The Physical Therapist provides inpatient rehabilitation services to adult patients across various hospital units to restore function and improve mobility. Key duties include evaluating patients, implementing treatment plans, and collaborating with interdisciplinary teams for safe discharge planning.
Requirements summary
Candidates must be a graduate of an accredited Physical Therapy program and hold a current Tennessee license or eligibility. Prior acute care or hospital-based experience is preferred.
bachelor degreeDocumentationPatient EducationTreatment PlanningInterdisciplinary CollaborationAcute CarePatient EvaluationGait TrainingInpatient RehabilitationMobility TrainingFunctional RecoveryWound AssessmentStrength and Balance Training
Job description
Discover Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Located in Nashville, Tennessee, and operating at a global crossroads of teaching, discovery, and patient care, VUMC is a community of individuals who come to work each day with the simple aim of changing the world. It is a place where your expertise will be valued, your knowledge expanded, and your abilities challenged. Vanderbilt Health is committed to an environment where everyone has the chance to thrive and where your uniqueness is sought and celebrated. It is a place where employees know they are part of something that is bigger than themselves, take exceptional pride in their work and never settle for what was good enough yesterday. Vanderbilt’s mission is to advance health and wellness through preeminent programs in patient care, education, and research.
Organization
VCH
Physical
Therapy
Job
Summary: Under medical supervision, the Physical Therapist is responsible for the delivery of services that help restore function, improve mobility, relieve pain, and prevent or limit permanent physical disabilities of patients suffering from injuries or disease. .
Job
Title: Physical Therapist (PT) –
Acute
Care &
Inpatient
Rehab
Organization:
Vanderbilt
Clarksville
Hospital
Location:
Clarksville,
TN
Schedule:
Full
Time, 40 hours per week
Weekend
Coverage: One weekend day (Saturday or Sunday) per month Job Summary Physical Therapists at Vanderbilt Clarksville Hospital provide inpatient rehabilitation services within an acute care hospital setting. This role supports adult inpatients across multiple units, contributing to interdisciplinary care focused on recovery, safety, and discharge planning. Position Overview Physical Therapists support adult patients across Inpatient Rehabilitation, Medical-Surgical units, Telemetry, Progressive Care, and the Intensive Care Unit, including post-operative orthopedic and general surgical populations. The role emphasizes early mobility, strength, balance, gait training, and functional recovery while collaborating with the interdisciplinary care team to support safe and timely discharge planning. Key Responsibilities Evaluate and treat patients according to physician orders and established plans of care Collaborate with physicians, nursing, therapy colleagues, and care management teams Document evaluations, progress notes, and discharge recommendations per hospital standards Support safe discharge planning and transitions of care Qualifications Graduate of an accredited Physical Therapy program Current Tennessee licensure or eligibility Prior acute care or hospital-based experience preferred About Vanderbilt Health Vanderbilt Health is a leader in patient- and family-centered care, combining excellence in clinical care, research, and education. Through its regional hospitals, Vanderbilt Health delivers high-quality care close to home while maintaining strong connections to academic medicine. Apply Today Join Vanderbilt Clarksville Hospital and be part of a collaborative, patient-focused care team. Vanderbilt Health. Personalized care. Close to home. KEY RESPONSIBILITIES Provides and documents assessment of strength, range of motion, balance and coordination, posture, muscle performance, and motor function Provides and documents various treatments including exercise, electrical stimulation, hot packs or cold compresses, ultrasound to relieve pain or reduce swelling. Provides and documents patient education regarding treatment plan, activity, exercises, assistive and/or adaptive devices such as crutches, walkers, prostheses, and wheelchairs Assess wounds, implementing the appropriate skin care protocol Performs duties and responsibilities with indirect supervision and must frequently make independent decisions Participates in discharge plan rounds as needed
Benefits
Disability Insurance
Health Insurance
Wellness Offerings
Retirement Offerings
Technical
Capabilities
Rehab
Therapist
Patient
Documentation (Novice): Demonstrates proficiency in documentation practices. Documents in the appropriate templates and utilizes only approved abbreviations within patient documentation. Meets institutional standards for quality and timeliness of documentation.
Treatment
Planning &
Goal
Setting (Novice): Demonstrates sufficient proficiency in developing a plan of care that incorporates treatment interventions focused on meeting objective goals. Develops and documents patient focused short and long term goals that are functional and measurable. Identifies the need for and referral to other services, as needed.
Rehabilitation
Therapist
Patient
Evaluation (Novice): Demonstrates proficiency in evaluating patients with physical deficits including impairments, developmental disabilities, functional limitations, disabilities, or changes in physical function by obtaining information pertinent to the assessment and administering and scoring standardized tests and objective measures of deficit areas. Selects appropriate measures and performs a functional assessment to document patient's status requiring skilled therapy. Interprets the results of the assessment and their significance to the patient, family, referring physician and other members of the health care team.
Treatment
Implementation (Novice): Demonstrates proficiency in providing treatment consistent with physician prescription and established plan of care. Able to modify treatment plan as needed to demonstrate provision of skilled therapy services including progression of treatment throughout course of care, and revision of treatment interventions of goals not met. May supervise and direct certified athletic trainers (PT only), physical therapist / occupational therapist assistants, technicians and volunteers and students. Selects and follows correct protocol for care and utilize evidence based treatments. Has completed at least one year of clinical experience in treatment implementation.
Physical/Occupational
Therapist
Patient
Education (Novice): Demonstrates proficiency in communicating functional impact of assessment findings, treatment interventions, treatment planning diagnosis, and disease process. Considers the communication needs/level of understanding of audience and may share appropriate information/literature. May supervise, educate and train students from professional programs of physical therapy, occupational therapy and athletic training. Allied health is among the fastest growing occupations in healthcare today. This area can be defined as credentialed professionals who perform supportive, diagnostic, and therapeutic health care services to promote health and prevent disease in a variety of settings. These areas are crucial to Vanderbilt Health’s reputation for excellence in these areas that has made us a major center for patient referrals from throughout the Mid-South. Each year, people throughout Tennessee and the southeast choose Vanderbilt Health for their health care because of our leadership in medical science and our dedication to treating patients with dignity and compassion.
Core
Accountabilities:
Organizational
Impact: Executes job responsibilities with the understanding of how output would affect and impact other areas related to own job area/team with occasional guidance.
Problem
Solving/
Complexity of work: Analyzes moderately complex problems using technical experience and judgment.
Breadth of
Knowledge: Has expanded knowledge gained through experience within a professional area.
Team
Interaction: Provides informal guidance and support to team members.
Core
Capabilities :
Supporting
Colleagues:-
Develops
Self and
Others: Invests time, energy, and enthusiasm in developing self/others to help improve performance e and gain knowledge in new areas.-
Builds and
Maintains
Relationships: Maintains regular contact with key colleagues and stakeholders using formal and informal opportunities to expand and strengthen relationships.-
Communicates
Effectively: Recognizes group interactions and modifies one's own communication style to suit different situations and audiences.
Delivering
Excellent
Services:-
Serves
Others with
Compassion: Seeks to understand current and future needs of relevant stakeholders and customizes services to better address them.-
Solves
Complex
Problems: Approaches problems from different angles; Identifies new possibilities to interpret opportunities and develop concrete solutions.-
Offers
Meaningful
Advice and
Support: Provides ongoing support and coaching in a constructive manner to increase employees' effectiveness.
Ensuring
High
Quality: -
Performs
Excellent
Work: Engages regularly in formal and informal dialogue about quality; directly addresses quality issues promptly.-
Ensures
Continuous
Improvement: Applies various learning experiences by looking beyond symptoms to uncover underlying causes of problems and identifies ways to resolve them. -
Fulfills
Safety and
Regulatory
Requirements: Understands all aspects of providing a safe environment and performs routine safety checks to prevent safety hazards from occurring.
Managing
Resources
Effectively: -
Demonstrates
Accountability: Demonstrates a sense of ownership, focusing on and driving critical issues to closure.-
Stewards
Organizational
Resources: Applies understanding of the departmental work to effectively manage resources for a department/area.-
Makes
Data
Driven
Decisions: Demonstrates strong understanding of the information or data to identify and elevate opportunities.
Fostering
Innovation:-
Generates
New
Ideas: Proactively identifies new ideas/opportunities from multiple sources or methods to improve processes beyond conventional approaches.-
Applies
Technology: Demonstrates an enthusiasm for learning new technologies, tools, and procedures to address short-term challenges.-
Adapts to
Change: Views difficult situations and/or problems as opportunities for improvement; actively embraces change instead of emphasizing negative elements.
Position
Qualifications:
Responsibilities:
Certifications:
LIC-Physical
Therapy
License -
Tennessee
Work
Experience:
Relevant
Work
Experience
Experience
Level :
Less than 1 year
Education: Bachelor's This role offers the opportunity to make a meaningful impact within Vanderbilt Health, supported by a comprehensive benefits package which may include health, disability, retirement and/or wellness offerings to enhance your well-being and professional growth. Vanderbilt Health is committed to fostering an environment where everyone has the chance to thrive and is committed to the principles of equal opportunity. EOE/Vets/Disabled. PEOPLE ARE AT THE HEART OF ALL WE DO.
Our vision: The world leader in advancing personalized health.
Our mission: personalizing the patient experience through our caring spirit and distinctive capabilities. Making Health Care Personal. We’re looking for like-minded individuals driven to make a difference. We invite you to explore careers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. At VUMC, we place a priority on designing with and for our patients and families. We value collaboration, embrace continuous learning and discovery, and seek to be a place where everyone has the chance to thrive. We’re the largest private employer in Middle Tennessee, with a growing team and expanding footprint in towns and communities across the region. We employ more than 28,000 people who work in inpatient and outpatient clinical care, research, and graduate medical education as well as critical supporting roles in administration, information technology and informatics, finance, legal and community affairs, communications and marketing, fund-raising, groundskeeping and facilities, and many more.
Our growing health system has more than 1,700 licensed hospital beds at: Vanderbilt University Hospital Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital Vanderbilt Stallworth Rehabilitation Hospital Vanderbilt Wilson County Hospital Vanderbilt Bedford Hospital Vanderbilt Tullahoma-Harton Hospital It’s also home to hundreds of outpatient clinic and surgical locations throughout the region. We serve our community with many unique and specialized services including the Level 1 Trauma Center, a highly experienced Transplant Center that does the most heart transplants in the world, a National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, Lung Institute, Burn Center and many more. World-leading academic departments and centers make scientific discoveries, advance clinical care and train the next generation of health care professionals. Our robust research enterprise consistently ranks among the highest in the country as measured by peer-reviewed grant funding from the National Institutes of Health. We’re honored to be consistently considered among the nation’s best hospitals, including being nationally ranked in multiple medical specialties for treating the most complex conditions in adults and children by US News and World Report. Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt ranked as the No. 1 children’s hospital in the southeast in 2024. We support each other and encourage excellence among all who are part of our workforce. High-achieving employees stay at VUMC for professional growth, appreciation of benefits, and a sense of community and purpose. Join us in Making Health Care Personal.
