A growing number of patients prefer to receive physical therapy treatments at home. Thus, it's important that physical therapists follow this trend and show that they're capable of working in this kind of setting, providing work that's individualized and flexible to the demands of patients, following the patient’s condition and a specific care plan. It also follows that physical therapists must curate a good home health physical therapist resume to further highlight their ability to provide the patient’s physical therapy needs.
In this article, we discuss how to create a better resume to help you highlight your skills, professional background, and personal qualities to a prospective patient or their family that you are applying to as a home health physical therapist. We also shed light on common pitfalls to avoid when writing a home health physical therapist resume, ensuring your application stands out.
A potential employer often first sorts out their desirable candidates through their resume. As such, a well-structured and well-thought-out resume can help a candidate stand out and highlight their expertise and commitment to their profession as a home health physical therapist.
Here are some areas you should focus on to make an excellent home health physical therapist resume:
It's important to have a clear resume header with your contact information at the top of your application. This is then followed by the resume objective or summary, education section, skills section, experience section, and an optional section that may highlight the other certifications that can make you a great asset to the organization.
The resume objective or summary is a focal point in your home health physical therapist resume and is often seen at the beginning of the resume. However, this is written after you have thought out your whole resume. You'll better understand the information you wish to summarize if you do this.
The resume objective is centred on your abilities and demonstrates how you can contribute your physical therapy services in accordance with your patient’s individualized goal or an organization's success as their employee. A resume summary, on the other hand, will serve as your self-introduction and can help an employer have a good first impression of you by describing the abilities you offer for specific physical therapy goals, plan of care, and their appropriateness, and highlighting a few significant accomplishments that show your value to the organization.
In this section, you may just indicate the name of the school, the years you attended, and the degree that you earned if you have been working for years. However, suppose this is your first time applying for the position. In that case, it may be a good idea to indicate your GPA, Latin honours, scholarships, and relevant coursework that would help to show your ability as a home health physical therapist.
This section is the best way to show that you’ll do a better job than other candidates. You need to point out the relevant skills to your profession that may help demonstrate your expertise as a home health care physical therapist. This includes setting up, overseeing, and providing physical therapy to patients and clients in accordance with the physician’s plan and the client's plan of care.
You can do this by listing all the required skills in the job offer application and comparing them to the skills you have. Write down the overlapping skills that the employer needs while also adding some soft skills in between. You need to limit your list by 5–10 points to make it impactful and concise while still being as relevant as possible.
Some examples of home health physical therapy skills are:
Remember to always be truthful about your level of skill when stating your skills on your physical therapist's home health resume.
The section highlighting your work experience related to physical therapy may be considered the most important part of your resume, as this section shows what you are capable of to recruiters and employers, with a focus on the relevant aspects of your past positions and responsibilities. Take time to think about and write down all your relevant experiences as a home health physical therapist within this section.
Use bullet points to draw attention to certain achievements and accomplishments, such as major improvements in patient outcomes, their medical status, or how you effectively manage cases. These accomplishments will show your value as a home health physical therapist with your physical therapy services and physical therapy program.
Be sure to highlight your understanding of home health care procedures and your capacity to work well independently or with team members. Instances where you made a significant contribution to a multidisciplinary team approach to patient care should also be showcased.
To demonstrate your impact on your patients as a home health physical therapist, quantify your accomplishments and responsibilities with statistics, if possible, for patient outcomes and general status. Making care plans, case management, care activities, and significant changes in previous patients can be added here.
You also need to use dynamic action verbs in your home health physical therapy resume to pass the ATS scans that most companies use and impress recruits and employers with your initiative.
Lastly, it's crucial to tailor your resume to the particular position you're applying for as a home health physical therapist. Certainly, a tailored resume will have a greater impact than one that isn’t.
If you’re starting your journey as a home health physical therapist, you must add relevant experience like volunteering, internships, or other work showcasing your skills and abilities. Consider integrating components in your resume that are closely related to home health care to demonstrate your relevant experience.
Examples of such relevant experience can be:
This can demonstrate your practical experience, and strengthen your home health physical therapist resume.
You can also add some additional sections that showcase your knowledge of different subjects that may be an add-on as a home care supervisor. You can add languages you know and your proficiency in these languages, as this can broaden the demographics to which you can offer your services, certifications like Basic Life Support and First Aid to show you value patient safety, and other activities like case conferences, interests, awards, and other volunteer work.
These may also be focal points that will aid in your patient's care plan if they require additional services. For instance, fluency in another language or having additional certifications can be valuable assets in addressing their unique plan of care, and homecare needs with a home health aide of the patient.
A cover letter is a ribbon on top of the present, so to speak; it solidifies your intent to apply to a patient or a company. This can help with the ongoing assessment by employers regarding your application.
A cover letter starts with a strong opening paragraph that will draw the reader's attention and introduce you. Next, you must explain why you are applying and how your abilities fit with what they seek as a home health physical therapist. Add a few of your major accomplishments to demonstrate your abilities in patient care. Lastly, as a bold move, invite a call to action for additional discussion regarding the position.
Remember to use a professional format for a polished appearance in your cover letter that goes with your home health physical therapy resume.
Most of the time, resumes don't reach the recruiter's desk or the patient themselves. Many organizations use applicant tracking software (ATS) to screen the resumes before they are brought up to a decision-maker. Even if organizations don't have ATS software, here are some common mistakes you should avoid to ensure the acceptance of your resume:
Making a resume seems like a daunting task, and although this cannot guarantee you success, following our tips and avoiding common mistakes can certainly help in paving the way to getting hired as a home health physical therapist. Once you feel ready to submit your resume, sending it to reputable healthcare career sites like Caring Support is a good idea.
At Caring Support, we value job seekers' efforts in each application and their preparations to accomplish their recruitment goals. As such, we partner with the best employers in Canada to make your applications as accessible and seamless as possible through our revolutionary all-in-one healthcare and wellness platform.
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