Career Opportunities In Physiotherapy

Students today are trying to make a career in physiotherapy in India. Here are a few tips on how to pursue the field and courses you can do.

By Shatavisha Chakravorty

Now, irrespective of whether we like it or not, there will be situations wherein people around us will be suffering from pain. While some of the pain may be mental or emotional, a major chunk of it will be physical. Healing physical pain is much easier.

 

The major work of physiotherapists would be to reduce the physical pain of their patients. Most orthopaedic injuries that people suffer from are the ones wherein time is the best healer. In such cases, the doctors will perform activities that will help the bones to position themselves in place.

Career Opportunities In Physiotherapy

The actual healing takes place in the body itself over time. To aid with this type of healing, physiotherapists make their patients perform certain exercises that will facilitate it all. Read on to know how you can make a successful career in this field.

• Skills Required

The human body is the most complex machine that exists. Thus, treating any ailment related to it requires quite a bit of planning and coordination skills on the part of the physiotherapist. This is not possible without the technical skills and knowledge base. This is something that can be obtained after due educational qualification.

However, the skill set that is required by a physiotherapist demands way more. Since they deal with patients who are in constant pain, one needs to have ample patience and an understanding attitude if they want to make it big here. They must have an eye for details and be very organised and systematic.
Without precision, the work of a physiotherapist is of no use. With due professionalism and dedication to work, one can make good money and a successful career in physiotherapy.

• Educational Qualification

The basic qualification that one needs in order to pursue a career in this field is that of higher secondary with physics, chemistry and biology as the preliminary subjects. After that, a person may choose to pursue either a degree or a diploma in the field of physiotherapy. A diploma is a three-year course, whereas a degree is a four-and-a-half-year course.

These courses give a physiotherapy student an overall understanding of the human body based on the principles of medical science. The students are made to understand the principles of physical therapy and the skill development associated with the same.

After the said period, the students are made to undergo a six-month internship wherein they practise physical therapy. This is the period that gives the students an on-the-job experience of the actual clinical practise.

For those aiming to become specialised physiotherapists, a postgraduate degree in physiotherapy followed by a PhD will help. There are a number of institutions across the country that offer these courses. The master's degree is for two years whereas the PhD is for three years.

• Growing Importance In The Indian Context

With healthcare gaining importance in the country, people are ready to spend a great amount of money in cardiopulmonary, neurologic, pediatric and electrophysiological therapy. Across the country, many such centres are mushrooming around. This creates a great demand for physiotherapists.

With Hima Das giving the nation its first gold in IAAF, the growing role of sports in the Indian context is evident. This naturally brings in the role of sports physiotherapists in the picture. Diseases like polio and cerebral palsy were incurable in the past.

Today, it is well established that the effect of the same can be brought down by physiotherapy. The growing importance of physiotherapists in the country is because of the fact that the nation is finally realising that physiotherapy is not just a science that is restorative and rehabilitative in nature.

The preventive aspect of physiotherapy is being explored and this has created new horizons of opportunities in this regard. The government is also investing a lot in research and development in this field.

• Scientific Advancement

In the past, physiotherapy in India was all about exercises. Today, the use of agents like heat, electricity and water have found their way in the physiological massages that are given to patients. The result of this is the restoration of joint movements have become much smoother than in the past.

This has also resulted in the course structure for physiotherapy taking a more scientific approach and a growing number of students opting for this profession. These days, India physiotherapists work with burn patients to prevent restricted movement and abnormal scarring.

In the past, things like this were deemed unimportant in the Indian context. However, with the changing times and the advancement of science and technology, the future does look promising for physiotherapy in the country.

• Recruiting Sectors

All the medical colleges in the country require the services of physiotherapists. Other than that, there are multi-speciality hospitals, orthopaedic treatment centres and the usual hospitals. Since aged people are in need of such services more, there are a number of high-end old age homes that employ physiotherapists.

The armed forces and railways are also major recruiters. Sportspersons are prone to injuries all the way more. Thus, athletes and other sportspersons always travel with physiotherapists. Terminal diseases like cancer and leprosy often lead to affecting the cognitive ability of an individual.

In such cases, physiotherapists play a crucial role in restoring the same. That is how we find cancer hospitals to be a major source of recruitment for physiotherapists.

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