Acute Care Physical Therapist
Hattiesburg, Mississippi
Forrest General Hospital

Physical Therapist (Agency PT: PT-FGH)

Location: Hattiesburg, Mississippi
Employment Type: Clinical-Allied

Job Description

The Physical Therapist is responsible for implementing physician's orders for physical therapy services within an interdisciplinary environment. The goal is to help patients return to as independent and safe a lifestyle as possible. The therapist must have knowledge and skills to care for pediatric, adolescent, adult, and geriatric patients, demonstrating an understanding of growth and development principles and age-specific care needs.

Contract Length

• 13 weeks

Required Experience

• Minimum 2 years of experience working as a physical therapist in an acute care setting.

Required Skills & Abilities

• Perform patient evaluations using appropriate functional tests and measures.
• Ability to assimilate objective measures with social factors, medical stability, activity restrictions, participation limitations, and comorbidities to determine functional deficits.
• Construct short-term, long-term, and personal/family goals with appropriate frequency and duration to establish therapy diagnosis and plan of care.
• Tolerate physically demanding tasks including moving equipment and patients, following safety measures.
• Proper and secure documentation in Electronic Medical Records (EMR).
• Use critical thinking in patient evaluation and treatment planning.
• Understand and apply moist heat and other physical agent modalities relevant to practice areas.
• Utilize age-specific patient care indicators as necessary per plan of care.
• Understand musculoskeletal, nervous, and integumentary systems with age-specific care indicators.
• Identify learning needs of patients and family members.
• Work as a team member assisting patients and families throughout the acute therapy care system and continuum of care.
• Ability to lift, handle, push, and pull up to 50 pounds.
• Operate equipment such as blood pressure machines, pulse oximetry, wheelchairs, walkers, and other assistive devices.

Education Requirements

• Graduate of a four-year bachelor’s degree approved Physical Therapy Program.

Certification/Licensure Requirements

• Permanent or Temporary Physical Therapist License from the Mississippi State Board of Physical Therapy.
• Basic Life Support (BLS) certification.

Prior Travel Experience

• Not specified / Not required.