Making the journey to get an APTA specialty certification is both a testament to dedication and a pivotal step toward mastery of a branch in physical therapy. Oftentimes individuals who achieve these certifications are the ones who elevate those branches by taking our treatment techniques and knowledge to new heights. Many go on to become educators themselves, conduct research, or develop new skills.
I think many of us at one point or another have wondered about going for a specialty certification. Maybe you’re still considering it! If you’re still thinking about taking the leap this post will give you an idea of what you might be in for.
You might’ve decided at some point you didn’t want to specialize. There can be many possible reasons for this but one might’ve been because none of the current specialties seemed to be calling your name! Later in the post I’ll throw out some ideas for other specialties I think should come down the pipeline. First, let’s take a look at the current specialties out there.
An Overview
The APTA specialist certification program has been around since 1978. There are currently ten APTA Certified Board Specialties. Below is a list of them along with the year the first certification exam was given.
- Cardiovascular and Pulmonary (1985)
- Clinical Electrophysiology (1986)
- Peds (1986)
- Neuro (1987)
- Sports (1987)
- Ortho (1989)
- Geriatrics (1992)
- Women’s Health (2009)
- Oncology (2019)
- Wound Management. (2022)
As of Aug 2023, APTA reported there are about 31,500 APTA Certified board specialists in the U.S. Orthopedic specialists are the vast majority, accounting for a little over half that number. No matter what specialty might interest you, if you’re thinking about taking the leap, it’s good to know what kind of commitment you’re in for.
Commitment
So what exactly do you have to do to become an APTA board certified specialist? Well there’s actually two routes you can take. The first is by completing an APTA-accredited residency program. If you go through the program and all its requirements then you’ve earned your APTA specialist certification.
The second way is to take part in APTA’s certification program. If you’re thinking you just apply, study for and take a test, and voila! You’ve earned your certification, think again.
To even get your application approved you must have 2,000 hours of direct patient care in that specialty area in the last 10 years AND 500 of them must be from the last 3 years. Some of the specialties require these 2,000 hours to be split into certain categories or settings.
For about half the specialties, along with the 2,000 hours, you’ll need to participate in extra education courses and complete other projects including case studies, reports, logs, and even colleague and/or patient attestations. If you’re pursuing geriatric, pediatric, neuro, or ortho specialties, you’re in luck as they have no additional requirements.
Things also don’t just stop with certification, there are a whole slew of maintenance requirements I’m not going to get into right now. So obviously, getting a specialty certification takes a lot of time and dedication for basically the rest of your career.
I would be remiss not to acknowledge the financial commitment as well. Applications run from $500 – $900 and exams from around $800 – $1500+. You’re looking at the higher end of those numbers unless you’re an APTA member. If you have to retake the exam you’re paying a second time. Your maintenance requirements will likely cost you something too which is a whole other kind of commitment. I won’t get into it here, but you should definitely be aware of it.
So based on all this you might be thinking “damn, sounds like a lot, not sure I wanna do that.” While it is a big commitment of your time, energy, and finances, a specialty certification reaps some rewards too.
Benefits / Pay
So with an APTA specialist certification being such a commitment, you have to ask . . . Is it worth it? There’s a few things to consider when trying to answer that question.
First is the self fulfillment aspect. If you’re going to go through a certification process you obviously have a passion for the specialty. Becoming an expert in that area could lead to some pretty good job satisfaction. In the very first PT Page post I wrote about how feeling skilled in something and learning new things can help with burnout. Plus, it just feels good to achieve such a milestone.
Second is career opportunities. Becoming a certified APTA specialist can open up doors to advance your career that would otherwise be shut. It may help you get your dream job if you’re super passionate about a specific area of PT! You might also be able to move into things like education and program development.
Lastly, and probably the one everyone is most concerned with, is pay. There’s a lot of debate about whether or not becoming an APTA specialist results in more earning potential. A Recent APTA report showed board-certified clinical specialists earned, on average, $4,540 more annually compared to PTs without it. After reading other online forums and reports I’d say this isn’t completely inaccurate. I saw most frequently PTs reporting getting about a 3-4 grand bump in pay with their certification.
For some PTs a few thousand may not seem like enough, especially if they are paying the entirety of their certification expenses. If this is your case, let’s say it’s around 3 grand for your certification. If you get a 4 grand raise, the net there is $1000 for that first year plus all the time and energy. You also want to take into account any money you’ll spend on maintaining that certification.
However, I do know some employers who will pay for most or even all of a specialist certification. If that’s your case, you only stand to gain and don’t have to weigh the costs other than the time and energy!
It’s also important to consider the impact the potential salary increase will have in growth over time. Hopefully you’re getting some kind of a raise every year. Most places I know go by a percentage of salary. If you get a certification that raises your salary by a few thousand AND then you get a yearly percent raise, you’re going to reach those higher salary margins sooner than without the specialization.
(If for some reason you’re not getting yearly raises that is a whole other thing and you and I need to have a talk.) So, is an APTA specialization certification worth it? Unfortunately there’s no clear cut answer to that question. I think you have to ask yourself is it worth it TO YOU given all the factors and your unique situation.
Areas for Expansion
If you look at the list of specialties from earlier in the article I included the year each first had their entrance exam. You’ll notice the last time a certification was added wasn’t all that long ago with wound care in 2022. Oncology was just a few years before in 2019.
So it seems APTA is definitely open to new certification programs. There’s even a spot on their website that gives info for how to establish one. This got me thinking about what might be some specialty certifications we still need?
Vestibular : Honestly I’m surprised this one isn’t already on the list! There is so much info out there for vestibular and several courses. It also strikes me as an area that would get plenty of interest. I know several PTs who’ve taken vestibular classes or completed other certifications. It actually makes me think there’s a reason there isn’t one, but I honestly don’t know why? Anyone have any ideas?
Neonatal : Some may argue this just falls under the pediatrics club. Although I have very little experience myself in peds or neonatal here’s what I do know. Both are very hard, but both are very different. To me, it’s a lot different working with a newborn versus a toddler no matter what the setting. Places like the NICU especially require a specific set of skills and knowledge. Any pediatric therapists out there? Especially any that work with both kids and babies? I’m curious to know your thoughts on this. Drop ’em in the comments section.
Chronic pain : This one might take some time to establish, but I could totally see it. Chronic pain has become such a big part of the PT world so it certainly seems warranted to have an APTA specialty certification for it. The biggest problem is there’s still so much we don’t know about chronic pain. In many of the other specialties there’s a lot more knowledge and standardization. For chronic pain we definitely don’t have “best practices” yet. That could make it difficult to form a standardized certification program. Regardless, I think the need is there and will eventually happen one day.
What do you think about these? Is there a place for them on the list? If you could add any APTA certified specialty what would it be? Drop it in the comments section! And if you enjoyed this post and want to get new posts directly to you inbox, hit that subscribe button below. You can also keep up on Instagram and Threads by following @the_pt_page!
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