an increase of DPTs will benefit the profession as a whole; however, it may cause physical therapists that don’t have the time or money to enroll in a t-DPT program to feel somewhat insecure about the future.

At the moment, however, job security for all physical therapists still appears to be solid. The BLS projects 30% employment growth for physical therapists in the 10 year period from 2008 to 2018. However, there are some concerns that changes to physical therapy education requirements may make it difficult to fill the rapidly growing number of physical therapy jobs.

This concern, while genuine, appears to be superfluous. Dr. Joe Black insists that baccalaureate and master’s-level physical therapists will continue to be eligible for licensure and able to practice at any facility willing to hire them. However, he cautions that once every physical therapy program has converted to the doctoral degree, states may see fit to link the DPT with licensure. “In any case, it will be a state matter and, as always, no one can predict what a state may or may not do in the future.”

Should APTA be successful in achieving its Vision 2020 goals, will other therapy professions follow suit? It’s certainly possible, but try not to let potential changes to education requirements become a source of stress. As a licensed therapist you are in high demand (the 30,000+ jobs on TherapyJobs.com are proof of that!), so enjoy the career you’ve chosen and take new education recommendations in stride.

Robyn Melhuish is the Communications Manager at Healthcare Job Boards. The HJB portfolio of premier job boards includes niche sites for physician jobs, therapist jobs, nursing jobs, medical sales jobs, and medical mission opportunities.

Author Profile: Robyn_Melhuish

physical therapy career, physical therapy jobs, physical therapist career resources