Physiotherapist
What the work is
Assesses, diagnoses, treats and prevents disorders in human movement caused by injury or disease.
Would you enjoy the work?
These are the main tasks in the official description. Mark how each one sounds to you.
- Administers muscle, nerve, joint and functional ability tests to identify and assess patients' afflictions
- Treats patients to reduce pain, improve circulation, strengthen muscles, improve cardiothoracic, cardiovascular and respiratory functions, restore joint mobility, and improve balance and coordination
- Treats patients using the therapeutic properties of exercise, heat, cold, massage, manipulation, hydrotherapy, electrotherapy, ultraviolet and infra-red light, and ultrasound
- Reviews, monitors, assesses and evaluates programs and treatments
- Consults with other Health Professionals about patients' conditions, needs and progress
- Educates patients on their physical health conditions, and provides them with structured management plans
- Advises patients, families and guardians about procedures to be practised at home
- Maintains records of patients' treatments, responses and progress
- Develops and implements screening and preventative health promotion programs
Try it
A simulation and a case study from this kind of work, set in a busy physiotherapy clinic near a suburban sports ground. They are fictional.
The kind of days you could have
Good days
- A patient who needed help to stand walks out of the clinic on their own
- A teenager returns to their sport and you watch them play
- Someone tells you they can finally pick up their grandchild
Hard days
- A patient who wants a quick fix when the real answer is slow, steady work
- Standing and bending over all day, and your own back letting you know
- Explaining again why an exercise matters to someone who stopped doing it
Written by Career Calling as a general guide. Real roles vary by employer and place.
Work a mission
Step into a simulated workplace in this field, with a brief from your manager.
Description and tasks: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Occupation Standard Classification for Australia, 2024, Version 1.0 (opens another site), occupation 262431, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. The skill guide above is our plain English summary.