“
Physiotherapists have become indispensable to the hospital set-up as
they help in putting patients on the road to recovery. And no surprise, the
discipline has emerged as an attractive career option.”
Just a minor slip is enough to
throw haywire the rehabilitation of a patient, who has undergone a heart
bypass. More so which regard to other and neuro cases.
A small defect in the post-operative care will rise to further complications
resulting in intractable problems.
This is where the physiotherapist
steps in, using his expertise to enable a patient recovery fully to the point
of leading a near normal life.
These days, a cardiologist relies
heavily on the cardiac-pulmonary rehabilitation programme conduced by a
physiotherapist after a heart surgery. In building confidence and ensuring
early ambulation or mobility, the role of a physiotherapist has assumed
enormous importance.
Job Openings
The importance of physiotherapy
is being increasingly noticed and consequently the number of educational
institutions imparting these courses has gone up. Though a relatively late
phenomenon in Andhra Pradesh, when compared to other southern States,
physiotherapy teaching and practice have become attractive propositions for those
looking for potential career options.
The BPT(Bachelor
of Physiotherapy), a four-and-a-half year course, throws adequate opportunities
for its students and is expected to fetch a minimum salary of Rs.4,000 to
Rs.6,000 in any of the corporate hospitals in different parts of the State at
the entry level.
There are also opening at
specialty hospitals in semi-urban areas, with most of them setting up
physiotherapy wings as part of observing best medical practices.
BPT degree-holders can as well
open their clinics, which may fetch at least Rs,15,000
a month, after meeting the entire expenditure. Some of them are already
offering their services at the doorstep of patients, of course for a price
higher than usual. Moreover, private schools in future can engage Physiotherapists
on the lines of Physical Education teachers. This sector also opens a new
avenue for jobs.
1,570 seats are available in 36
colleges across the state for the course and the percentage of BPTs
successfully rolling out of these colleges every year comes to about 60. all
colleges are affiliated to NTR University of Health
Science (NTR UHS), Vijayawada.
Eligibility
Students, who have passed
Intermediate or an equivalent course with biological sciences, physics and
chemistry, as optionals are eligible to seek admission to the BPT course. Most
of the colleges have a sanction for admitting 50 students each in the course
and some of them 20 and 40 respectively. The managements are empowered to fill
50% recommended as per merit (make obtained in the Intermediate Public
Examination or its equivalent) by NTR UHS under the Government category. The
fee for Government seat is put at Rs.12,000 and under
the management quota, it is ranging between Rs.40,000 and Rs.60,000.
“As things stand today, there are enough opportunities for
all these students for the next two to three years. For those wanting to go
abroad, it is a world of opportunities if they finish the Masters course,” says
T.Arjuna Rao, Secretary & Correspondent, VIMS Institute of Physiotherapy Vijayawada.
Some of these affiliated colleges
have been sanctioned MPT( Master of Physiotherapy)
course and there are 172 MPT seats in colleges affiliated to NTR UHS. The MPT
degree is a specilisation in physiotherapy, for it deals with specialities,
including orthopaedics, neurology, cardiovascular and pulmonary and sports
medicine.
The course is in high demand in
the US, the UK
and other developed countries. For this, one has to become a Member of Indian
Association of Physiotherapists (MIAP) based at Surat.
The IAP conducts exams at regular intervals for issuing MIAP certificates. Most
physiotherapy colleges are concentrated in Hyderabad,
Visakhapatnam,Vijayawada,
Guntur, Tirupathi, Anantapur and
other urban areas.
