Physical Therapist Mock Interview

Practice 34 Physical Therapist interview questions covering clinical reasoning, patient care, and rehabilitation techniques.

Question 5 of 34

Tell me about a situation where you showed a great deal of patience?

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Ryan Brunner

Ryan Brunner has over ten years of experience recruiting, interviewing, and hiring candidates in the healthcare, public service, and private manufacturing/distribution industries.

"During my internship, I was working with an elderly patient that was recovering from a double knee replacement. The patient became very frustrated during our first therapy session when they were barely able to stand, let alone walk completely like they had when they were younger. When the patient became frustrated at himself for not being able to walk, I calmly explained to him the entire process of rehabbing a knee replacement surgery. By remaining calm and reiterating the timeline for him, he left our first session in a much better place and remained in that mindset each and every time I saw him from there."

Ryan Brunner

Ryan Brunner has over ten years of experience recruiting, interviewing, and hiring candidates in the healthcare, public service, and private manufacturing/distribution industries.

"Throughout my career, working with patients that required a long road to recovery have required to most patience for as their Physical Therapist. I have found it extremely helpful to remain calm when patients become frustrated at our processes and I always take time to educate patients on why a systematic approach to rehabilitation is very important to their recovery. More often than not, this educational piece helps get patients over the mental hump on their road to recovery."

Heather Douglass

Heather Douglass has over 20 years of experience as a Career Coach, Recruiter, and HR Specialist. Much of her experience is as a Technical Recruiter in the healthcare industry.

As a Physical Therapist, you display patience every day with your patients as well as with other medical staff. Tell the interviewer about times that your patience is tested and what situations you find yourself being patient in most. Be sure to tell the interviewer that when your patience is tested you handle it calmly and with a smile.

Heather Douglass

Heather Douglass has over 20 years of experience as a Career Coach, Recruiter, and HR Specialist. Much of her experience is as a Technical Recruiter in the healthcare industry.

"I love working with children and have found that a bit of extra patience is needed in order to accomplish the treatment that I've set for the patient. I enjoy incorporating games with treatment which is sometimes necessary in order to get a response from a young patient."

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Anonymous Answer

In our profession, it is very common to be working on patients that are upset, frustrated, or even aggressive. To be more specific, I had to work with an elderly patient who was very prejudiced against physical therapy due to his previous experience and made him negative and hard to work with. But I managed to display patience and politely tried to explain to him in detail the process that we had to follow to change the situation he was dealing with. And it worked out pretty well because after that he showed a willingness to cooperate and that led to a positive treatment outcome, where he was able to carry out with his daily life activities."

Rachelle's Feedback

Your example is well laid out, and shows your ability to maintain patience and fortitude. Nice answer!

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34Physical Therapist Interview Questions & Answers

1.What is your style of leadership?

2.Are you comfortable delegating work?

3.What excites you the most about being a Physical Therapist?

4.Being a Physical Therapist allows you to see progress in your patients, does this motivate you? Why?

5.Tell me about a situation where you showed a great deal of patience?

6.Being with a single patient for an hour can be tiring, how can you overcome that?

7.Describe the steps you take when reviewing a patients medication.

8. Talk about a recent problem that you faced as a Physical Therapist. How did you go about solving the problem?

9.What work setting do you prefer?

10.How would you work differently with an older patient?

11.How do you educate your patients?

12.What classes or professors had the most impact on you?

13.How would your co-workers describe you?

14.What experiences have you had that made you a better person?

15.What is your greatest strength as a Physical Therapist?

16.Discuss a patient plan that you designed and implemented.

17.How would you rehabilitate or strengthen the tibialis anterior muscle?

18.Have you ever been interested in treating sports injuries?

19.What made you choose physical therapy over other health professions?

20.Tell me about a time you gave excellent patient care.

21.Are you physically fit and do you exercise?

22.Which population are you excited to work with?

23.Describe your typical work week.

24.Give me an example of a tough patient you had to deal with.

25.How do you stay organized?

26.How would you handle a situation where a patient you had been working with requested another therapist or a move to another therapy clinic?

27.Are there any unique skills or techniques that you would bring to our group?

28.In what capacity have you worked with PT Assistants? What role do you feel they play in the rehabilitation of a patient?

29.Are you available to do outreach to other clinics or make in-home visits?

30.Talk about a time there was miscommunication in the treatment of a patient. How did you handle that situation?

31.What brings stress to your world as a Physical Therapist? How do you handle stressful situations in the workplace?

32.How do you motivate your patients in their rehabilitation process?

33.Talk about a time where you had to involve the family or caregivers of a patient you were working with? In what capacity did you have to involve them?