The Interdisciplinary Team

Physicians and Surgeons

Diagnose and treat injuries or illnesses and address health maintenance. Examine patients, take medical histories, prescribe medications, and order and interpret diagnostic tests. Counsel on health and preventative health.

Surgeons operate on patients to treat injuries and deformities.

Both Medical Doctors (M.D.) and Doctors of Osteopathic Medicine (D.O.) use the same methods of treatment such as as drugs and surgery, but D.O.s place more emphasis on the body’s musculoskeletal system, prevention, and holistic patient care. D.O.s are most likely to be primary care physicians.

Work in clinical (offices, government agencies, nonprofit organizations, insurance companies) and nonclinical settings.

• Anesthesiologists
• Cardiologists
• Dermatologists
• Emergency medicine
• Family medicine
• General internal medicine
• Neurologists
• Obstetricians and gynecologists
• Opthamologists
• Orthopedic surgeons
• Pathologists
• Pediatricians
• Pediatric surgeons
• Psychiatrists
• Radiologists

Physiatrists

Physiatrists are also known as Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R) Physicians. Treat a variety of medical conditions that affect the body. Are medical doctors who have completed training in the specialty of PM&R. Subspecialties include brain injury medicine, hospice and palliative medicine, neuromuscular medicine, pain medicine, pediatric rehabilitation medicine, spinal cord injury medicine, and sports medicine.¹ 

• Focus treatment on function and have broad medical expertise to treat disabling conditions.
• Lead a team of medical professionals including PTs, OTs, and physician extenders.
• Work with other physicians.
• Treat the whole person, not just the problem area.

Hospitalist

A medical specialty of physicians who are the primary overseers of care for acutely ill patients in the hospital setting from the time of admission to release. Works around the clock and focuses on the patient’s condition or illness to determine the best treatment. Communicates with the patient’s primary care physician and coordinates post-hospitalizaiton care.²  They may manage and treat a range of conditions. A minority of hospitalists specialize in fields including neurology, OBGYN, and oncology.³  Hospitalists are physicians with a Doctor of Medicine (M.D.), Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (D.O.), or a Bachelor of Medicine/Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS/MBChB) degree.⁴ 

Physician’s Assistant

PAs practice medicine with the medical team of physicians, surgeons, and other healthcare workers. They examine, diagnose, and treat patients. Work in all areas of medicine. May be the primary physician in some areas, e.g., rural. The extent of their specific duties and supervision by physicians or surgeons is based on the state they practice in.⁵ 

Psychologists

Psychologists study cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior by observing, interpreting, and recording how people relate to one another and to their environments. They use their findings to help improve processes and behaviors.⁶ 

Clinical psychologists assess, diagnose, and treat mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders. Clinical psychologists help people deal with problems ranging from short-term personal issues to severe, chronic conditions.

Counseling psychologists help patients deal with and understand problems, including issues at home, at the workplace, or in their community.

Developmental psychologists study the psychological progress and development that take place throughout life. Many developmental psychologists focus on children and adolescents, but they also may study aging and problems facing older adults.

Industrial–organizational psychologists apply psychology to the workplace by using psychological principles and research methods to solve problems and improve the quality of worklife.

Rehabilitation psychologists work with physically or developmentally disabled individuals. They help improve quality of life or help individuals adjust after a major illness or accident. They may work with physical therapists and teachers to improve health and learning outcomes.

School psychologists apply psychological principles and techniques to education disorders and developmental disorders. They may address student learning and behavioral problems; design and implement performance plans, and evaluate performances; and counsel students and families. They also may consult with other school-based professionals to suggest improvements to teaching, learning, and administrative strategies.

Advanced Practice Registered Nurses

Nurse Anesthetists, Nurse Midwives, and Nurse Practitioners are APRNs who coordinate patient care and may provide primary and specialty healthcare. Their scope varies from state to state. Some duties include performing physical examinations, creating care plans, performing and ordering diagnostic tests, diagnosing various health problems, analyzing test results, giving patients medicines and treatments, consulting with the healthcare team, and teaching patients and their families how to manage their illnesses or injuries.⁷ 

Registered Nurses

RNs provide and coordinate patient care, educate patients and the public about health conditions, and provide advice and emotional support to patients and their families. Some duties include assessing patient’s conditions, recording medical histories and symptoms, administering medications and treatments, consulting and collaborating with the team, and teaching patients and their families about how to manage an illness or injury.⁸ 

Nursing Assistants

Nursing assistants, sometimes called nursing aides, provide basic care and help patients with activities of daily living. Orderlies transport patients and clean treatment areas.  Some duties include cleaning and bathing patients, helping them turn, reposition, and transfer, measuring their vital signs, and serving meals and helping patients eat.⁹ 

Social Workers

Social workers help people solve and cope with problems in their everyday lives. Clinical social workers also diagnose and treat mental, behavioral, and emotional issues. Some duties include identifying clients in need of help, assessing their needs, helping them to adjust to changes and challenges, researching and advocating for resources, responding to crises, follow-up, and maintaining case files and records, and providing psychotherapy services.¹⁰ 

Marriage and Family Therapists

Marriage and family therapists help people manage problems with their family and other relationships. Marriage and family therapists use a variety of techniques and tools to help their clients. Many apply cognitive behavioral therapy. hey bring a family-centered perspective to treatment. They address issues, such as low self-esteem, stress, addiction, and substance abuse. May coordinate patient treatment with other professionals, such as psychologists and social workers.¹¹ 

Substance Abuse, Behavioral Disorder, and Mental Health Counselors

Substance abuse, behavioral disorders, and mental health counselors advise people who suffer from alcoholism, drug addiction, eating disorders, mental health issues, or other mental or behavioral problems. They provide treatment and support to help clients recover from addiction or modify problem behaviors. Substance abuse counselors and behavioral disorder counselors, also called addiction counselors, work with clients individually and in group sessions. Many incorporate the principles of 12-step programs, such as Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), to guide their practice. They teach clients how to cope with stress and life’s problems in ways that help them recover.¹² 

Physical Therapist

Improve patient’s quality of life through exercise, hands-on care, and patient education. Treat individuals of all ages with various injuries, disabilities, or other health conditions. May care for those who want to become healthier and to prevent future problems. Examine each person and develop a treatment plan. Work in a wide range of settings including hospitals, clinics, homes, schools, sports and fitness facilities, workplaces, and nursing homes. ¹³ 

Physical Therapist Assistant

Works closely with physical therapists. Follow each patient’s care plan. Report health updates to the PT. Can perform therapy and oversee exercises under PT supervision. May work in hospitals or clinics. Some work in assisted living facilities or home health.¹⁴ 

Therapy Aide

Also work in hospitals or clinics. Job duties focus on keeping the clinic organized and maintained instead of direct patient care. Laws differ from state to state. Handles clerical duties such as scheduling, cleaning, setting up equipment, and helping patients get to and from therapy areas. Aides are often unable to perform manual skills or forms of direct patient care.¹⁵ 

Recreational Therapists

Recreational therapists plan, direct, and coordinate recreation-based treatment programs for people with disabilities, injuries, or illnesses. These therapists use a variety of modalities, including arts and crafts; drama, music, and dance; sports and games; aquatics; and community outings to help maintain or improve a patient’s physical, social, and emotional well-being. Therapists may work with physicians or surgeons, registered nurses, psychologists, social workers, physical therapists, teachers, or occupational therapists. Some duties include developing treatment plans and programs, engaging patients in therapeutic activities, helping patients learn social skills, teaching patients to cope with stress, anxiety, or depression, documentation, and evaluating interventions for effectiveness.¹⁶ 

Respiratory Therapist

Respiratory therapists care for patients who have trouble breathing—for example, from a chronic respiratory disease, such as asthma or emphysema. Their patients range from premature infants with undeveloped lungs to elderly patients who have diseased lungs. They also provide emergency care to patients suffering from heart attacks, drowning, or shock. Some duties include performing chest physiotherapy, connecting patients to ventilators, monitoring for oxygen, patient teaching, or diagnosing breathing problems in some hospitals.¹⁷ 

Speech-Language Pathologist

SLPs, sometimes called speech therapists, assess, diagnose, treat, and help to prevent communication and swallowing disorders in children and adults. Speech, language, and swallowing disorders result from a variety of causes, such as a stroke, brain injury, hearing loss, developmental delay, Parkinson’s disease, a cleft palate, or autism. In medical facilities, speech-language pathologists work with physicians and surgeons, social workers, psychologists, occupational therapists, physical therapists, and other healthcare workers.¹⁸ 

Medical Assistant

MAs complete administrative and clinical tasks in the offices of physicians, hospitals, and other healthcare facilities. Their duties vary with location, specialty, and size of the practice. Some duties include recording patient history, measuring vital signs, helping physicians with examinations, giving injections or medications, scheduling appointments, preparing blood samples for labs, or entering patient information.¹⁹ 

Phlebotomist

Phlebotomists draw blood for tests, transfusions, blood donations, or for research. Some duties include talking with patients and donors to make them feel less nervous, entering patient information into the database, assembling and maintaining medical instruments, and keeping work areas sanitary.²⁰ 

Psychiatric Technicians and Aides

Psychiatric technicians and aides care for people who have mental illness and developmental disabilities. Technicians typically provide therapeutic care and monitor their patients’ conditions. Aides help patients in their daily activities and ensure a safe and clean environment. Some psychiatric technician duties include observing and recording patient behavior, leading patient in therapeutic and recreational activities, giving medications, helping with discharge planning, and monitoring patient’s vital signs. Some psychiatric aide duties include helping patients with their ADLs, serving meals, keeping facilities clean, participating in group activities, transporting patients, and restraining patients.²¹ 

Home Health and Personal Care Aides

Home health and personal care aides monitor the condition of people with disabilities or chronic illnesses and help them with daily living activities. They often help older adults who need assistance. Under the direction of a nurse or other healthcare practitioner, home health aides may be allowed to give a client medication or to check the client’s vital signs. Some duties include assisting clients with ADLs, performing housekeeping, organizing a client’s schedule and planning appointments, arranging for transportation, shopping for groceries, or keeping clients engaged in social networks and communities.²² 

Special Education Teachers

Special education teachers work with students who have learning, mental, emotional, or physical disabilities. They adapt general education lessons and teach various subjects to students with mild to moderate disabilities. They also teach basic skills to students with severe disabilities. Special education teachers work with students from preschool to high school. They instruct students who have mental, emotional, physical, or learning disabilities. Special education teachers work with general education teachers, specialists, administrators, and parents to develop IEPs. Students’ IEPs outline their goals, including academic or behavioral milestones, and services they are to receive, such as speech therapy. Educators and parents also meet to discuss updates and changes to IEPs. Special education teachers’ duties vary by their work setting, students’ disabilities, and specialties.²³ 

Chiropractors

Treat patients with health problems of the neuromusculoskeletal system. Use spinal adjustments and manipulation as well as other clinical interventions to manage health concerns. Believe that malfunctioning spinal joints and other issues interfere with a person’s neuromuscular system and can result in poor health. Some use massage therapy, rehabilitative exercise, and ultrasound. May apply supports such as braces or shoe inserts. Give additional treatments such as heat or cold.²⁴ 

Bookmark

1. American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. (n.d.). What is a Physiatrist? Retrieved from https://www.aapmr.org/about-physiatry/about-physical-medicine-rehabilitation/what-is-physiatry[↩]
2. Rohde, M. (2014). The Role of the Hospitalist. Retrieved from https://www.chausa.org/publications/health-progress/article/may-june-2014/the-role-of-the-hospitalist[↩]
3. Society of Hospital Medicine. (n.d.). What is hospital medicine, and what is a hospitalist? Retrieved from https://www.hospitalmedicine.org/about/what-is-a-hospitalist/[↩]
4. “New Kinds of Primary Care, O The Oprah Magazine March 2009”. oprah.com. Retrieved 10 April 2018.[↩]
5. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Physician Assistants,
   at https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/physician-assistants.htm (visited July 27, 2021).[↩]
6. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Psychologists,
   at https://www.bls.gov/ooh/life-physical-and-social-science/psychologists.htm (visited July 29, 2021).[↩]
7. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Nurse Anesthetists, Nurse Midwives, and Nurse Practitioners,
   at https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/nurse-anesthetists-nurse-midwives-and-nurse-practitioners.htm (visited August 12, 2021).[↩]
8. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Registered Nurses,
   at https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/registered-nurses.htm (visited July 17, 2021).[↩]
9. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Nursing Assistants and Orderlies,
   at https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/nursing-assistants.htm (visited July 28, 2021).[↩]
10. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Social Workers,
    at https://www.bls.gov/ooh/community-and-social-service/social-workers.htm (visited August 02, 2021).[↩]
11. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Marriage and Family Therapists,
    at https://www.bls.gov/ooh/community-and-social-service/marriage-and-family-therapists.htm (visited August 01, 2021).[↩]
12. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Substance Abuse, Behavioral Disorder, and Mental Health Counselors,
    at https://www.bls.gov/ooh/community-and-social-service/substance-abuse-behavioral-disorder-and-mental-health-counselors.htm (visited August 05, 2021).[↩]
13. APTA. (n.d.). Becoming a PT. Retrieved from https://www.apta.org/your-career/careers-in-physical-therapy/becoming-a-pt[↩]
14. Brooks, A. 2021. Physical Therapist Assistant vs. Physical Therapy Aide: Breaking Down the Difference. Retrieved from https://www.rasmussen.edu/degrees/health-sciences/blog/physical-therapy-assistant-vs-physical-therapy-aide/[↩]
15. Brooks, A. 2021. Physical Therapist Assistant vs. Physical Therapy Aide: Breaking Down the Difference. Retrieved from https://www.rasmussen.edu/degrees/health-sciences/blog/physical-therapy-assistant-vs-physical-therapy-aide/[↩]
16. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Recreational Therapists,
    at https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/recreational-therapists.htm (visited July 31, 2021).[↩]
17. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Respiratory Therapists,
    at https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/respiratory-therapists.htm (visited July 31, 2021).[↩]
18. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Speech-Language Pathologists,
    at https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/speech-language-pathologists.htm (visited July 26, 2021).[↩]
19. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Medical Assistants,
    at https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/medical-assistants.htm (visited August 01, 2021).[↩]
20. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Phlebotomists,
    at https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/phlebotomists.htm (visited August 02, 2021).[↩]
21. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Psychiatric Technicians and Aides,
    at https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/psychiatric-technicians-and-aides.htm (visited August 03, 2021).[↩]
22. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Home Health and Personal Care Aides,
    at https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/home-health-aides-and-personal-care-aides.htm (visited August 09, 2021).[↩]
23. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Special Education Teachers,
    at https://www.bls.gov/ooh/education-training-and-library/special-education-teachers.htm (visited July 18, 2021).[↩]
24. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Chiropractors, at https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/chiropractors.htm (visited July 29, 2021).[↩]