More Therapists Needed In US

Qualified Filipino physical therapists – both male and female – will be having more opportunities abroad as the United States admitted that its demand for therapists will continue to rise in the next four years.

Data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that the demand for physical therapists has been increasing by 27 percent since 2006. This upward trend is expected to continue until 2016.

Between 13 to 18 percent of job opportunities are open for physical therapists – based on a study by the American Physical Therapy Association.

James Santiago, president of Abundant Home Health, LLC, one of the biggest home health agencies in Texas, disclosed that the graying population in the US is fueling this shortage.

“As Americans get older, they need physical therapists to help them recover from strokes, accidents, and the aches and pains that come with old age,” he said.

Santiago visited the Philippines recently to confer with officers of the Immigration Visa Center regarding the procedures and guidelines in getting physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists, including registered nurses (RN) under either the H-1B visa (non-immigrant visa), or as immigrants under the EB3 category.

The Immigration Visa Center reported an increase in queries from US employers about Filipino physical and occupational therapists that either passed or are qualified to take the US licensure examinations for physical therapists or the National Physical Therapy Examination (NPTE).

Rachel Aranda-Malasig, a longtime physical therapy practitioner in Frisco, Texas, was asked to sponsor qualified physical therapists on a temporary or permanent basis.

A report from the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation disclosed that the healthcare staffing shortages may swell through all the 50 states by 2030, specifically in the south and west.

With the current trend, it is expected that the demand for physical therapists will outpace its supply.

Assessing this crisis, American Legion, a US veterans’ organization, urged the US Department of Veterans Affairs to step up their recruiting efforts in several areas, including physical therapy, physical medicine and rehabilitation, speech and language pathology, and certified rehabilitation nursing.

The organization lamented that several Veterans Affairs polytrauma rehabilitation centers are currently experiencing staffing shortages.

Julie Keysor, associate professor of physical therapy at the Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences of Boston University, stressed the importance of physical therapy.

“As the population ages, people get more chronic conditions for which physical therapists are key for keeping functioning. That doesn’t go away with the recession,” she said.

While Forbes magazine reported in its June 2009 issue that though physical therapy may need time-consuming training, requiring the taking of certain science courses, followed by three years of specialized education in the field, completing the course has its perks – abundant jobs and healthy salaries.

By SARAH HILOMEN-VELASCO

mb.com.ph

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