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AASU Department of Physical Therapy

Doctor of Physical Therapy

CURRICULUM

The professional curriculum is designed in two phases: systems and lifespan. Courses in the first year use a systems approach with cases in musculoskeletal, cardiopulmonary, neuromuscular physical therapy and wound care. In this first year, the students have an opportunity to practice and integrate their professional skills in a simulated clinic course (Case Management). Use of this experiential learning techniques has been presented at international meetings. At the end of the first year, the students have an 8-week full time clinical experience to further solidify and integrate this material in the clinical setting. The clinical experience is further enhanced by a clinical synthesis course which all students take after their clinical experiences and allows students to share their experiences with the other students.

In the second year of study, students explore practice topics in more depth within the context of a lifespan approach, beginning with disorders and diseases of children and ending with the problems of aging. At the end of these more advanced courses are two final full time clinical experiences. Again at the end of the clinical experiences is a clinical synthesis course so that students can further integrate and share with other students what they have learned on their clinical assignments. This clearly shows the imbedded, progressive development of clinical skills within this curriculum with each semester adding to the previous semester.

The curriculum is further integrated by team teaching. Most courses in the curriculum are team taught. Two faculty are in most courses and some course have three faculty. In addition, some faculty teach in more than one course in a semester. This helps provide the linkages between courses. In this way the faculty also provide role models in the advantages of teamwork for the students.

 

 

 

 

Program of Study

YEAR I
Semester 1: Summer
credit hours

PHTH 5101 Funct/Struc Mvmt 1
PHTH 5111 Intro to Pathophysiol 1
PHTH 5131 Fndn of Ex/Eval/Intn 1
PHTH 5161 PT Practice Issues 1
PHTH 5181 Clinical Practicum 1

5
2
6
1
1
15
Semester 2: Fall Semester
PHTH 5202 Funct/Struc Mvmt
PHTH 5212 Intro to Pathophysiol
PHTH 5232 Fndn of Ex/Eval/Intn
PHTH 5262 PT Practice Issues
PHTH 5282 Clinical Practicum
6
2
8
1
1
18
Semester 3: Spring Semester
PHTH 7303 Funct/Struc Mvmt 3
PHTH 7313 Intro to Pathophysiol 3
PHTH 7333 Fndn of Ex/Eval/Intn 3
PHTH 7363 PT Practice Issues 3
PHTH 7383 Clinical Practicum 3
PHTH 7390 PT Case Management
4
2
8
1
1
3
19
YEAR TWO
Semester 4: Summer Semester
PHTH 7400 Critical Inquiry
PHTH 7481 Supervised Clin Educ 1
PHTH 7491 Clin Ed Synthesis 1
2
8
2
12
Semester 5: Fall Semester
PHTH 7501 Clinical Medicine 1
PHTH 7531 Adv Ex/Eval/Intn 1
PHTH 7561 Lifespan Concepts 1
PHTH 8901 PT Project 1
3
8
2
1
14
Semester 6: Spring Semester
PHTH 7602 Clinical Medicine 2
PHTH 7632 Adv Ex/Eval/Intn 2
PHTH 7662 Lifespan Concepts 2
PHTH 8902 PT Project 2
3
8
2
1
14
YEAR THREE
Semester 7: Summer Semester
PHTH 8703 Clinical Medicine 3
PHTH 8733 Adv Ex/Eval/Intn 3
PHTH 8763 Lifespan Concepts 3
PHTH 8903 PT Project 3
3
6
2
1
12
Semester 8: Fall Semester
PHTH 8804 Clinical Medicine 4
PHTH 8834 Adv Ex/Eval/Intn 4
PHTH 8882 Spvd Clin Educ 2
PHTH 8904 PT Project 4
1
2
10
1
14
Semester 9: Spring Semester
PHTH 8900 Leadership & Mngmnt in PT
PHTH 8983 Supervised Clin Educ 3
PHTH 8992 Clin Educ Synthesis 2
3
10
3
16
Total Semester Hours 134