This seminar course, open to a limited number of students, from 6 different professional schools, including medicine, nursing, physical therapy, physician assistant, pharmacy, and social work, will enhance knowledge and skills in quality improvement and transitions in care for elders through small group exercises and close faculty mentoring.   In that process, students will develop skills in working with teams, improve skills in communication and collaboration and receive specific training in quality improvement methodologies.  Three learners from each professional school will participate (a total of 18 students).  These learners will be selected via a competitive application process, targeting those with an expressed interest in geriatrics, transitions in care, inter-professional training, and/or quality improvement.  The course will be composed of seven evening seminars on a series of core topics held two evenings per month for 3-4 months during the fall semester.  The core topics include inter-professional teams, problems in transitions, quality improvement methodologies, settings and transitions, communication, coaching across transitions, and presentation of group projects.  Between sessions, learners will have specific individual and group assignments, including development of a group quality improvement project.  This course seeks to address an important educational need in training health care providers in the care of older adults.  Effective and safe health care for older adults transitioning between different locations and levels of care requires the attention and expertise of a team of health care professionals.  Members of this team must collaborate with each other and with patients and families to “ensure the coordination and continuity of health care” (Coleman E. Improving the quality of transitional care for persons with complex care needs. J Am Geriatr Soc 2003;51:556-7).  Unfortunately, as detailed in a recent IOM report, these various professions “are not educated together or trained in team-based skills” (Greiner AC, Knebel E, eds. Health Professions Education: A Bridge to Quality.  Washington , DC : National Academies Press, 2003).  This course presents an opportunity to improve inter-professional education and directly impact the quality of patient care.

Manual therapy provides further learning in the areas of evaluation, assessment and application. This course discusses the reliability, validity, and applicability of manual therapy techniques at major physiologic anatomic regions. The course is primarily lab-based, with appropriate lecture topics to solidify learning opportunities.

Purpose:  To help medical personnel communicate on a basic level with Spanish-speaking clients and to put those clients at ease during the medical process.

 

This elective is designed to facilitate integration of evidence-based physical therapy into musculoskeletal physical therapy practice.   Students will manage patients/clients in the clinical setting using evidence-based tools such as self-report outcome measures (Patient-Specific and Global Rating of Function, and Pain rating). Students will implement interventions and assess the effects of their chosen interventions on impairments and functional limitations.  

Clinical discussion will include interaction between students and instructor in a more collegial fashion.  Student will explore their rationales for interventions based on evidence or logical inference, and the subsequent outcome of care provided.  Enrollment is limited due to the interactive structure of the course.

The course will offer a combination of lecture, seminar discussion, demonstration, field observations and assessments, small group activities, and projects in order to allow the student to develop a more advanced level of knowledge of pediatric physical therapy.  Students will hear lectures from experts in the field and will have an opportunity to observe the provision of pediatric physical therapy in a variety of specialized settings of their choice.  The students will observe a child over the time period of the course in order to develop and refine their observational skills and enhance their knowledge of typical development.  Students will be exposed to advanced levels of literature, research, and clinical experiences or observations in pediatrics.

This elective course will allow the student to pursue independent study, clinical exposure, and seminar discussion of selected topics related to management of patients who use prosthetic and orthotic devices.  Specific topics to be covered will be planned jointly by the instructor and the enrolled students, with opportunities for self directed study in at least one topic of choice, for example:  prosthetic and orthotic prescription, prosthetic and orthotic gait analysis, interventions or prosthetic and orthotic fabrication.

This year we are offering a unique learning opportunity for those students who have a genuine interest and enthusiasm for teaching.  The elective will allow students to apply the educational theory they have previously studied in PT 416 to actual teaching in class with the first year DPT students in PT 302(Palpation) and PT 305(Interventions I).  Students will be required to teach and supervise one laboratory session in either or both of the two courses, depending upon the number of students enrolled in the elective.  In addition, students will be required to prepare for and attend all sessions of these courses to serve as laboratory assistants for each other.  Meeting time outside of these class sessions will serve to facilitate the students’ preparation for teaching, enhance their knowledge in the area of education and develop their abilities to self-assess.  Due to the importance of providing an excellent educational experience for the first year students, the Teaching Elective is limited to 4 well qualified students who must have received at least a B in PT 302 and PT 305.  The selection process for this elective may include a phone interview to explore the student’s intent and focus in taking this elective.  Ultimately, selection will depend on past performance in all aspects of the DPT program.  There is no guarantee that those who opt for this elective will be selected.  There will be no opportunity for auditing in this elective.

The Women’s Health elective is designed to introduce Physical Therapy students to a specialty area of Physical Therapy practice.  Students will review and discuss pelvic floor anatomy and physiology; pregnancy, labor and delivery; examination and interventions for obstetric and gynecological symptoms; lymphadema; endocrinology of the female; and surgical/pharmaceutical interventions for pelvic floor dysfunction.