Physical Therapy Clinical Education

The Doctor of Physical Therapy Clinical Education program provides diversity in quality clinical education experiences. Students are expected to participate in experiences that involve interprofessional collaboration, the underserved, and rural populations. The diverse experiences develop competent physical therapists who will graduate with the knowledge of providing compassionate and quality whole person healthcare to the public.​

Establishing a strong connection with ATSU provides a solid connection between the didactic curriculum and clinical component, truly making it a seamless transition. Clinical partners have consistency in student placements, know the quality of students and the skill set they hold, and have the ability to translate the real clinical needs back into the didactic curriculum. In addition, greater communication between faculty and clinical partners enhances the experience providing a rich learning environment.

Become a clinical partner and let’s work towards a win-win experience! Email saraparker@atsu.edu or jagraves@atsu.edu for more information.

March first of each year marks when we send requests for clinical experiences for the following year. We welcome opportunities in all clinical settings to provide the breadth and depth of experiences to our students’ education. Each cohort completes integrated experiences, a four week full-time clinical education experience and three 10 week terminal full-time education experiences prior to graduation.​

Clinical Settings

Students complete experiences designed to provide a variety of patient populations and settings for the breadth and depth needed as an entry-level Doctor of Physical Therapy graduate.

Resources:

• Clinical Education Manual (pdf)
• Clinical Reasoning Model (pdf)
• Attendance Policy (pdf)

Curriculum Guides

• Acute Care Curriculum (pdf)
• Neurologic Curriculum (pdf)
• Musculoskeletal Curriculum (pdf)
• Pediatric Curriculum (pdf)

Course Syllabi

• First Year Clinical Experience (pdf)
• Third Year Clinical Experience I (pdf)
• Third Year Clinical Experience II (pdf)
• Third Year Clinical Experience III (pdf)

Integrated Clinical Experiences

Year One - Fall Semester: Student pairs participate in a weekly two hour experience in an orthopedic setting.

• Monday and/or Thursday Afternoons
• 2023: July 31 through December 8

Year Two - Spring Semester: Students participate in a weekly two hour experience in an outpatient or inpatient setting with various patient populations including adult neurological, complex medical, pediatrics.

• Monday and/or Thursday afternoons, Fridays
• Session 1 2024: January 8 through March 8
• Session 2 2024: March 25 through May 24

Resources:

• Clinical Reasoning Model (pdf)
• 2 to 1 Model (pdf)

Summer Clinical Experience

• June 3 - June 28, 2024

Course Syllabi

• Summer Full-time Clinical Experience (pdf)

March first of each year marks when we send requests for clinical experiences for the following year. We welcome opportunities in all clinical settings to provide the breadth and depth of experiences to our students’ education. Each cohort completes three 10 week terminal full-time education experiences in the final year prior to graduation.​

Third-year Terminal Clinical Experiences

PT Class of 2024

• July 17 to September 22, 2023
• October 2 to December 8, 2023
• January 8 to March 15, 2024
• March 25 to May 31, 2024

PT Class of 2025

• July 15 to September 20, 2024
• September 30 to December 6, 2024
• January 6 to March 14, 2025
• March 24 to May 30, 2025

Clinical Progressions

• Acute Care Progression (pdf)
• Home Health Progression (pdf)
• Orthopedic Progression (pdf)
• Rehabilitation / Neurologic Progression (pdf)
• Pediatric Progression (pdf)

Course Syllabi

• Third Year Clinical Experience I (pdf)
• Third Year Clinical Experience II (pdf)
• Third Year Clinical Experience III (pdf)

Other Resources

*Some resources below may require you to log in to APTA.org in order to access them

• CI Credentialing Courses - offered through APTA (contact us if you would like to host a course)
• Continuing Education - at ATSU with discounted rates for clinical instructors
• Minimum required skills of physical therapist graduates at entry-level
• Levels of supervision as outlined by APTA - check with your state practice act for specifics
• Mentoring of professionalism - APTA position

Regional Consortia

A.T. Still University is part of the Northwest Intermountain Consortium. We are a strong working group comprised of DPT programs in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, and Washington. If you are directly supervising an ATSU student, connect with us, but if you need resources in your locale, see our webpage for contact information. The NIC has an upcoming conference and offers CEUs on an annual basis in the fall.

Additional Resources for our Partnered Sites

• Library Access: Ask us about how to be eligible for library access for ease of searching databases and obtainment of research articles.
  
• PhysioU Access: Ask us about access to this tool to use for clinical assessment, special tests, simulations and more.
  
• Certification of Appreciation: We offer a certificate upon request with hours of being a clinical instructor.
  
• Discounted CEUs: Our courses are discounted for our clinical instructors and partners. Please see our continuing education page for all upcoming courses. View Physical Therapy Continuing Education.
  
• Clinical Instructor Awards: Each year we honor 1-2 clinical instructors and/or SCCEs for their excellence and dedication to our program. The instructors are presented the award during our graduation dinner attending by faculty and graduates.
  

Our professional organizations have shared many resources and these resources along with discussion boards are available to assist in sharing ideas and resources as we navigate together. We are participating in national discussions so we can support all clinical education and be a resource to you.

The APTA is rolling out a new version of the CPI on May 15, 2023. All ATSU students will be transitioning to this platform starting June 1st, 2023. For more information about CPI 3.0 and the required training, please go to https://learningcenter.apta.org/p/CPI-3_CI-SCCE

The resources and discussion boards are open access. Please visit ACAPT’s page for these resources and discussions through this link: https://www.acapt.org/covid19-response

The Task Force on the Clinical Education Placement Process has completed their work and the final report is public. Be on the lookout for future work and provide your clinical perspectives!

New Common Terminology in Physical Therapy Clinical Education. Terminology has changed and this document helps outline that. We are still working on spreading the word so we are all speaking the same language. In brief - CCCE is now SCCE (site coordinator) - internship is no longer used. Share with your organization!

Thank you for all you do!