Physical Therapist

physical therapy ranked highest in job satisfaction, according to a survey conducted by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago. More than three quarters of physical therapists reported being "very satisfied" with their occupation. In a similar survey by the Wall Street Journal's Career Journal, physical therapy rated one of the eight best careers.

And it's easy to understand why:

•You're a one-on-one coach, a role that many people enjoy. It's a bit like a fitness coach but with more skills and you're helping people with more acute problems.

•You usually see real progress. For example, it's touching to see a patient, who came in on a stretcher or in a wheelchair, walk out at the end of treatment.

•Unlike physicians, who often are restricted to 12-minute appointments, you typically see a patient for an hour.

•You have considerable autonomy in how to solve problems, yet, unlike in self-employment, you can get a steady and pretty good paycheck.

•There's variety: Most physical therapists are generalists. You might treat, for example, a brain-injured child, a football player who broke his arm, an Iraq War veteran amputee, and an aged stroke patient.

•You can choose from a wide range of work settings, notably hospitals, physical therapy clinics, schools, physicians' offices, and patients' homes.

•Unlike many other health professionals who must work nights and weekends, you usually have normal work hours.

•Despite increased use of lower-cost physical therapy assistants, the job market for physical therapists is projected to remain strong as the baby boomers are reaching the age where they get more weekend-warrior athlete injuries and more serious problems.

Like all careers, physical therapy has downsides:

•This career is physically demanding. All day, you're moving patients around, demonstrating exercises, and so on. That's a plus for some people and a minus for others who might prefer a desk job. It's not uncommon to leave work with sore muscles.

•Burnout risk. Many of your patients will be newly disabled, in pain, progressing slowly, and/or frustrated by the painful exercises you prescribe. That can take a toll on you.

•Training requirements have been ratcheted up. Not long ago, a bachelor's degree would do. Now, a master's is the minimum, with a three-year doctor of physical therapy increasingly the norm.

Nevertheless, if you're a science- and helping-oriented person, fascinated with the human body, and have an optimistic personality, a physical therapy career may heal your career pains.

Registered Nurse

Smart Specialties


Nurse practitioner. Like a physician's assistant, you'll typically provide most of the direct patient care normally handled by a physician. Training is shorter than for physicians, there's less paperwork, and you're likely to work with healthier patients—which means a high success rate.

Nurse anesthetist. With anesthesiologists often earning $300,000 a year, healthcare providers are increasingly looking to nurse anesthetists to lower costs. You're usually the last person to see a patient before surgery and help ensure a pain-free surgery and after-surgery experience. The job can be stressful, but the high demand (especially in rural and inner-city hospitals ), high pay (average is well over $100,000), and high psychological reward make this a smart specialty indeed.

There's great unmet demand for nurses, and you'll have lots of options. If you want to work directly with patients, you can specialize in everything from neonatology to hospice care. You can work in a hospital, a doctor's office, or a patient's home. Outside of patient care, options range from nurse informatics (helping nurses get access to computerized information) to legal nurse consulting (helping lawyers assess a claim's validity.)

On the downside, many registered nurses must work nights and weekends, and burnout is a factor, especially in medical/surgical wards, and in critical-care specialties such as surgery, oncology, and emergency medicine. There are potential hazards, too: exposure to people with communicable diseases and back injuries from moving patients.

Something to think about: Studies report large numbers of errors by healthcare providers that endanger or kill patients. This is a career for people who are both caring and extremely attentive to detail—even when stressed