Hello everyone. I am contemplating a career change to physical therapy. Do physical therapists have autonomy in terms of the exercises they prescribe? When a general practitioner refers a patient to PT, does the practitioner dictate exercises or do they leave this to the PT? I’ve heard mixed answers on this. Some people tell me that PTs have to follow specific instructions and cannot necessarily practice the way they would like. I guess I’m basically wondering how much freedom the average physical therapist has in terms of how they treat each patient. Thank you for any insight you can provide!
Hey! PTs usually have a lot of autonomy when it comes to prescribing exercises. While they get referrals from doctors, they typically create their own treatment plans based on the patient’s needs. The freedom can vary depending on the setting, but PTs generally have the flexibility to treat patients as they see fit.
As much as they need, I mean they are the ones in front of you.
They have a fairly large amount and scope of practice is increasing for them for the most part as the years go on since the doctorate level is still fairly new. Imaging is one of the main things they don’t really have compared to Chiros, along with pharmacological interventions. They have full autonomy for the most part otherwise though (clinic dependent though), especially if in private practice.
One of the main areas where things get a little more strict is certain surgical cases where protocols are usually somewhat locked in depending on the procedures. By protocol, I mostly mean goal expectations (which is important), but the route to get those goals can be variable unless you have a surgeon who is a stickler about things. Going against some of those could hurt a large referral source, which I have seen occur in my clinical setting.