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Physical Therapy Programs in Virginia - VA

By an allied health world contributing writer
Published: February 12th, 2010

Individuals who wish to practice as licensed physical therapists in Virginia must earn a graduate degree in physical therapy from a program accredited by the American Physical Therapy Association.  Acceptable degrees include a master’s degree or the increasingly popular DPT or Doctor of Physical Therapy.  On average, it takes between two years, for a master’s degree, and three years, for a DPT, to successfully complete a graduate physical therapy program. 

Physical therapy programs generally expect applicants to have completed certain prerequisite undergraduate courses, including biology, chemistry, anatomy and physiology, physics, psychology, and statistics.  It is also highly recommended that aspiring physical therapists take additional courses such as kinesiology and exercises science, if those classes are offered at the applicant’s undergraduate institution.  However, undergraduates planning to apply to physical therapy schools need not pursue any particular undergraduate major in order to qualify for admission as long as they successfully complete the prerequisite coursework.  Graduate programs in physical therapy also require applicants as a condition of admission to have completed anywhere between as many as 100 hours of either paid or volunteer clinical work in a physical therapy setting.  In addition, most physical therapy schools ask that applicants take the GRE.

Students in graduate programs in physical therapy are generally required to take a number of highly specialized courses in science and medicine, including biomechanics, kinesiology, orthopedics, neuroscience, exercise physiology, orthotics and prosthetics, pathology, and pharmacology.  Because physical therapists work closely and intimately with their patients, their work requires an understanding of human emotion and cognition and interpersonal relationships.  Thus, many physical therapy programs also require students to take courses in psychology, sociology, and human development.  All physical therapy programs have a strong clinical component.  Graduate students in physical therapy take a number of clinical modules designed to teach them how to examine, assess, and treat patients and perform case management.  In order to graduate, aspiring physical therapists must also spend thirty or more weeks working full time in a clinical setting such as a hospital, outpatient clinic, or rehab facility.  Some physical therapy programs offer students the opportunity to concentrate in a specific subspecialty of physical therapy such as sports medicine, pediatric physical therapy, or cancer rehabilitation.

Through campus based and online programs, aspiring Physical Therapists in Arlington, Richmond, Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Chesapeake, Alexandria, Portsmouth and Hampton, Virginia may be able to prepare themselves for the possibility of employment in some of the largest hospitals and healthcare facilities in the state including the University of Virginia Medical Center, Saint Mary's Hospital, Lynchburg General Hospital and Inova Fairfax Hospital.

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