Really?

Just saw an ad from Illinois. They were looking for a new PT director to join ONE PT and, get this, 8 Physical Therapist Assistant''s (PTA's)!!! They then claim they provide excellent quality care which seems rather difficult to comprehend.

EIM had a recent post discussing the existence of PTA's in healthcare. In most states PTA's are not allowed to evaluate, progress treatment, or perform certain types of interventions. Each state differs in their practice act. In theory the PTA grew out of the need of PT's to have an extra set of hands without the extended schooling (PTA practice requires a 2-year associates degree).

I certainly never want to pigeon-hole an entire group of people, as there are some amazing PTA's out there who get all sorts of advanced training and unfortunately there (supposedly) is only 1 pta to pt transition program making it difficult to transition.

I am running out of mobile blogging space... what is the place of PTA's within the context of VISION 2020?