Physical Therapist Assistant resume examples by experience level

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Use this example

A physical therapist assistant resume is a one to two page document naming your state license, the accredited program behind it, the settings you have treated in, and what you actually do inside a plan of care that somebody else wrote.

That last clause is the whole job, and it is what PTA resumes most often blur. In fact, a physical therapist assistant does not evaluate, does not diagnose and does not write or rewrite the plan of care. A PTA progresses treatment inside it, documents against it, and tells the therapist when the patient no longer fits it. A clinic director is reading for evidence that you know exactly where that line sits, because a PTA who does not is a compliance problem before they are a clinical one.

Resume guide for a physical therapist assistant resume

Specifically, this guide and the corresponding physical therapist assistant resume example will cover:

• First, how to write a PTA resume, block by block
• Secondly, what you may progress within a plan of care, and what only the therapist changes
• Thirdly, the supervision level each setting runs on, and why it belongs on the page
• Fourthly, three adaptable summaries: new graduate, practicing PTA and senior PTA
• Lastly, what the job market shows and what you can expect to earn

How to write a physical therapist assistant resume

Overall, it takes five blocks: contact header, summary, license and education, clinical experience, and skills. In general, use one page for your first five years, then two once you have worked across settings, taken students, or led a site.

A clinic director checks the license, then the setting, then the caseload, then whether the bullets were written by someone who understands the boundary.

Run the finished file through the ATS resume checker before you send it. Hospital systems and multi-site outpatient groups parse applications into a structured record before a director opens one.

Choosing the best resume format for a PTA resume

Reverse chronological, single column, one page until the second earns itself.

However, the format decision specific to this job is how you handle setting changes. After all, PTA careers move between outpatient orthopedics, skilled nursing, home health and acute care, and each is a different day of work with a different supervision arrangement and documentation burden. Therefore, put the setting on the heading line: "Physical Therapist Assistant, outpatient orthopedics, 4-clinic group" and "Physical Therapist Assistant, 118-bed skilled nursing facility" tell two different stories in eight words.

Include your contact information

Also, put the license number and expiry in the header. Every state board publishes a verification lookup, so a file that can be confirmed in ten seconds moves ahead of one that has to be asked about. The state matters too, because licensure is state by state.

Make use of a summary

In short, use four lines: license and state, setting and caseload, the populations and interventions you carry, and one number with a period of time attached.

Physical therapist assistant newly licensed in Tennessee, license #PTA-40917, graduated from a CAPTE accredited associate degree program and passed the National Physical Therapy Examination for physical therapist assistants in 2026. Completed three full-time clinical affiliations across outpatient orthopedics, a 118-bed skilled nursing facility and acute care, carrying up to 9 patients a day by the final affiliation. Trained in gait and transfer training, therapeutic exercise progression, manual techniques within the plan of care, and documentation in WebPT and Casamba.

Physical therapist assistant with seven years across outpatient orthopedics and skilled nursing, licensed in Tennessee, treating 12 to 14 patients a day under general supervision in a four-clinic group. Progresses therapeutic exercise, gait, balance and manual intervention within plans of care written by three supervising therapists, and flags patients for reexamination when their response stops matching the plan. Rebuilt the post-operative total knee handout and home program; patients arriving at week six without a completed home log fell from 38 percent to 11 percent over a year.

Senior physical therapist assistant with 14 years across outpatient orthopedics, skilled nursing and home health, licensed in Tennessee, treating a full caseload while serving as site lead for two clinics and clinical instructor for physical therapist assistant students. Owns the documentation audit for CQ modifier application and unit counting across the group, which took billing queries returned by payers from 46 a quarter to 9. Has taken 11 students from CAPTE accredited programs through full-time affiliations, 9 of whom were hired into the group.

Right vs wrong: the same physical therapist assistant summary, twice

For example, the middle row of the wrong column ends applications. After all, evaluation and plan of care development are the physical therapist's responsibility, and a director reading that sentence assumes either that you do not know it or that you worked somewhere that did not.

Outline your experience as a physical therapist assistant

Then put employer, setting, size, and dates on the heading line. Then a scope line: caseload per day, who supervises you and how, and what population you treat. Then three to five bullets with numbers.

Senior Physical Therapist Assistant and Site Lead, Tennessee Valley Orthopedic Therapy, Knoxville, TN, June 2018 to Present
Four-clinic outpatient orthopedic group. Caseload of 12 to 14 patients a day under general supervision, working from plans of care written by three physical therapists.
Progress therapeutic exercise, gait, balance and manual intervention within the plan, and document daily notes and objective data against plan goals in WebPT.
Flag patients for reexamination when their response stops matching the plan: 24 in the past year, 19 of which produced a revised plan of care.
Own the documentation audit for CQ modifier application and unit counting across all four clinics; payer billing queries fell from 46 a quarter to 9.
Clinical instructor for physical therapist assistant students on full-time affiliations, 11 to date, 9 hired into the group.

What you progress within the plan of care, and what only the PT changes

In fact, this is the section that separates a PTA who has been trusted from one who has been watched. Instead, write the boundary as something you work inside deliberately, not a limitation you apologize for.

The boundary itself. In the profession's own policy, the physical therapist's responsibilities include interpretation of referrals, evaluation, diagnosis and prognosis, and development or modification of a plan of care, and only the physical therapist performs the initial examination and reexamination of the patient. The physical therapist assistant may be utilized in components of intervention and in the collection of selected examination and outcomes data, working under the direction and at least general supervision of the physical therapist, and may make modifications to elements of the intervention to progress the patient as directed by the therapist (American Physical Therapy Association, Direction and Supervision of the Physical Therapist Assistant, HOD P06-18-28-35, last updated August 2018).

Two verbs come out of that and they should run through every bullet you write: progress and collect. You progress an intervention inside the plan. Meanwhile, you collect objective data the therapist uses. You do not evaluate, you do not diagnose, and you do not change the plan.

Flagging changes for the supervising therapist

The third verb is the one that gets people hired: flag. The most valuable thing a PTA does is notice when a patient stops matching the plan and say so early enough for the therapist to act. Put a number on it. "Flagged 24 patients for reexamination in a year, 19 of which produced a revised plan of care" says you are the clinical eyes on a caseload the therapist cannot watch minute by minute.

Supervision level belongs on the page because it varies by setting. The profession defines three levels: under general supervision the physical therapist is not required to be on site but must be available at least by telecommunication; under direct supervision the therapist is physically present and immediately available for supervision; direct personal supervision means physically present and immediately available to supervise tasks (APTA, Levels of Supervision, HOD P06-19-13-45, last updated September 2019).

State practice acts and payers set which level applies where and they do not all agree, so write what was true in each role rather than a general claim:

Documentation and billing for PTAs

Documentation and billing follow directly from the boundary. Under Medicare Part B, outpatient physical therapy services furnished in whole or in part by a physical therapist assistant are identified by the CQ modifier, which applies when the minutes furnished by the assistant exceed 10 percent of the total minutes for that service or unit, and those services are paid at 85 percent of the otherwise applicable Part B amount, a reduction effective 1 January 2022 (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, therapy services billing guidance, checked September 2026).

In practice, that rule is why unit counting, minute tracking and modifier application are genuinely resume-worthy for a PTA and for almost nobody else in the clinic. If you cleaned up a documentation problem, put the before and after on the page.

Build a snapshot of your key skills

Four groups. Similarly, every entry is an intervention you have delivered, a population you have treated, or a system you have charted in. No adjectives.

Intervention: therapeutic exercise progression, gait and stair training, transfer and bed mobility training, balance and vestibular exercise, manual therapy within the plan of care, soft tissue and joint mobilization as directed, neuromuscular re-education
Modalities and equipment: electrical stimulation, ultrasound, mechanical traction, cryotherapy and moist heat, body weight supported treadmill, standing frame, assistive device fitting and training
Populations: post-operative orthopedic, total joint, spine, geriatric and fall risk, post-stroke and neurologic, work conditioning, pediatric school-based
Data and documentation: objective measures and goal tracking, outcome tools scored to plan goals, daily notes and progress data, CQ modifier application and unit counting, WebPT, Casamba, Epic Rehab

List your education and certifications

First, list the degree with the program's accreditation, then the licensure examination, then the license with its number and expiry, then continuing competence and any certificates.

Associate of Applied Science, Physical Therapist Assistant, Clinch Valley State Community College, Knoxville, TN, 2012. CAPTE accredited program.
National Physical Therapy Examination for physical therapist assistants, FSBPT, passed 2012
Physical Therapist Assistant, Tennessee license #PTA-40917, current through 2027
Clinical affiliations: outpatient orthopedics, 118-bed skilled nursing facility, acute care
Continuing competence: vestibular rehabilitation for the PTA, 2025; total joint pathways, 2024; documentation and unit counting under Part B, 2023
Basic Life Support for Healthcare Providers, American Heart Association, current through 2027

Choose the right layout and design

Single column, 11 or 12 point, plain headings, no photograph, PDF unless the portal asks for something else. License numbers, accreditation lines and the modifier language are the first things to break when a two-column template is parsed into a structured record.

Physical therapist assistant job market and outlook

Overall, this is one of the fastest-growing occupations in allied health, and unusually clear about why.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Physical Therapist Assistants and Aides, 2025 to 2035 projections and May 2025 wage data.

Where the pay sits by industry:

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, May 2025. These are industry medians; however, BLS does not publish employment shares by industry for this occupation in the current Handbook profile.

What salary you can expect as a physical therapist assistant

Specifically, the median annual wage for physical therapist assistants was $68,380 as of May 2025 (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook).

Meanwhile, the published industry medians run from $62,970 in offices of physicians to $80,050 in home healthcare services, a spread of $17,080 (BLS, May 2025). That is a large gap for one license, and the two highest-paying settings are the two where the therapist is least likely to be standing next to you.

That is the practical argument for writing the supervision arrangement into every role. In other words, the higher-paying settings are buying a clinician who can carry a visit alone, document it correctly, and recognize the moment a patient needs the therapist back. Four things move pay inside that:

• Setting. Home health and skilled nursing pay above the occupation median; the outpatient clinic that most PTAs start in pays below it.
• Autonomy in the record. Clean documentation, correct unit counting and correct modifier application are worth money to an employer in a way that is easy to demonstrate with one before-and-after number.
• Population depth. Vestibular, neurologic, wound and pediatric caseloads are narrower markets with fewer available PTAs.
• Teaching. Clinical instruction is how PTAs become site leads without leaving patient care, and it is the credential-free promotion in this occupation.

Key takeaways for a physical therapist assistant resume

1. Above all, put the license number, state and expiry in the header, because it is the gate.
2. Also say the program was CAPTE accredited and name the examination you passed.
3. In addition, use "progressed", "collected" and "flagged"; never "evaluated" or "developed the plan".
4. Finally, give the caseload per day and the supervision level for every role.
5. Put the setting on every job heading, because the settings are different jobs.
6. Show one documentation or billing number, because directors feel that monthly.
7. Name the students you have taken if you have been a clinical instructor.

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Pair it with a matching physical therapist assistant cover letter.