Physiotherapist CV Examples & Writing Guide

A CV for an HCPC-registered physiotherapist seven years after graduating, now leading a small private MSK clinic after four years in the NHS. Name and employers are made up. Registration and the MSc sit in the title line, every job gives a caseload and an outcomes number, and the skills read like a treatment toolkit rather than a list of traits.

Physiotherapist CVs are read by a clinical lead or therapy manager in the NHS, a clinic owner, or a recruiter for a private group. Most were treating clinicians themselves, and they look for four things in about twenty seconds.

• HCPC registration. You must be on the HCPC register to call yourself a physiotherapist, and one registration covers the whole UK. New graduates should give their graduation date and HCPC application status.
• Setting fit and caseload. MSK outpatients, acute wards and respiratory, neuro rehab, community and intermediate care, paediatrics, private practice and sport are different jobs. Give patients per day, new assessments per week and diary utilisation. NHS posts are banded on Agenda for Change: Band 5 for newly qualified rotational posts, Band 6 for specialist posts, Band 7 for advanced practitioners and team leads.
• Documentation and records. Same-day notes, clean records audits against HCPC standards and CSP guidance, insurer reports and authorisations on time. In private practice late reports cost money; in the NHS they fail audits. A physio who proves a clean record is worth more than one with a longer skills list.
• Outcomes and specialty. MSK-HQ, PSFS or other outcome measures against a benchmark, discharge and DNA rates you influenced, and postgraduate training (an MSc, MACP membership, first contact practitioner or advanced practice training) where the job calls for it.

“Tell me your registration, your patients per day and whether your notes are done the same day. If you also give me an outcomes number I can compare to national data, you are in the top ten percent of CVs I see.”

Every physiotherapist in the UK completes an HCPC-approved programme (a BSc (Hons), a pre-registration MSc or a degree apprenticeship) and registers with the HCPC; there is no national exam after graduating. Most also join the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP), which gives the MCSP letters and professional liability insurance. Postgraduate qualifications have exact names. Short courses are training, not qualifications, unless they end in an assessment and an award.

• Required: HCPC registration, basic life support, professional indemnity insurance (CSP membership covers most physiotherapists) and, for most NHS and private roles, an Enhanced DBS check. Community posts also need a full UK driving licence and a car.
• Expected for specialist and advanced posts (Band 7 and above): a relevant postgraduate qualification (MSK, sports, neuro, respiratory, paediatrics, pelvic health), membership of the matching professional network (MACP, ACPSEM, ACPRC, ACPIN or POGP), or progress on a first contact practitioner or advanced practice route.
• Valued training with an assessment: McKenzie (MDT) credentialing, LSVT BIG, vestibular courses, acupuncture and dry needling (AACP), injection therapy, supplementary or independent prescribing for advanced roles, lymphoedema training, and UKSCA accreditation for strength and conditioning.
• Do not use "chartered" and "registered" as if they meant the same thing. Registration with the HCPC is the legal requirement; "chartered" means CSP membership. Clinical leads notice when the two are blurred.

Three or four lines: registration and years, setting and caseload, one outcomes or records number, and your specialty or patient group. New graduates and physiotherapists changing settings use a short career objective instead.

A strong physiotherapy bullet names the setting, the conditions or patient group, the caseload, and a result the reader can compare with their own numbers: outcomes against a benchmark, DNA rate, records audits, insurer audits, service growth.

Pick 10 to 14 skills that match the setting in the advert. A private MSK clinic wants manual therapy, post-operative protocols and insurer documentation; an acute hospital wants early rehabilitation, respiratory care, discharge planning and safe moving and handling; a children's service wants developmental assessments and family training.

• Assessment: MSK and neurological examination, red flag screening and onward referral, gait and balance assessment, outcome measures (MSK-HQ, PSFS, LEFS, DASH, Oswestry, Berg, TUG, 6MWT), standardised developmental assessments in paediatrics.
• Treatment: manual therapy, exercise rehabilitation, neuromuscular re-education, post-operative protocols, vestibular rehabilitation, acupuncture and dry needling, electrotherapy used with judgement, respiratory physiotherapy and airway clearance, lymphoedema care for specialist roles.
• Setting-specific: early rehabilitation in ICU, respiratory on-call, moving and handling equipment, home safety and falls assessments, EHC plan contributions for children's services, return-to-sport testing.
• Documentation: HCPC standards and CSP record-keeping guidance, insurer authorisations and progress reports, discharge letters to GPs, notes that stand up to audit.
• Software: TM3, Cliniko, SystmOne, EMIS, Cerner, Epic, and Physitrack or a similar tool for home exercise programmes.
• Supervision and teaching: supervising rehab assistants and technical instructors, practice education for students, in-service training, preceptorship for Band 5 physiotherapists.
• Soft skills clinical leads care about: explaining a treatment plan so the patient comes back for appointment two, running a 30-minute diary without falling behind, handling an insurer's refusal to authorise more sessions calmly, and speaking a second language your patients use.

Three different people search for a physiotherapy CV with no experience: a new physiotherapy graduate, a physiotherapy assistant moving towards registration (often through a degree apprenticeship), and a student or career changer applying for an assistant post that needs no registration. Each writes a different CV.

1. 1New physiotherapy graduate: put HCPC registration status in the header. List each clinical placement like a job, with setting, weeks, caseload by the end and one thing you did with a number (assessments completed, a group you helped run, a case presented). Add your dissertation or research project and CSP membership. One to two pages.
2. 2Physiotherapy assistant or technical instructor moving towards registration: same approach with your support work and any degree apprenticeship placements. Emphasise treatment delivered under delegation, patient volume, exercise classes and records, plus any Level 3 support worker qualification.
3. 3Assistant with no experience: no registration is needed. Lead with work experience hours, a first aid certificate, any healthcare or customer service job with numbers (patients a day, shifts a week), moving and handling training and your course status if you are heading for a physiotherapy degree. Availability matters; many departments and clinics run from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and at weekends.

• Length: one to two pages for Band 5 and Band 6 posts and new graduates; two pages for clinical leads, advanced practitioners and managers with services, teaching and committees to list. A full academic CV (placements, presentations, publications, teaching) is for research, lecturer and consultant physiotherapist applications.
• Title: in the UK both "physiotherapist" and "physical therapist" are protected titles regulated by the HCPC, and "physiotherapist" is the word adverts use. In the US the licensed profession is "physical therapist": it needs a DPT-level degree, the NPTE and a state licence, and the document is a resume. Use the word the advert uses.
• Order: header with registration, personal statement, registration and memberships, experience, education (physiotherapy degree first), skills. New graduates move education and placements above other experience.
• Plain single-column layout, standard font, no photo, no date of birth, text-based PDF. NHS posts go through NHS Jobs or Trac with an application form and supporting statement; private groups use applicant tracking systems that scan for "HCPC", the setting and named software.
• Keywords to mirror from the advert: "physiotherapist", "HCPC", "MCSP", "MSK outpatients" or the setting, the band, "manual therapy", "exercise rehabilitation", "respiratory on-call", "MSK-HQ" or their outcome tool, "TM3" or "SystmOne", "first contact practitioner", "bilingual" if asked.

Run the finished page through the cvplex ATS checker with the advert pasted in. It flags a missing registration line, a setting or system named in the advert that you left out, and any bullet without a caseload or result.