Physical Therapy Resume Sample

As long as there are injuries, there will always be a need for experts in physical therapy.

But to convince employers that you’re the right person to support patients on the road to recovery, you need a strong resume that highlights your skills and certifications.

Follow these three tips for writing a physical therapy resume that’s sure to impress potential employers:

Highlight your physical therapy resume skills

From knowledge of kinesiology to conducting manual therapy with patients, physical therapists need a variety of hard and soft skills to do their jobs well.

For example, active listening and people skills are essential for working closely with patients, educating their families on what to expect during recovery, and collaborating with other health professionals to develop the right treatment plan.

Highlight these skills in your resume skills section to make it easier for hiring managers to immediately recognize you meet their requirements.

To get you started, here’s a list of common skills to highlight in a physical therapy resume:

• Communication skills
• Interpersonal skills
• Adaptability
• Physical stamina
• Hand-eye coordination
• Problem-solving skills
• Critical thinking
• Collaboration
• Therapy intervention
• CPR/AED and first aid certification
• Patient care
• Therapy and counseling
• Evaluation and assessment of functional capabilities
• Soft tissue mobilization
• MediGraph
• MEDITECH software
• Clinicient Insight 
• Patient charting software
• Cedaron Dexter Evaluation & Impairment Rating
• Exercise routine creation software

Open with a strong physical therapy resume summary

A well-written resume summary helps catch the attention of employers by concisely highlighting your skills, experience, and certifications as a physical therapist.

Your summary should communicate your PT expertise in a quick and compelling manner. Keep it relatively straightforward so you can give employers a sense of what you can contribute before they dive deeper into your resume.

Here’s an example of an effective physical therapy resume summary:

Physical Therapist with 9+ years of experience in delivering physical therapy services across home health care and inpatient/outpatient health facilities. Adept at examining patients’ rehabilitative needs, developing therapy plans and treatment goals, and conducting PT programs. Seeking to leverage hands-on experience to excel further in a physical therapy role. 

Include physical therapy-related keywords in your resume

Larger health centers may use applicant tracking systems (ATS) to make the hiring process easier by automatically filtering through the resumes they receive and narrowing the pool of physical therapy candidates.

Adding physical therapy-related keywords for your resume gives your application a boost by providing the ATS with exactly the information it’s set to look for.

Make your resume ATS friendly by reading the job description for any notable skill words and working them into your experience section.

If you’re not sure where to start, here’s a list of general physical therapy-related keywords to include in your resume:

• Physical therapy
• Physical therapist
• PT
• Occupational therapy
• Rehabilitation
• Injury
• Physical dexterity
• Sports medicine
• Patient care
• Treatment planning
• Clinic
• Manual therapy
• Home healthcare

Additionally, try to include keywords that are relevant to the area of specialty, such as pediatric physical therapy, neurological physical therapy, or sports medicine rehabilitation.