Physical Therapy Assistant

Who May Apply: US Citizens In order to qualify, you must meet the education and/or experience requirements described below. Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religious; spiritual; community; student; social). You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.

Your resume must clearly describe your relevant experience; if qualifying based on education, your transcripts will be required as part of your application. Additional information about transcripts is in this document. Specialized Experience: One year of specialized experience which includes implementing physical therapy treatment plans; instructing on physical therapy programs; and/or providing status reports.

This definition of specialized experience is typical of work performed at the next lower grade/level position in the federal service (GS-06). OR Education: One full year of graduate level education in a field directly related to the work of the position, such as Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, Kinesiotherapy, Sports Medicine, Exercise Science.

OR Combination of Education and Experience: A combination of education and experience may be used to qualify for this position as long as the computed percentage of the requirements is at least 100%. To compute the percentage of the requirements, divide your total months of experience by 12. Then divide the total number of completed graduate semester hours (or equivalent) by 18. Add the two percentages.

Under the direction of the Physical Therapist, plans, coordinates, and administers diverse physical therapy programs for wounded, ill and injured patients, as well as other beneficiaries.,Provides interpretation of Physical Therapist’s findings to initiate care, considering patients’ neurological, surgical, sensory, respiratory, cardiac status, gait ability, posture, age, and general health.,Designs a patient progressive treatment plan, utilized and designed to restore and maintain range of motion, strength, endurance, coordination, relaxation as well as promote healing, pain relief and improvement of functional independence.,Provides updated status in patient progress reports, as well as other administrative reports.,Instructs and reviews all home program precautions and contraindications with patients and family members on use and application of physical modalities for home environment.,Provides instruction to patients, family members and/or other health workers to perform selected treatment procedures and functional training activities.,Tracks procedure’s effects on patients, long-and short-term effects of different types of therapy, and appropriateness of a specific therapy, noting overall trends in efficacy, reporting problems to supervisor.,Shares technical expertise with other therapy assistants, physical therapy students and other interdisciplinary team members.