Attitudes of physical therapists who possess sports specialist certification.

Abstract

Physical therapists contemplating sports specialist certification need research-based information to facilitate their decision-making process. The purpose of this study was to investigate the attitudes of physical therapists who have received sports specialist certification. These attitudes encompass the physical therapists' sense of fulfillment and their feelings of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the certification process. Factors contributing to the therapist's decision to become sports specialist certified have also been investigated. Physical therapists who are sports certified specialists (N = 110) participated in this study. Questionnaires were mailed to the entire population of physical therapists who are sports certified specialists (N = 148). Frequency distributions and percentages were used on qualitative data, and mode was calculated for quantitative data. One hundred ten surveys were returned, for a response rate of 74.3%. Analysis of responses from the subject group suggests that physical therapists feel a high level of satisfaction with their decision to specialize, and that continued professional growth, development, and personal achievement are the major contributing factors in their decision to specialize. Based on these findings, physical therapists appeared to display overall satisfaction in their attitudes toward sports specialist certification. Further research may be warranted to further examine sports certified therapists' attitudes toward the specialization process.