Professional and educational characteristics and geographical distribution of physical therapists in Paraná - Brazil

ABSTRACT This study aimed to know the profile of physical therapists of Paraná in 2015, their sociodemographic characteristics, education tendencies and labor market. This is a quantitative cross-sectional research. The sample was comprised of 377 physical therapists, from the 11,272 professionals subscribed to the Professional Council in 2015, who answered a structured questionnaire available online. The results showed that physical therapists from Paraná are mostly young, aging from 21 to 40 years (81.7%), women (77.7%) and are concentrated in the macro-region of Curitiba (53.6%). The majority has graduated in the last ten years (59.9%) and has a specialization degree (73.7%); however, only a few are masters or PhDs. Most of the therapists (82.8%) work exclusively with their profession, having a single job (53.3%), at a private institution (59.2%), are self-employed (55.7%), having a daily workhour of eight hours (35.5%). Regarding the field of expertise, 68.7% work in more than one area, being Trauma and Orthopedic the one that presents the highest number of professionals (59.9%), followed by Neurofunctional (41.1%) and Respiratory (38.7%) areas. Most of the professionals have a monthly income between the minimum wage and 4,000 Reais (42.9%). Therefore, it was possible to outline the profile of physical therapists in Paraná in 2015, detecting the profession’s identity in the state and the projection of future tendencies, which will enable to the higher education institutions and category representation agencies the creation of future strategies for the designing and regulation of the labor market.