Health Care sector is divided into may sectors like nursing, physical therapy industry, home health care,etc. Physical therapy industry usually helps patients recover from some injury. After the wounds have cleared, one gets to know the damage the injuries have done like limited range of motion, constant pain in joints, inability to walk,etc. Physical therapy assistant helped by physical therapy assistants and physical therapy aides. The entire team work together in tandem  to get the patients back on track and help him live a normal life .Examples of patients of physical therapy centers includes arthritis victims, paralysis victims, accident victims, joint replacements patients,etc. Normally, the length of recovery varies from patient to patient.Many patients recover within few days while some takes many moths to recover. Usually treatment methods include recovery paraffin baths, therapeutic exercises, hot water baths, ice therapy. All these treatments are aimed to relax any tightening in the muscles and restore proper motion of legs and arms without causing much pain to the patients. Patients are very happy from this effort by physical therapist assistants.

Physical therapist or physiotherapists have been around for a long time. In the 80s, they were mostly involved in simple rehabilitation work and the jobs available for them were also few.

Even the educational qualification were not so high to become a physical therapist. But as the time passed by and more and more population was getting older and older, the demand for physical therapist also increased. But he education requirement were also raised. Earlier, only a vocation course was enough but now, to become a physical therapist one has to get a Master’s degree in Physical therapy from one of the 233 physical therapy schools in US. The education is very tough and demanding. Even after completing the education, one has to appear for a licensing exam to get registered before applying for any job. The  physical therapy assistant salary is close to $42,000 per year.

The same is case for physical therapy assistants who were earlier trained at the job and no degree was required to become one. But the government raised the bar, and now to become a physical therapy assistant one needs to complete a associate degree in Physical Therapy after high school graduation. Many options are available when it comes to joining a physical therapy assistant school. Again a physical therapy assistant graduate too has to appear in exam called NPTE to get a license. The education contains subjects like anatomy, physics, chemistry,etc. Course can also be done online if there is a problem in going to regular school for 2 years. Course also requires the students to attend clinical training. Where as the campus program students get ample opportunity in the second year to hone their practical skills, online students need to attend or join a physical therapy center nearby to become trained are practical knowledge and help the patients.