The Physical Therapy Career: Building The Foundation
In New Jersey, Bessie Blount continued teaching herself. She earned a GED — the credential that replaced the formal education she had been denied. She studied nursing at Community Kennedy Memorial Hospital in Newark, where she developed an interest in a field that had barely been formalized as a profession: physical therapy.
Physical therapy as a distinct medical specialty was relatively new in the early twentieth century. It had emerged from the rehabilitation needs created by World War I, when thousands of veterans returned with injuries — lost limbs, nerve damage, paralysis — that required long-term rehabilitative care rather than simple medical treatment. The profession grew through the 1920s and 1930s, with formal training programs developing and professional organizations establishing standards.
Bessie Blount studied at Panzer College of Physical Education and Hygiene in East Orange, New Jersey, and became a registered physical therapist. She was entering a profession that was both young and, at this moment in history, about to face its greatest challenge.