enlighten me?

Hello,

I'm a 27 year old male doing fiber optic sales. My work is not personally rewarding and I beginning to believe more and more that physical therapy is where I should be. So I feel I am at somewhat of a crossroads in my life, yet again. But this time, it seems that the decision I must make will have more serious implications than ever before. I am at the age where I want to really focus and commit my best energies into my work. At the end of the day, I want to feel good about what I do.

It would not be fair to say that I hate what I do now. I don't. I also know that if I choose to pursue fiber optics, that I would probably be well compensated financially after my career has developed. But at 27, I am idealistic to believe that if I do not feel passionate about my work so early in my career, it is a bad sign.

Business is not in my blood. I feel there is no harmony between my true character and my work. I have always wanted to be a healer, and the act of helping feels very natural to me. I dream of work where a patient would come to me in pain, and leave with some of that pain
relieved, or at least with a glimmer of hope that good health is just around the corner. With physical therapy, I am hoping to find that kind of harmony.

My ideas about physical therapists may be a little naïve... this is why I am contacting you, to find out from actual practicing physical therapists the daily challenges and triumphs of their jobs. If I do decide to pursue this path, I would do so at the cost of two years of full time schooling. In addition, I would also be essentially walking
away from a very promising career in fiber optics. But if the work is what I believe it to be, I would not hesitate in taking the plunge.

So what exactly does a physical therapist do? Am I correct in believing:

15% massage work
15% working with special PT machines
40% consultation, advice
20% rehab exercises & stretches
10% admin, reporting, professional development

So implicit to the above, most of the true working time, a PT is with a patient, acting somewhat like a combination of a doctor, nurse, coach, and masseur, and psychologist.

Patients are a mix of elderly, post-trauma (eg car accidents), handicapped, post-operational, and "regular" people with day to day ailments such as poor posture or sports injuries.

Do I have the right ideas? Am I dreaming? Am I somewhere in the middle? The last thing I want to do is graduate with degree in hand, ready to work, to discover that my ideas about the work and the actual reality of the work are completely different.

I would be grateful for your help. If it is any consolation, I can offer you a great discount on fiber optic products in exchange for you info...

Searching for knowledge,
Adrian

Adrian, what country areyou from? Physio courses vary greatly depending on what country one is talking about.
I think you are being quite realistic in hoping to relieve pain, increase function, and enhance lifestyle. Like all professions, you would lose some and win some. Being a physio in Oz means:
1) 20% manual therapy (no massage)
2) 20% hard slogginng with stroke/trauma/amputees
3) 30% social working, counselling, educating, reassuring
4) 20% specialised respiratory therapy
5) 10% all groups paediatrics
Oz physios do not massage, that is done by masseurs.
Courses are highly competitive, require the equivalent of entry score into medicine, and last four years.
Physios are a widely travelled, well educated, reasonably well-rounded in knowledge. We learn extensive physiology, anatomy, biomechanics, chemistry, etc but in the end, the cynical would say:
Regardless of WHAT you know, in the end you perform the following tasks with astounding repetition in the hospital environment:
respiratory education, secretion management techniques
check mobility in a hurry because the hospital wants to send them home
supply walking aids and send them home.
The nice thing about Oz physios is you can do exactly what you want, regardless of what the doctor thinks you should do. Exception is post orthopaedic surgery.
Physio has its downside, and can be most frustrating.
But ut is a key to good money (private), reasonable status (somewhere between cleaners and doctors) and exceelnt travel ticket.