over from injuries, but also focuses on prevention of injuries, particularly those that are work-related (DeLisa & Jain, 1991). Physical therapists work in conjunction with this medical specialty for the benefit of the patients. Many professions, such as sports and the performing arts, subject the body to stresses that are not normally encountered in everyday life. Many injuries are not the result of a single accident, but are the product of accumulated damage resulting from years of physically stressful activities.
Physical therapist are members of a health care team, and work with other health care providers such as physicians, occupational therapists, rehabilitation nurses, social workers, speech pathologists, and audiologists ("A Hands-on", 1998). Physical therapists must be able to deal with patients with a wide variety of problems, from such simple things as strained muscles and broken bones, to spinal cord injuries, which are very slow to heal and often do not result in full recovery.
Some of the duties of a physical therapist include: evaluating and assessing patients recovering from injury, surgery, or disease, and developing and implementing treatment programs in conjunction with other health care personnel; teaching patients to use artificial limbs and other prosthetic devices; providing instruction and home programs to patients and their families to continue the recovery process once the patient is out of the physical therapist's direct care; providing home-based rehabilitative care; teaching prenatal and postnatal exercise classes; determining fitness requirements for specific jobs; screening, evaluating, and assessing employees' conditions with respect to job-related physical needs; and taking part in many teaching and assessment programs for schools, industry, sports, research, education, and administration ("A Hands-on", 1998).
Services provided by the physical therapist help restore function, improv...