Physical Therapistsresume guide.
Assess, plan, organize, and participate in rehabilitative programs that improve mobility, relieve pain, increase strength, and improve or correct A strong Physical Therapists resume shows active listening, critical thinking and reading comprehension, and names the tools you have worked with, such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Office software.
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A Physical Therapists resume built in ResumeXRays, annotated against the data below. Flip the pages, try a template, then make it yours.
- 1Use the title the posting uses.This guide lists Outpatient Physical Therapist and Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) as common titles, so the headline and summary use both.
- 2Prove results with outcome scores.Clinics are paid more and more on patient outcomes, not visit counts. "Evaluate effects of treatment and adjust treatments" from this guide becomes a goal rate you can compare to the clinic.
- 3Show you can see patients without a referral.Direct access is growing, and clinics want therapists who can screen safely on their own. Say how many patients came in that way and how you screened them.
- 4Count the people you supervise."Direct, supervise, assess, and communicate with supportive personnel" is a top task in this guide. Naming the PTAs and the clean audit record shows it.
- 5Name your EHR the way postings do.eClinicalWorks EHR software and MEDITECH software are the medical tools this guide marks as hot, so they appear in the bullets and the skills.
- 6Name your license precisely.A license is required to practice, so give the credential, the state board that issued it and that it is active. Spell out board certifications like OCS with the issuer.
Sample resume. The candidate is fictional; the layout and templates are real.
01Also called
O*NET02Skills employers expect
O*NETImportance is how much the skill matters to the job; level is how much of it the job demands. Both are worth naming on the resume, in this order.
| Skill | Importance | Level |
|---|---|---|
| Active Listening | Very high | Advanced |
| Critical Thinking | Very high | Intermediate |
| Reading Comprehension | Very high | Advanced |
| Service Orientation | Very high | Advanced |
| Social Perceptiveness | Very high | Advanced |
| Speaking | Very high | Advanced |
| Monitoring | High | Intermediate |
| Writing | High | Advanced |
| Judgment and Decision Making | High | Intermediate |
| Time Management | High | Intermediate |
03Knowledge areas
O*NET- Customer and Personal Service
- Therapy and Counseling
- Medicine and Dentistry
- Psychology
- Education and Training
- English Language
- Biology
- Administration and Management
- Physics
- Sociology and Anthropology
04Common responsibilities
O*NETOrdered by importance. Each one is a bullet waiting for a result and a number.
- Plan, prepare, or carry out individually designed programs of physical treatment to maintain, improve, or restore physical functioning, alleviate pain, or prevent physical dysfunction in patients.
- Perform and document an initial exam, evaluating data to identify problems and determine a diagnosis prior to intervention.
- Record prognosis, treatment, response, and progress in patient's chart or enter information into computer.
- Evaluate effects of treatment at various stages and adjust treatments to achieve maximum benefit.
- Instruct patient and family in treatment procedures to be continued at home.
- Confer with the patient, medical practitioners, or appropriate others to plan, implement, or assess the intervention program.
- Administer manual exercises, massage, or traction to help relieve pain, increase patient strength, or decrease or prevent deformity or crippling.
- Obtain patients' informed consent to proposed interventions.
- Test and measure patient's strength, motor development and function, sensory perception, functional capacity, or respiratory or circulatory efficiency and record data.
- Direct, supervise, assess, and communicate with supportive personnel.
05Software and tools
O*NET20 tools across 10 categories. The six largest categories are below; Hot marks a hot technology, In demand a tool employers ask for most often.
- MEDITECH softwareHot
- eClinicalWorks EHR softwareHot
- Medical procedure coding software
- Medical condition coding software
- Prognosis Innovation Healthcare ChartAccess
- Rehab Documentation Company ReDoc Suite
- Advantage Software Physical Therapy Advantage
- Clinicient Insight
- Hands On Technology TheraWriter.PT
- Patient charting software
- Microsoft WordHotIn demand
- Exercise routine creation software
- MediGraph
- Biometrics video game software
- Cedaron Dexter Evaluation & Impairment Rating
- SpectraSoft AppointmentsCS
- Recordkeeping software
- Microsoft OutlookHotIn demand
- Microsoft Office softwareHotIn demand
- Microsoft ExcelHotIn demand
06Education and preparation
O*NET07Putting it on your resume
ResumeXRays guidanceLead with what you built. For a Job Zone 5 role, hiring managers and parsers both look for outcomes before credentials. Put two or three results at the top of each job entry, with the scale or effect stated plainly.
Name the tools exactly. This occupation is heavy on named software. A skills section that says "Microsoft Word, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Office software, Microsoft Excel" matches more job descriptions than a general phrase. Use the spelling employers use.
Show critical thinking and reading comprehension, not just active listening. Critical thinking and reading comprehension rank close to active listening for this occupation. One bullet per role that shows a decision, a tradeoff or a result covers them.
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