Optometry VS Physical Therapy Medical Field Careers
I see that you're trying to decide if you want to be an optometrist or maybe a physical therapist now these two healthcare professions are definitely in two kind of different fields but they're both in healthcare and for the most part if you're a high achiever and you want more for yourself you're going to be looking in the healthcare field and you.
Decided do i want to be an optometrist and see the future or do i want to be a physical therapist and rehabilitate people back to their prior level of function so in this video we are going to compare and contrast both of those professions in five different categories job duties schooling how much schooling is so.
Tuition work environment and salary and job outlet so let's get into this leg up hey everyone what's going on my name is dr liv for change justin lee physical therapist since you're watching this video i'm sure you're interested in comparing and contrasting different professions whether it's pt ot at right.
Whatever it may be i have so many um i do have a playlist that compares physical therapy and different professions so feel free to check that out okay so optometry what do they exactly do obviously you're like okay well i know optometrists check out the eyes and i.
Get some kind of glasses or maybe i do my insurance i get some free sunglasses right but what do they actually do so the job duties are optometrists are evaluating and diagnosing different eye conditions and diseases right they perform comprehensive eye and vision tests like you've seen that big thing i don't even know what that name is you go.
Does this look better or does this look better right and of course like they want to check how far you're looking at so they say they have you stay certain feet apart and say okay read the lines and then read the letters all the way down to the bottom and of course you're so embarrassed when one eye is worse than the other you're like i can't.
Freaking read that and it's so embarrassing uh maybe it's because my eyes are so small and i don't have a clear vision but uh that's just me um they do prescribe medicine especially um if it's related for the eyes and they prescribe.
Glasses and contacts and maybe some other things like color contacts right they do visual rehabilitation too which is which i thought was super cool so maybe um one you know there's muscles in the eye that help control you move left right up down circular circular and stuff like that so they help rehab those areas and those muscles so that you can.
Have a clearer vision as far as what you're trying to look at and lastly um you know these types of things and if if optometry optometrists do have the extra education then they can definitely do surgery for different types of diseases or injuries depending on the state it's always different and you always want to recheck.
With your scope of practice but surgery might be indicated for maybe tears drainage foreign body removals laser privileges and things of that nature all right so physical therapy of course you know so much about physical therapy because you've been watching my videos on my channel and this is all about physical therapy but for those of.
You who are just joining in and watching this video physical therapists can help diagnose and evaluate different types of movement disorders and injuries they utilize different techniques like manual therapy where you're maybe doing some kind of soft tissue mobilization or joint mobilizations they do therapeutic exercise meaning they exercise the.
Patient or things like neuromuscular re-education whether that's balance or making sure you're walking better through gait training now they also do fitting for assistive devices which no other profession does whether that's for the wheelchair single point cane crutches quad cane and things of that.
Nature and lastly all is all of this is to know that what we as physical therapists want to do is help the patient get back to their prior level of function once they're able to do the things or be independent to be on the progress to do the things that they used to do they don't need our services anymore as.
Physical therapists so schooling now both optometry and physical therapy both require a post-doctorate degree but that means that you can go from your undergrad and go straight into the doctorate degree now for optometry school it's gonna be a total of eight years that's four years.
For undergrad and four years for the doctorate school of optometry now it's good to know that as of this video there are only 23 accredited schools that have optometry as their degree so that means if there is a ton of students trying to apply for 23 schools your chances are hard and it's way more.
Competitive right so just keep that in mind physical therapy on the other hand it does take seven years so four years for undergrad three years for grad school for doctorate school and they have hundreds of accredited schools so depending on what you're more passionate about depending if you want to try to get into.
Whatever healthcare profession that might be something worth looking into all right so let's talk about how much school actually costs now keep in mind of course this there's going to be so many variables whether that's in-state out-of-state public.
Private and you know as time goes on things might be different but from the time that i research this video for optometry for public school education for all four years it's gonna take it's gonna cost about sixty thousand dollars for public school education and for private school education it's gonna cost about a hundred and ten thousand dollars.
Or more for physical therapy for doctor to physical therapy school for public school education it's going to cost about 55 000 and for private school education it's going to cost about 110 000 now this is for everything right so the whole entire schooling and remember just.
Like i mentioned this is about an estimate all right so work environment so optometrists will typically work in standalone offices they're really not associated with hospitals they're kind of a satellite location and within that office you'll have multiple optometrists.
As you probably experienced when you went in for your higher vision checkup however they do have their own private practices or standalone where they're just by themselves or maybe you might see them at some drugstores or costco right costco does have an optometry place as well now physical therapists have a little.
Bit more variety as far as where they can work they of course they have their hospital setting when that's inpatient and outpatient in the hospital but also there are outpatient and rehab facilities so um maybe you might have your outpatient ortho which you might have seen a lot sometimes they're working in the pool.
With aquatics therapy sometimes they're working in they have different types of machines where they are working with on vestibular right and things of that nature now physical therapists can open up their own practice and they have a lot more opportunity in my opinion as far as how much more they can go to and there's a.
Lot more options versus optometry you're just kind of limited to those standalone desks or standalone offices or costco all right let's talk about money now money is absolutely important and this is something you want to consider and weigh out the options as far as what.
Your salary is going to be and compared to how much schooling is going to be how long is schooling and how much it's going to cost now for optometrists well actually first things first i just want to let you know that i got these numbers from the brew of labor statistics and as of this video these are what the numbers say now optometrists will make an.
Average median salary of a hundred and eighteen thousand dollars a year the growth outlook however is only at a growth of four percent one two three four percent therapists on the other hand have a median salary of 91 000 a year however their job outlook growth is at an 18 so you can make their decision and go.
Hmm well four percent versus 18 which one do i want to go to oh you make more money here but what are my availabilities um when i actually graduate school all right so i hope this video helped inspire you make an educated decision as far as which health care field you want to get into i.
Totally understand if you choose one versus the other but i'd love to hear it in the comments which one did you want to get into optometry or physical therapy now if you want me to compare and contrast different types of professions i'd love to hear that in the comments below i hear your feedback i listen to.
Your feedback i read on your feedback every day is a great day to lift weights lift others and lift yourself up stay lifting stay aloha god bless have a great one you guys
