Physical Therapist (Physiotherapist) Resume Examples & Writing Guide

A one-page resume for a licensed physical therapist seven years out of a DPT program, now leading a small outpatient clinic. Name and employers are made up. The license and board specialty 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.

Physical therapist resumes are read by a clinic director, a rehab manager or a therapy recruiter at a hospital system or a private-practice group. Most were treating clinicians themselves, and they look for four things in about twenty seconds.

• License in the right state (or compact privilege). Active PT license in the state where the clinic is, or a PT Compact privilege if both states are members. New graduates should show NPTE date and license application status.
• Setting fit and caseload. Outpatient orthopedics, acute care, inpatient rehab, skilled nursing, home health, pediatrics and school-based therapy are different jobs. Give patients per day, visits per week, evaluations per week and productivity so the director knows you can carry their schedule.
• Documentation and compliance. Same-day notes, Medicare plan-of-care and progress-note timing, clean payer audits. Directors lose money to denials and late notes; a therapist who proves a clean record is worth more than one with a longer skills list.
• Outcomes and specialty. FOTO or other functional outcome scores against predicted, discharge rates, cancellation rates you influenced, and a board specialty (OCS, SCS, NCS, GCS, PCS, CCS, WCS) or a residency where the job calls for one.

“Tell me your license state, 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 resumes I see.”

Every US physical therapist graduates from a CAPTE-accredited DPT program, passes the NPTE (National Physical Therapy Examination, run by the FSBPT) and holds a license from a state board. Once licensed, the exam is implied. Board specialties come from the American Board of Physical Therapy Specialties (ABPTS) and have exact names. Continuing-education courses are training, not certifications, unless they end in an exam and a credential.

• Required: active state license (or compact privilege), CPR or BLS, and for most employers a clear background check. Home health also needs a driver's license and car.
• Expected for specialty positions: an ABPTS specialty (OCS for orthopedics, SCS for sports, NCS for neuro, GCS for geriatrics, PCS for pediatrics, CCS for cardiopulmonary, WCS for pelvic health) or an APTA-accredited residency in that area.
• Valued training with a credential: McKenzie Method (Cert. MDT), LSVT BIG, vestibular competency courses, dry needling (allowed in most states but not all; check your state practice act), certified lymphedema therapist (CLT), certified hand therapist (CHT, mostly OTs but open to PTs), CSCS for sports settings.
• Do not write "licensed and certified physical therapist" as one phrase. Licensing is the state; certification is a specialty. Directors notice when the two are blurred.

Three or four lines: license and years, setting and caseload, one outcomes or compliance number, and your specialty or population. New graduates and therapists changing settings use a short objective instead.

A strong PT bullet names the setting, the diagnoses or population, the caseload, and a result the director can compare to their own numbers: outcomes against prediction, cancellation rate, documentation compliance, audit results, program growth.

Pick 10 to 14 skills that match the setting in the posting. An outpatient director wants manual therapy, post-surgical protocols and payer documentation; a hospital rehab manager wants early mobility, discharge planning and safe patient handling; a pediatric clinic wants developmental assessments and family training.

• Evaluation: musculoskeletal and neurological examination, differential screening and referral, gait and balance assessment, functional outcome measures (FOTO, LEFS, DASH, Oswestry, Berg, TUG, 6MWT), developmental assessments in pediatrics (Peabody, Bayley).
• Treatment: manual therapy, therapeutic exercise progression, neuromuscular re-education, post-surgical protocols, vestibular rehab, dry needling where allowed, modalities used with judgment, wound care and lymphedema for specialized roles.
• Setting-specific: early mobility and ICU protocols, safe patient handling and lift equipment, OASIS-E and home safety evaluations, IEP participation and school-based documentation, return-to-sport testing.
• Documentation and billing: Medicare plan of care and progress notes, 8-minute rule, CPT therapy codes, prior authorizations, defensible documentation for audits.
• Software: WebPT, Epic, Cerner, Raintree, Prompt, Net Health, MedBridge or similar for home exercise programs.
• Supervision and teaching: PTA supervision rules for your state, student precepting (APTA CI credential), in-service teaching, mentoring new graduates.
• Soft skills directors care about: explaining a plan of care so the patient shows up for visit two, working a 30-minute schedule without falling behind, handling a Medicare denial calmly, and speaking a second language your patient population uses.

Three different people search for a physical therapy resume with no experience: a new DPT graduate, a new physical therapist assistant (PTA), and a student or career changer applying for a PT aide or tech job that needs no license. Each writes a different resume.

1. 1New DPT graduate: put NPTE and license status in the header. List each full-time clinical rotation like a job, with setting, weeks, caseload by the end and one thing you did with a number (evaluations completed, a program you helped run, a case presented). Add research or capstone work and APTA membership. One page.
2. 2New PTA: same approach with your clinical rotations and the PTA licensure exam status. Emphasize treatment delivery, patient volume and documentation under PT supervision. Mention any aide or tech work before school.
3. 3PT aide or tech with no experience: no license is needed. Lead with observation hours, CPR/AED, any healthcare or customer service job with numbers (patients a day, shifts a week), physical readiness (lifting, transfers training) and your school status if you are on a DPT or PTA track. Availability matters; clinics run 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

• Length: one page for staff PT roles and new graduates; two pages for lead, specialist or manager roles with programs, precepting and committees to list. A full CV (rotations, presentations, publications, teaching) is for residency, fellowship and faculty applications only.
• Title: in the US the licensed profession is "physical therapist" and the resume should use it. "Physiotherapist" is the UK, Ireland, Australia, Canada and India term; UK physios cite HCPC registration and CSP membership instead of a state license. Use the word the posting uses.
• Order: header with credentials, summary, licensure and certifications, experience, education (DPT first), skills. New graduates move education and rotations above experience.
• Plain single-column layout, standard font, no photo, no date of birth, text-based PDF. Hospital systems and large practice groups use applicant tracking systems (Workday, iCIMS, Taleo) that scan for the license state, "DPT", the setting and named software.
• Keywords to mirror from the posting: "licensed physical therapist", the state, "outpatient orthopedics" or the setting, "manual therapy", "plan of care", "Medicare documentation", "productivity", "FOTO" or their outcomes tool, "WebPT" or their EMR, "PTA supervision", "OCS" or any specialty named, "bilingual" if asked.

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