Practice 34 Physical Therapist interview questions covering clinical reasoning, patient care, and rehabilitation techniques.
Question 20 of 34
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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 my supervising therapist on a patient rehabbing an ACL tear in his knee. The patient was extremely overweight and was unable to utilize one of the pieces of exercise equipment that our space had. To help safely modify his exercise, I brought in a mat that he could use with some resistance bands while laying on his back."

Ryan Brunner has over ten years of experience recruiting, interviewing, and hiring candidates in the healthcare, public service, and private manufacturing/distribution industries.
"As a Physical Therapist that prides herself on providing customized care to my patients, I can think of many great examples here. I recently was working with an elderly gentleman that was coming off of a double knee replacement. Knowing how hard his process would be for him physically, I asked if he would be willing to try out aquatic therapy for the first few weeks in our new aquatic therapy center. He agreed that it may be best and he loved it right from the start. His process is now running very smoothly."

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.
What sets your customer service skills above the rest? How do you provide the best care to your patients? Tell the interviewer about a time that you provided excellent patient care. Were your efforts noticed by your boss? Did the patient submit a patient comment card to give kudos to you? End your story with a big impact so the interviewer won't be able to say no to you and your customer service skills.

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 was working with a patient recently that was experiencing some major spinal pain during her rehab process. Even she was on pain medication, there were times that her sessions with me were becoming painful. Looking to reassess her plan, we decided to limit her movements that were causing pain for the time being and this made her time in our clinic better for her. I recommended other exercises she could perform at home to build strength and she really appreciated the extra effort I took with her."

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I can recall a time when I had a male patient who was recovering from a knee surgery, that wasn't feeling comfortable at all exercising in the same room with other patients, so I talked with my supervisor and agreed to do his therapies in his room, so I had to transfer back and forth some of the electric modalities that we could use to help reduce the pain and the swelling and also some ankle weights and elastic bands for the strengthening exercises etcetera. So when we finished with his therapies, he showed a lot of appreciation for my extra effort, and he also made some really positive comments to the management about the service that he received, something that was very kind of him."

Rachelle's Feedback
This example is very good! You went above and beyond, acting with sensitivity towards the patients' needs.
"I had a male patient who was recovering from knee surgery. He wasn't comfortable exercising in the same room as other patients, so I talked with my supervisor and agreed to do his therapies in his room. I transferred some of the electric modalities back and forth, as well as some ankle weights and elastic bands for the strengthening exercises. When his therapy was over, he showed a lot of appreciation for my extra effort, and he also made some positive comments to the management about the service that he received, something that was very kind of him."
Prepare for clinical scenarios and patient assessment questions that interviewers emphasize.
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Written by Ryan Brunner
34 Questions & Answers • Physical Therapist

By Ryan

By Ryan