Physical Therapy as a career - advise please

kennyb3

Hi,

Hope that it doesnt turn into a physical therapy v physio debate for once.

First some background - im a qualified accountant (ACA) with a degree in business from DCU. Working in practice and doing well for myself having recently been offered a partnership in the firm. However, this got me thinking and I really dont seee myself doing it forever. Its a good job and im glad I have it and get paid well enough. However i've no real passion for it and find it a real chore and drain from time to time.

Anyway I got thinking about what i really want to do and I think thats a physical therapist. I say physical therapist for a number of reasons ( I don't want to work in a hospital and want to be self employed mainly treating sports injuries). I ve read all the threads on here and the debates back and forward and spoke to my own therapist (who did the NTC course)

So im 27, getting married next year and want to keep up my job in the mean time. I cannot afford to go back studying full time so becoming a chartered physio is simply out. The plan at present is to either do the NTC Neuromuscular course or the physical theraphy one with IPTAS.

Im leaning towards the NTC course for a number of reasons. The plan would be to keep the full time job and try build up a client base in the evenings/ on weekends and then go full time. My own therapist seems to have done this very sucessfully and it seems if you re good enough and committed enough you ll do well.

However I have a couple of very specific questions I be grateful for any help with/comment on:

1. One of my fears is getting 2 years down the line, getting qualified, building up and then being put out of business by regulation. Does anyone know if this is likely to happen and what ANMPT is doing in this regard?

Is this a real cause for concern? Like I ll know my own limitations and want to be the best at what I do but I just dont want a situation whereby legislation basically cuts therapists out in favour of chartered physios.

This is one issue that would point me more towards doing the IPTAS course over the Neuromuscular one.

2. Also related to this it seems that Aviva and Hibernian recognise and refund Neuromuscular theraphy expenses but the VHI do not.

This is a bit of a cause for concern as already your limiting your client pool.


So if there is any neuromuscular or physical therapists or people who are in a similar position id be grateful for your comments/help.

Regards

Larianne

Moved from Mature & Non-Traditional Students.

RV

Hi kennyb3,

The NMT might be riskier because PT carries a degree awarded by the State? IMO it is unlikely the Sate would decree that the PT's they qualified themselves must stop practising. And a recognised degree is a good starting point to regulate a profession if regulation does arrive. Anyway I think the EU/IMF will try to stimulate (and not dampen) competition and have already put that in the bailout deal. Instead of cutting any one or goup out they might promote PT's because they are certified competent in diagnosis and treatment.
The more in-depth course is likely to leave you better qualified with a bigger range of injuries you can treat and a wider market pool. Lots of people do the NMT and continue with the degree so that option is always open. Everyone wants to be properly recognised it seems.
Can you claim tax relief on NMT in the same way you can with PT using the MED1 form? As most everyone can get tax relief it might be even more important than being reimbursed by VHI.
Best of luck anyway whichever you choose. No course is the right course for everyone so you'll have to make up your own mind where to start.

kennyb3

yit wrote: »

If you don't particularly want to treat sports injuries then why be a therapist? As a physical therapist you would be treating a lot of physically active people who have 'sports injuries' or injuries incurred through sport.

I think you ve mis-read.

yit

Apologies, your right I completely misread that. In that case (just speaking in terms of which course is better excluding the insurance related matters) I would say physical therapy would be better to do. I think this because as a NMT afaik you only treat conditions whereas as a PT you diagnose and treat, which gives you a lot more responsibility with patients but more importantly a broader client base. To be honest I don't believe in massage very much at all either so I think PT in addition to a trigger point release course if you could get into one (16 hour course extremely useful) would be my opinion but I'm doing Physiotherapy so I wouldn't know exact pro's and con's of both so get the as many opinions as possible. Shadow work if at all possible would be beneficial too. Would you be thinking of doing a 2 year course or the 3 year degree?

amd82

kennyb3 wrote: »

Hi,





Im leaning towards the NTC course for a number of reasons. The plan would be to keep the full time job and try build up a client base in the evenings/ on weekends and then go full time. My own therapist seems to have done this very sucessfully and it seems if you re good enough and committed enough you ll do well.




Regards

Hi there, came across this post, know it's a few years old but just wondering if you went ahead with either of these courses? Am looking at both NTC and IPtAS courses and wondering which to go with. For financial and time reasons I'm leaning towards NTC and would be interested in hearing information from someone who has completed either course to hear whether they would recommend. Any help appreciated

kennyb3

amd82 wrote: »

Hi there, came across this post, know it's a few years old but just wondering if you went ahead with either of these courses? Am looking at both NTC and IPtAS courses and wondering which to go with. For financial and time reasons I'm leaning towards NTC and would be interested in hearing information from someone who has completed either course to hear whether they would recommend. Any help appreciated

Went ahead with NTC one - dropped out. Just wasn't for me and seems very very few make a career of it.

I just couldn't commit enough to it with a full time job also.

amd82

Thanks for that. Need to hear the negatives too. Would be interested to hear from other people that have done the course if there's anyone reading this! Thanks

Berserker

Interesting thread. I am considering the IPTAS too at the moment. What is the difference between NTC and IPTAS? I was under the impression that the degree from IPTAS was the best form of certification in the area. Also, is setting up your own clinic the only or most common method of making a living from PT?

oliviareilly

kennyb3 wrote: »

Went ahead with NTC one - dropped out. Just wasn't for me and seems very very few make a career of it.

I just couldn't commit enough to it with a full time job also.

Hey kenny im considering this course in the coming months im just wondering why you dropped out? can you give details as to what you found hard or negative about this course? thank you, i really appreciate your opinion as im very cautious about starting a new course

kennyb3

Hi Olivia, basically I didnt think the course was intensive enough to really 'qualify' you to treat people. I think you need to be hands on everyday for a long period of time to do that. Few weekends here and there isn't enough imho.

I'd learn loads, get comfortable hands on wise - then not get enough practice before next lecture and feel i was starting from low base all over again.

Also they fly through material as trying to get you ready in short space of time to treat people.

All in all I don't think i'd have been nearly ready by the end of it.

I should have done physio or Physical therapist course if I wanted to make a career of it.

Berserker

oliviareilly wrote: »

Hey kenny im considering this course in the coming months im just wondering why you dropped out? can you give details as to what you found hard or negative about this course? thank you, i really appreciate your opinion as im very cautious about starting a new course

Olivia, have you thought about visiting a student clinic? IPTAS have a clinic in Dublin, run by the final year students. You would probably get a good idea about the course and the standard of graduate from that.

oliviareilly

the physical therapy course offered by IPTAS is very expensive i would hate to pay that money and find the course a let down like my last sports massage course. So many places offering courses and many of them seem to be a let down looking at the reviews on here. It seems impossible to know what route to take. Im at a very confusing place in my career path

Berserker

oliviareilly wrote: »

the physical therapy course offered by IPTAS is very expensive i would hate to pay that money and find the course a let down like my last sports massage course. So many places offering courses and many of them seem to be a let down looking at the reviews on here. It seems impossible to know what route to take. Im at a very confusing place in my career path

Well, you could go alone and see what it is like, perhaps? If you don't like it then you have lost nothing. Just looked at their site and they have an open day tomorrow evening. I know someone who completed IPTAS and is working in the area. She had no issue with the course, as far as I know.

oliviareilly

thank you for your comment, i think the only way forward is to do a course that is this intense. im gonna give them a call tommorow and inquire.

Tassel

oliviareilly wrote: »

the physical therapy course offered by IPTAS is very expensive i would hate to pay that money and find the course a let down like my last sports massage course. So many places offering courses and many of them seem to be a let down looking at the reviews on here. It seems impossible to know what route to take. Im at a very confusing place in my career path

Hi Olivia,
May I ask which sports massage you did? I'm looking into this area too, especially the NMP course at NTC . Definitely more apprehensive about it after what the original poster said about it...
Ugh, why does this have to be so hard?!