The Student Room Group

Is physiotherapy the right career for me?

Hey peeps,

I'm stuck at a crossroads.

I think i want to become a sports physiotherapist but i'm not 100% sure. Reasons for wanting to become a physiotherapist range. I'm interested in how the human body moves, what muscle groups are used, movement efficiency, prevention and rehab. I enjoy helping people. I love sports, mainly full contact sports. So i thought this would be a good career choice for me. Also working in the healthcare business gives you opportunities to work elsewhere.

I'll be trying to get into University with an Access course qualification in biological science. So i'm guessing if physiotherapy is popular i'd be at the bottom of the pile to be given the chance of studying this. I'm looking to get some work experience to help me decide as well.

I also really want to learn another language but i can't see how learning another language will benefit me in the long term. But if this goes to pot and physiotherapy isn't for me then i'll probably go ahead and learn the language that i desire.

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Reply 1
Well first of all you should get some work experience...I had similar reasons to you for wanting to do Physio but then I did some work exp in an old peoples rehab unit and hated every second of it! Plus no-one will even make you an offer without it.

Secondly, an Access qualification is more than fine to get into Uni with...you'll need around 22-24 credits at level 3, 66-72 in the new system...though it depends where you want to apply to. Many places take in a lot of mature students because they are more focused/motivated etc and most also have a quota of how many mature students they accept so you have as good a chance as anyone...if not more than A level students.

Learning a language will help you if you want to work abroad...plus it's always a bonus to have on your CV for future employment purposes.

Good luck!
Reply 2
I suggest that you get some work experience as this will help you decide wehter the career is for you or not. A word of warning - Sports physio jobs are hard to come by and 99% of physio's end up working in the NHS so it is VITAL that you get some NHS work experience.

If you do decide you want to do physio then whatever you do, do not mention your desire to work in sport on your personal statement. Physio schools are there are to provide physio's to the NHS and are likely to bin your application if you tell them thats all you want to do (hence its important you get work experience in the NHS). For work experience I would just call up your local hospital physio department and see if they have any opportunities...............deopending on how long you want to wait before starting your degree you could work as a physio assistant for a year - thats plenty of experience!!

Physio is very popular but if you could give yourself a top notch personal statement with some excellent work experience then you would stabnd as good a chance as any - can I ask how old you are? When you apply will you be a mature student (over 21)?

Learning another language would be good if you planned to travel with your degree - plus you could argue that the english NHS is multicultural and having a second language would help you interact with some patients that perhaps don't have english a their 1st language...........

f you're totally sure that sports is for you and the thought of working with elderly is a total turn off you could look at the Sports Therapy degree offered by some uni's (I did that as my first degree but am re:training as a physio for various reasons)....................www.herts.ac.uk - thats where I did my trainingh, have a look at the online propsectus.........its like physio but sport specific although it has some down sides which I could happily discuss!! If you have a look and are interested then let me know and I'll try and give you an objective view and answer any questions you have about it! www.society-of-sports-therapists.org is the sports therapy official website - there's a link to all the uni's that offer the course on it.

Jackie
Reply 3
hey starbuck - I see you got yourself a new uni! Congrats!!
Reply 4
Hey, thx for the advice. I'm 22 btw.

I'm going to start looking for work experience asap before i make further plans. Problem is i'm working full time so it's going to be hard to fit around unless i can work weekends. Though saying that i think working 1 day with a physio will determine whether or not i want to be one.
Also, i was hoping to take my degree and work abroad for a private clinic. Thats also why i want to learn another language. But i figured it'll be impossible to learn both at the same time so i'd give learning another language the back seat for now.

Jackie, what happened? Why did you do Sports therapy then pursue a physiotherapy degree? You don't have to answer that but i'm interested to know why you changed your mind. I'm guessing there wasn't many job opportunities with a Sports therapy degree?
Reply 5
hey

st georges is a good uni for mature students - over 70% of the current 1st years are mature applicants.

Well at the moment the jobs just aren't really there for SPorts Therapy - most people think we're Physio rejects and because we're not hpc registered we consequently don't have the reputation that comes attached to being so..................the society is working towards registration but its a longprocess. In say 5 years time the career will be much more settled but there just isn't that support and basis at the moment. Hence why I'm doing my physio degree
Reply 6
JackieS
hey

st georges is a good uni for mature students - over 70% of the current 1st years are mature applicants.

Well at the moment the jobs just aren't really there for SPorts Therapy - most people think we're Physio rejects and because we're not hpc registered we consequently don't have the reputation that comes attached to being so..................the society is working towards registration but its a longprocess. In say 5 years time the career will be much more settled but there just isn't that support and basis at the moment. Hence why I'm doing my physio degree


Hi! One other thing, I've been told by many physio's that generally sports therapy is all well and good, however they only treat fit people, and tend to have less knowledge of pathology- so if there is a more serious problem a sports therapist may not have the knowledge required to treat...

I guess this may be one of the reason sports therapy is more frowned upon than plain physio....

Oh by the way, I've done a sports science degree too and am starting a Msc physiotherapy (accelerated course) in september, I'm 25 :smile: I also did a sports therapy/massage diploma but faced the same problems as jackie mentioned above. I'm glad though becuase I've gone right off sports physio now, there is so much more variety to physio out there rather than just sports!
Reply 7
SamJL
Hi! One other thing, I've been told by many physio's that generally sports therapy is all well and good, however they only treat fit people, and tend to have less knowledge of pathology- so if there is a more serious problem a sports therapist may not have the knowledge required to treat...

I guess this may be one of the reason sports therapy is more frowned upon than plain physio....

Oh by the way, I've done a sports science degree too and am starting a Msc physiotherapy (accelerated course) in september, I'm 25 :smile: I also did a sports therapy/massage diploma but faced the same problems as jackie mentioned above. I'm glad though becuase I've gone right off sports physio now, there is so much more variety to physio out there rather than just sports!


I'm not sure I would totally agree with that comment, but I would agree that alot of the course is aimed at treating those kind of individuals as that is what was specifically designed for. It wasn't designed to treat the grannies who have had a totoal hip replacement but also have emphysema, asthma, OA, RA etc The degree and the career are there to provide highly specialised therapists who can treat people from that kind of environment who have an understanding of the intense pressures and strains of such an environment. And the reverse could be said for physio's -a physio working in elderly mental health probably wouldn't be the best at rehabing a pro footballer with an ACL tear but conversely a sports therapist training pro footballers wouldn't be all that great at encourage Mrs Bloogs who 95 to walk with a rollator zimmer.

Because sports therapy is onlya new degree its still finding its feet and is pretty much geared towards working in private practice and in high spec clubs e.g. football and rugby. As the society finds its feet more situations in which the degree can be used will arise andtherefore the degree will change according.

I just can't wait for that long! Hence physio training!
Reply 8
JackieS
I'm not sure I would totally agree with that comment, but I would agree that alot of the course is aimed at treating those kind of individuals as that is what was specifically designed for. It wasn't designed to treat the grannies who have had a totoal hip replacement but also have emphysema, asthma, OA, RA etc The degree and the career are there to provide highly specialised therapists who can treat people from that kind of environment who have an understanding of the intense pressures and strains of such an environment. And the reverse could be said for physio's -a physio working in elderly mental health probably wouldn't be the best at rehabing a pro footballer with an ACL tear but conversely a sports therapist training pro footballers wouldn't be all that great at encourage Mrs Bloogs who 95 to walk with a rollator zimmer.

Because sports therapy is onlya new degree its still finding its feet and is pretty much geared towards working in private practice and in high spec clubs e.g. football and rugby. As the society finds its feet more situations in which the degree can be used will arise andtherefore the degree will change according.

I just can't wait for that long! Hence physio training!


Fair point! I also think a lot of the attitude to do with sports therapy is the problem with qualification and regulation- there are loads of training bodies out there, you can qualify as a sports therapist in a few weeks....

This makes the industry confusing as people don't know what qualification is better than than the other.... Obviously the longer degree programmes are much better than the short diploma courses, but when there are so many out there it's very confusing for the public. I'd say that's got a lot to do with the image of sports therapy too. Thankfully as Jackie's said it looks like that will change in the next few years.. :smile:
Reply 9
SamJL
Fair point! I also think a lot of the attitude to do with sports therapy is the problem with qualification and regulation- there are loads of training bodies out there, you can qualify as a sports therapist in a few weeks....

This makes the industry confusing as people don't know what qualification is better than than the other.... Obviously the longer degree programmes are much better than the short diploma courses, but when there are so many out there it's very confusing for the public. I'd say that's got a lot to do with the image of sports therapy too. Thankfully as Jackie's said it looks like that will change in the next few years.. :smile:

exactly, this is definitely the major issue. When the sciety get round to being allowed HPC registration they will be the governing body and it will be illegal to call yoursef a sports therapists without the required qualification.
Reply 10
JackieS
exactly, this is definitely the major issue. When the sciety get round to being allowed HPC registration they will be the governing body and it will be illegal to call yoursef a sports therapists without the required qualification.


I'm glad they're doing that, definitley a good thing! :smile:
Reply 11
SamJL
I'm glad they're doing that, definitley a good thing! :smile:

yup :smile: Shame I'll be readyto draw my pension by the time it happens lol :wink:
Reply 12
hello people I’m new.

I also did the BSc sports therapy degree the same as JackieS and really loved it but for the same reasons as her I’m off to do physio. In fact I had my interview at Northumbria for the MSc on Wednesday and have another coming up on Monday (27th) at Teesside.

Anyway what i was going to say is that i had a chat with Professor Graham Smith (president of Society of Sports Therapists) just before I left Uni and he seemed to think that registration could be a little as 9months down the line.

Of course he may have been stringing me along so I stayed with Sport Therapy. My opinion is that even if it does come so soon I don’t think there will be a sudden influx of jobs flying around, it will take time.

That’s not to discourage anyone from the course as i really enjoyed it.
Reply 13
spikey43
hello people I’m new.

I also did the BSc sports therapy degree the same as JackieS and really loved it but for the same reasons as her I’m off to do physio. In fact I had my interview at Northumbria for the MSc on Wednesday and have another coming up on Monday (27th) at Teesside.

Anyway what i was going to say is that i had a chat with Professor Graham Smith (president of Society of Sports Therapists) just before I left Uni and he seemed to think that registration could be a little as 9months down the line.

Of course he may have been stringing me along so I stayed with Sport Therapy. My opinion is that even if it does come so soon I don’t think there will be a sudden influx of jobs flying around, it will take time.

That’s not to discourage anyone from the course as i really enjoyed it.


Good luck with your interview! Which would you prefer to go to? I really like the look of Northumbria, I was going to apply there too for the MSc but I ran out of time for the application! Edinburgh was my first choice anyway so I'm glad I'm going there (to do the MSc aswell) :smile:

Out of interest were there lots of applicants at Northumbria? There were over 300 at Queen Margarets!
Reply 14
spikey43
hello people I’m new.

I also did the BSc sports therapy degree the same as JackieS and really loved it but for the same reasons as her I’m off to do physio. In fact I had my interview at Northumbria for the MSc on Wednesday and have another coming up on Monday (27th) at Teesside.

Anyway what i was going to say is that i had a chat with Professor Graham Smith (president of Society of Sports Therapists) just before I left Uni and he seemed to think that registration could be a little as 9months down the line.

Of course he may have been stringing me along so I stayed with Sport Therapy. My opinion is that even if it does come so soon I don’t think there will be a sudden influx of jobs flying around, it will take time.

That’s not to discourage anyone from the course as i really enjoyed it.


ah yes - Graham Smith - he's very very nice but says alot of things! Noone can accurately say how close registration is as the HPC are slow!

Anyway, even when we are registered it will still take a while for people to come to trust us like theydo physio's - I reckon at least 5 years +
Reply 15
SamJL
Good luck with your interview! Which would you prefer to go to? I really like the look of Northumbria, I was going to apply there too for the MSc but I ran out of time for the application! Edinburgh was my first choice anyway so I'm glad I'm going there (to do the MSc aswell) :smile:

Out of interest were there lots of applicants at Northumbria? There were over 300 at Queen Margarets!



Cheers, I'd defiantly rather go to Northumbria as I have studied at Teesside for the last three years. Also Teesside is not exactly the safest place to live, in three years:

*we were burgled twice
*jumped from behind twice
*had bricks thrown through our windows
*had three of our friends cars broken into, one of them right outside our house in broad daylight
*and a load of other crap happen.

But other than that major factor it was good.

As for Northumbria I really liked the place when i went plus i love Newcastle and its so close to the city centre.

Wow how many applicants that’s crazy! :eek: How many places were there available? I'd be well proud to be selected out of 300 people, well done. :biggrin:

For Northumbria there were 160 applications for 7 places and they interviewed the top 60
Reply 16
7?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?! 7 places????? Bloody hell!!!
Reply 17
spikey43
Cheers, I'd defiantly rather go to Northumbria as I have studied at Teesside for the last three years. Also Teesside is not exactly the safest place to live, in three years:

*we were burgled twice
*jumped from behind twice
*had bricks thrown through our windows
*had three of our friends cars broken into, one of them right outside our house in broad daylight
*and a load of other crap happen.

But other than that major factor it was good.

As for Northumbria I really liked the place when i went plus i love Newcastle and its so close to the city centre.

Wow how many applicants that’s crazy! :eek: How many places were there available? I'd be well proud to be selected out of 300 people, well done. :biggrin:

For Northumbria there were 160 applications for 7 places and they interviewed the top 60


Crikey!! only 7 places?! Wow you did well to get an interview :eek:

There are 20 places at Edinburgh, so the odds are probably a bit better than at northumbria!
Reply 18
SamJL
Crikey!! only 7 places?! Wow you did well to get an interview :eek:

There are 20 places at Edinburgh, so the odds are probably a bit better than at northumbria!



Yeah i think ill impress myself if i get on as im not really expecting too much.


Does anyone know if there are usually any places available through clearing on physio MSc courses?
Reply 19
spikey43
Yeah i think ill impress myself if i get on as im not really expecting too much.


Does anyone know if there are usually any places available through clearing on physio MSc courses?

Because MSc doesn't go thru UCAS there is no clearing process like for BSc however some uni's for MSc make awaiting list and offer places to others ifsome don't take the place up. At KCL they told us that this year they offered a place to someone on the first day that term started and she had aready started on the BSc at Brunel................so she quit brunel and started the Msc!