Guest Blog: What Employers Often Miss About Today’s PT Students and How Employer Connect Bridges the Gap

By Dr. Heidi Jannenga, PT, DPT, co-founder of WebPT and founder and CEO of the Rizing Tide Foundation

Hiring challenges in physical therapy are often framed around numbers.

Open positions. Turnover rates. Burnout statistics. But these numbers don’t tell the full story. Many of today’s PT students are entering the profession under more pressure than most employers have experienced themselves. Sky-rocketing education costs, soaring student debt, limited financial support, and the need to work while completing graduate education are shaping how new clinicians think about where they work, how long they stay, and whether they can commit to long-term growth within an organization.

The industry has framed the current workforce crisis as a shortage when in reality it’s a retention issue. For employers, this disconnect matters. Workforce strategies and employment companies are primarily focused on filling seats and often overlook the lived reality and motivations of new grads, even when their intentions are good.

Rizing Tide’s Employer Connect program was built to help close that gap.

What Employers Don’t Always See About Students

On paper, challenges for new physical therapists look familiar: recruitment, retention, and burnout. Underneath them, however, are new pressures that are fundamentally shaping how new grad clinicians enter the profession and make career decisions, especially first-time college goers and minorities.

Rizing Tide’s recent 2025 Student Loan Debt Survey reveals just how significant these pressures are. In 2025, nearly half of Rizing Tide scholars (41.2%) expected to graduate with at least $100,000 in student loan debt. This is a substantial burden placed upon the shoulders of nearly half of the incoming physical therapy workforce while the profession deals with its ongoing “compensation crisis.”

And the high level of debt is not the only problem for scholars:

• 91.4% report that student loans have increased their stress, with 44.1% reporting their stress increased significantly.
• 58.8% carry the entirety of their educational costs themselves, without any familial assistance.
• A majority (61.8%) are balancing part- or full-time work while completing their graduate coursework.

This is the context in which students are graduating and seeking employment. Their choices on where to work, whether or not to pursue residency or specialization, and how long they can stay in demanding clinical roles are being framed by a high level of stress before even entering the job force.

It’s no wonder burnout is an issue.

As Dr. Milica McDowell, Associate Vice President of Education at U.S. Physical Therapy, reflected after meeting Rizing Tide scholars at the North Star Summit: “It really reminded me to distill back down to who that employee is as a person before they come in the clinic door in the morning and after they leave in the evening.”

How Debt Shapes Early Career Decisions

The Student Loan Debt Survey data also helps explain shifts employers are seeing in early-career priorities.

While 94.1% of scholars say loan repayment programs will influence their job acceptance decisions, debt will also steer how they choose to advance their careers. More than one in three scholars (38.2%) report that student loans will influence their specialty choice, and 57.1% anticipate that debt will shape their early career decisions, particularly toward roles that maximize income or repayment options.

Almost equally important as salary is the need for mentorship. Four in 10 students are actively seeking mentorship as they look for their first clinical position. Many recent graduates feel unsure and are looking for guidance as they take their first independent steps in the clinical world. Employers must meet that need by building structured mentorship programs within the practice to assist with the transition into true patient care. Of course, doing so won’t negate new grads’ fiscal needs, but it can help differentiate your clinic during the recruitment process and assist with retention of clinicians who value the opportunity to continue to learn as much as receiving comparable wages.

 Where Employer Connect Comes In

Designing a mentorship or loan repayment program around the needs of students you’ve yet to meet is a challenge – which is exactly where Rizing Tide’s Employer Connect program comes in. Employer Connect takes a bespoke approach pairing employers of choice with job seekers from the Rizing Tide community. By creating multiple opportunities to engage with students early in their careers with awareness of clinical rotation opportunities, as well as providing warm introductions to those outstanding students who are soon to graduate, Rizing Tide helps to raise employer brand awareness and link practice owners with incredible next gen clinicians and leaders in the PT profession.

Through multiple participation tiers, organizations can also engage with students at a level that fits their goals, from job board access and community recognition to deeper involvement such as access to graduating clinician databases, participation in career events, and in-person meetings with scholars.

Employer Connect is designed to create a space for employers to understand who students are before the interview: the challenges they face, their values, and the type of support they need. It also allows students to understand employers’ organizations: what they prioritize, what benefits are offered and how they care for their employees.

What Employer Engagement Looks Like in Practice

For U.S. Physical Therapy, Employer Connect aligns directly with its mission to serve diverse communities at scale. With clinics across 44 states, As Dr. Milica McDowell considers workforce representation essential to patient trust and care delivery.

Through Employer Connect, and by meeting scholars in person, she has gained a greater understanding of the demands students face today. After connecting with students who were balancing school, work, family responsibilities, and financial strain, McDowell described the experience as deeply eye-opening and a reminder of how much today’s students are managing before they ever step into a clinic as licensed clinicians. New graduates’ passion for the profession and drive to help patients and their communities was so inspiring, “I wish we could find a spot for every one of these scholars in our clinics,” she said.

For Team Rehabilitation Physical Therapy, Employer Connect created a pathway from relationship to hire. Dr. Remi Onifade, Director of Equity and Engagement, emphasized that the value lay in the early connection when discussing Team Rehab’s recent hiring of Rizing Tide scholar Devon Morris. Seeing Devon’s leadership, advocacy, and community engagement well before the hiring decision built confidence in her long-term impact as a clinician and teammate. As Onifade put it: “If I was a staff PT, PTA, or even support staff, I would want Devon to be my leader.”

For Team Rehabilitation Physical Therapy, Employer Connect created a pathway from relationship to hire. Dr. Remi Onifade, Director of Equity and Engagement, emphasized that the value lay in the early connection when discussing Team Rehab’s recent hiring of Rizing Tide scholar Devon Morris. Seeing Devon’s leadership, advocacy, and community engagement well before the hiring decision built confidence in her long-term impact as a clinician and teammate. As Onifade put it: “If I was a staff PT, PTA, or even support staff, I would want Devon to be my leader.”

Since joining Team Rehab on the clinical side, Devon has also helped expand community-facing initiatives and education efforts, reinforcing how early investment can translate into broader organizational value.

Why This Matters for APTQI Members

APTQI members are already engaged in advancing quality, innovation, and patient outcomes through advocacy and a deep dedication to the PT profession. Employer Connect offers a practical extension of that work.

By participating, employers gain:

• Earlier insight into the pressures shaping early-career clinicians;
• Stronger talent pipelines with a foundation in mentorship;
• Clinicians who reflect and connect with the communities they serve;
• And better retention by designing roles and support systems informed by real student needs.

As McDowell noted, engaging with scholars acts as both a magnifying glass and a mirror. The glass highlights the resilience and motivation of future clinicians while the mirror prompts employers to rethink how they support their employees.

A More Informed Path Forward

The future of physical therapy will be shaped by more than the number of open positions at any given clinic. It’ll be shaped by organizations dedicating resources toward retaining these clinicians in the profession as a whole. It will take payment policy changes, advanced advocacy movements, and understanding the forces that shape the next generation – and responding with intention.

Rizing Tide appreciates the support of APTQI members what believe in our mission and provide financial support toward our scholarship fund. Employer Connect is the next level of support that gives individual APTQI members a way to connect with unique students early, build trust, and strengthen the workforce in ways that support clinicians, patients, and communities.

To learn more about Employer Connect and how to get involved, CLICK HERE.