A Student’s Guide to Careers in Rehabilitation Medicine

As a Kinesiology student entering my fourth and hopefully final year of this degree, I have begun researching career opportunities that are available to Kinesiology graduates.  Depending on where your interests lie, there is a variety of career paths available including physical therapy, occupational therapy, becoming a chiropractor, or even a rehabilitation physician, known as a physiatrist. These all require further schooling, as each field is fairly complex.

As a Kinesiology student entering my fourth and hopefully final year of this degree, I have begun researching career opportunities that are available to Kinesiology graduates.  Depending on where your interests lie, there is a variety of career paths available including physical therapy, occupational therapy, becoming a chiropractor, or even a rehabilitation physician, known as a physiatrist. These all require further schooling, as each field is fairly complex.

The Kinesiology program at Simon Fraser University, is considered one of the best in Canada, is broadly focused, and yet manages to deeply explore the science. Still, I feel like we do not have a good enough understanding to make decisions on what we want to do in the future. I speak with my peers on a regular basis inquiring about their aspirations, and I’ve been surprised that many of them aren’t aware of the many options for Kinesiology students. A few have not even heard of Occupational Therapy as a profession, if you can believe it. Choosing a profession that you want to pursue for the rest of your life is not an easy task, especially when as undergrads we don’t have enough exposure to the options.

Recently, I’ve begun doing my own research to understand the potential career paths open to me, and I can’t help but think that if someone like me, a serious recreational athlete and student of human kinetics is confused about the different professions that focus on improving movement, then what can it be like for the general public looking for treatment options? So with that, here’s what I’ve learned as I consider my future.

Physiatry

Physical Therapy

Chiropractic

Occupational Therapy

One thing I noticed when doing my reasearch, is that all the professions say they are concerned about the whole health of the individual and many are moving towards prevention of illness or injury. So, if all these professions are concerned about the whole health of the person, prevention, and specifically the health of the musculoskeletal system, how do you know who to see when? Well, that’s a topic for another blog post. And, where do I want to specialize after my undergrad degree? I’m still exploring. Anyone need an intern?