Physical Therapist cover letter example
A complete letter — not a template with blanks in it. Read it, then replace the evidence with your own. The structure is what matters.
Nathan Boateng
nathan.boateng@example.com · (555) 736-5518 · Birmingham
Hiring Manager
Meridian Health
Dear Hiring Manager,
I am writing about the Physical Therapist position at Meridian Health. I have six years in outpatient orthopaedics and currently carry a daily caseload of twelve to fourteen patients.
What I would bring is a bias toward getting people out of the clinic. By front-loading home programme education rather than saving it for discharge, I brought our average episode of care down from fourteen visits to eleven without any drop in goal attainment, which held at 92%.
I would welcome the chance to talk about how I could contribute to your team.
Sincerely,
Nathan Boateng
Why each paragraph works
- 1
Licence, setting and caseload open the letter. Outpatient orthopaedic, inpatient rehab and home health are different jobs, and the setting has to be established before anything else.
- 2
Functional outcome measures do the persuading. Physical therapy is one of the few clinical fields with routine outcome data, and a letter that omits it is passing up its strongest evidence.
- 3
Closes on productivity expectations and documentation systems — the operational facts a clinic director weighs alongside clinical skill.
Who reads a physical therapist cover letter
A clinic director or rehab manager, checking licence, caseload and specialism.
What to lead with
Licence, setting and caseload. "Licensed PT, outpatient orthopaedic, 12–14 patients daily" is the whole screening triage.
The mistake that costs physical therapists interviews
Writing about helping people recover with no outcome measures. Functional scores and discharge outcomes are what a clinic director reads.
Terms to work in naturally
These are the terms employers most often screen physical therapist applications for. Use the ones that are genuinely true of you — a letter stuffed with keywords reads as a letter stuffed with keywords.
- physical therapist
- manual therapy
- therapeutic exercise
- plan of care
- outcome measures
- orthopedic rehabilitation
- patient evaluation
- clinical documentation
- gait training
- discharge planning
Your resume needs them more than the letter does — see the physical therapist resume example for where they belong.
Before you send it
- Replace every number with one that is genuinely yours. A borrowed achievement collapses at interview.
- Find the hiring manager’s name if you can — two minutes on LinkedIn is usually enough.
- Check the company name appears correctly. Sending a letter with the previous employer’s name in it is the most common fatal error.
- Keep it to one page. If it runs over, cut the second half of paragraph two.
Physical Therapist cover letter questions
What should a physical therapist cover letter highlight?
Licence and state, practice setting, daily visit volume, patient populations and specialty certifications, plus outcome measures you track. Clinic directors are balancing clinical quality against productivity, so evidence on both sides is what gets you shortlisted.
How do I write one as a new graduate PT?
Lead with licensure status and your clinical rotations by setting and caseload, treating each rotation the way an experienced therapist treats a job. Name the outcome measures and documentation systems you used. New-graduate letters fail on vagueness, not on inexperience.
Should I name my patient caseload in a physiotherapy letter?
Yes — caseload per day and the conditions you treat are the clearest indication of your pace and specialism. Add the setting, because outpatient musculoskeletal work and inpatient neuro rehabilitation are different jobs that share a job title.