| A program and faculty committed to community service. The DPT program offers a free clinic [1]that helps students learn to effectively manage adults with neurological programs during the fall and spring semester. Students and faculty see patients during the semester to provide PT to patients who otherwise cannot receive it. The clinic in the spring semester is coordinated with the OT program and students from both programs work together with patients. Additionally, students are encouraged to volunteer in the community. Over the last 3 years students have helped to staff the PT booth at the Avon Breast Cancer 3 Day Walk, provided BMI testing and backpack screening and education at the Tenderloin Health Fair, and provided a variety of education and screening programs focusing on wellness and fall prevention for local senoir centers and assisted living facilities as part of their neurologic and geriatric coursework. |
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A faculty that is current in clinical practice and scholarship. Faculty members are engaged in research investigating balance and falls in people with multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s Disease, and stroke, clinical reasoning, ethical development, and pelvic floor dysfunction. When possible, faculty with grants or on-going research projects encourage student involvment, including students providing advanced balance testing using the EquiTest for persons with multiple sclerosis [2]. Several faculty members are board certified clinical specialists, including specialists in orthopedics and geriatrics. All part-time faculty who teach in clinical courses practice full-time. |
| Graduates of the DPT program will be prepared to engage in scientific inquiry and practice that meets the needs of practitioners today and into the future. Students are introduced to evidence-based clinical decision-making in the first semester of the program and these skills are developed and reinforced in all courses. The research course sequence provides further depth. Finally, students select a patient during their six-month internship and, under the guidance of the clinical instructor and academic faculty, complete a case report in a format suitable for publication and provide an oral platform presentation of their case [3]. In the last 3 years, student's cases have been presented at state, national, and international conferences in addition to being published in peer-reviewed journals in orthopedic and geriatric physical therapy. |
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An approach to physical therapy education that reflects the art and science of the profession.
Our mission and philosophy [4] are focused on preparing outstanding practitioners who are attentive to the whole person and who excel at clinical decision-making, clinical reasoning and problem solving.