How would I get a job as clinical research physical therapist?

September 25, 2013 9:08 PM

So I'm a physical therapist that's looking to move into clinical research. How do I find a job doing that? Is it true I need a DPT/PhD? (I have a Master's.) Are there clinical research positions that are NOT faculty positions? I don't have enough experience to teach. Nor do I particularly want to but I'd be willing to try. Basically I'd love to further the field of physical therapy and patient care in general by doing clinical research but I'm at a loss as to how to get started. Thanks!
posted by ticketmaster10 to Work & Money (1 answer total)

In speech therapy in the UK these jobs are very rare but they do exist. You'd be a clinician delivering a programme of therapy designed by the research team and although you wouldn't normally have a prime role in the academic design and analysis of the study, most labs would take your experience and views into account. From what I've seen these positions are usually part time and may require you to have a clinical job elsewhere that gives you the contacts to source volunteers to participate.

If you want to do research more independently with a university then you'd need a PhD and to be able to attract some kind of funding to pay your salary and the costs of your study - that normally requires a PhD and then substantial experience.

Of course there's nothing stopping you from just independently doing research as part of your own clinical practice, providing you seek the necessary permissions from whoever oversees the ethics of human studies in your area. The difficult part is ensuring that research is good enough quality that it will be publishable in a peer reviewed journal. If you can't publish then you can't effectively disseminate the results in a way people will pay attention to.

I think being a research assistant would be a great way to get started if you can find a job. Look at the websites of all the relevant departments at your local universities and at any your would be prepared to move to as they'll normally advertise on websites. Maybe someone else can advise where academic jobs like this would be advertised in the US.

If you're really dead set on research, it might be worth investigating PhD options as that is specific training to do research and there may be programs that are flexible enough to allow you to continue some clinical work at the same time (speech therapy PhD programs in the UK are mostly part time and assume you are working in the area of clinical practice that you are researching).
posted by kadia_a at 10:38 PM on September 25, 2013