Physical Therapist Assistant job description
292 verified openings in Allied Health & Therapy
State law decides how much of a treatment plan an assistant may change. O*NET has physical therapist assistants carrying out treatment, documenting progress, and modifying specific treatments inside a plan the physical therapist wrote, and it notes the job generally requires formal training. The training shows up in the pay. BLS reported a median of $68,380 for May 2025 across 112,430 assistants, $47,750 at the tenth percentile and $89,510 at the ninetieth. Aides do related work in the same clinics for roughly half the money, and BLS counts them on a separate line.
Core Duties and Responsibilities
Instructing, motivating, and safeguarding patients through exercises and documenting how each one progresses are the two duties that matter most, and they matter equally. Assistants observe patients during treatment and hand the results to the therapist in person or in progress notes, teach body mechanics and ways to improve functional mobility such as aquatic exercise, and administer manual therapy, massage, or ultrasound and other modality treatments. Measuring range of joint motion and vital signs, training patients on braces and prostheses, and briefing family members on what happens at home are regular duties too.
Common Skills and Technologies
O*NET puts active listening at 4.0 of 5 here, ahead of speaking, monitoring, and social perceptiveness, and the charting load pushes reading comprehension and writing up the list too. eClinicalWorks EHR software heads the Hot Technologies employers ask for, with Microsoft Access behind it for departmental records and the Office set for everything else.
Education, Training, and Career Path
O*NET Job Zone Three, medium preparation. Of assistants surveyed, 84% hold an associate's degree and 15% a bachelor's, and the titles they report include Licensed Physical Therapist Assistant and Certified Physical Therapist Assistant, so a credential gets checked at hire. Outpatient, home health, and per diem variants show up in the same list, which is a fair map of where the work is.
Sources: O*NET 30.0, 31-2021.00 Physical Therapist Assistants, https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/31-2021.00. BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, 31-2021, https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes312021.htm.