Philosophy of the Program

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Societal demands and a changing health care environment are affecting physical therapy practice. The aim of the entry-level Master of Physical Therapy Program at Carroll College is to produce clinicians, trained for general practice in an evolving and diverse health care environment, who will contribute to the profession's body of knowledge and empower patients to self-management.

Graduates of the entry-level Master of Physical Therapy Program are reflective, adaptable, and competent to render independent judgements within a framework of collaborative health care practice. The pre-professional education is grounded in the humanities and the natural, behavioral, and social sciences. Professional preparation in the basic sciences, behavioral sciences, applied sciences, health sciences, and the science of physical therapy prepares graduates to examine, evaluate, diagnose, make prognoses, and provide interventions in the delivery of physical therapy services across gender and the life span. Graduates are prepared to practice with moral sensitivity, social responsibility, and cultural awareness in the current health care environment including under-served areas or settings. Understanding values of the physical therapy profession and other related professions, as well as health care economics and policy, allows graduates to impact health care delivery systems in their communities. Graduates have a life-long commitment to self-directed learning and critical inquiry recognizing that completion of their professional education is the first phase on a continuum of phases to mastery and competency in physical therapy. Graduates contribute to the profession and society by seeking and disseminating knowledge gained in practice.

To best prepare graduates to be general practitioners in the changing and increasingly diverse health care environment, there is an evolving collaboration between the entry-level Master of Physical Therapy Program at Carroll College and professionals throughout the state of Wisconsin. This collaboration of academic and professionals exists in teaching, practice, service, and research allowing the program to link education to the reality of practice, anticipate future developments, and keep a global perspective. Academicians and professionals are role models for ethical behavior, self-development, continuous learning, and professional contribution. A portion of our mission is to foster professional leadership in faculty and staff through definition of expectations, performance evaluations, and professional development.

Adopted by the Department of Physical Therapy Faculty in November, 1995
Revised and Approved in July, 1996; January, 1998

The aim of the entry-level Master of Physical Therapy Program is to produce clinicians, trained for general practice in a changing and diverse health care environment, who will contribute to the profession’s body of knowledge and empower patients to self-management. To this end, the Physical Therapy program considers the current and anticipated needs of society and of the profession, as well as the needs of Carroll College, department faculty, and students in pre-professional and professional phases of the program.

The structure of the curriculum incorporates both traditional and problem-based learning concepts and culminates with true problem-based learning experiences. Knowledge bases are developed in diagnosis, prognosis, clinical decision making, referral, patient intervention and skills, case management and wellness and prevention. They are then applied in the study of pathology, impairment, functional limitation, and disability. The application of the knowledge bases is explored within the framework of clinical problems.

The curriculum is developed around four tracts. Each tract is composed of courses that find their foundations in the same basic or professional science. The professional tract presents material in a manner that develops content from general to specific, and from basic to applied concepts in health care delivery, patient management, research, and education. The neurological, musculoskeletal, and general medicine tracks present basic science, applied science in the absence of pathology, and applied science in the presence of pathology within the context of patient care. Across and within the four tracts are common themes which are based upon values that the faculty embrace. These values include:

• Ethical inquiry and practice as outlined in the Physical Therapy Code of Ethics and applied in the academic and professional arenas.
• Continuous integration of theory and practice across the curriculum.
• Self-management of the learning process by the students, whereby the students become capable of and responsible for actively educating themselves.
• Self-reinforcement whereby the students learn and progress not because of external rewards, but because they value their growing competence.
• Faculty and students share a unified vision regarding the curriculum and the profession.
  

As an entry-level Master of Physical Therapy Program, both baccalaureate and post-baccalaureate teaching techniques are employed in the presentation of materials. There is collaborative teaching within and across the tracts and the courses with planned redundancy of subject matter. Constant reinforcement of content with clinical experiences occurs through observations of and exposure to patients in academic courses, exposure to clients in the Entry-Level Master of Physical Therapy Program’s Teaching Laboratory Practice, and integrated clinical education. Formal class time is limited to twenty-five hours a week to foster student responsibility in learning. Texts, articles, videos, lectures, discussions, seminars, and laboratories are used to present subject matter. To promote self- and peer-learning, peer- mentoring, multiple methods are utilized, including student faculty rounds, planned student independent and group activities with outside of class projects, computer-based instruction, interactive videos, clinical cases, case studies, and directed skill practices. To ensure that the entry-level Master of Physical Therapy Program is reflective of optimal practice, faculty performance, ongoing self, student, peer, program, and professional assessment occurs regularly.

To meet our educational mission the Entry-Level Master of Physical Therapy Program utilizes a variety of individuals including, but not limited to academic and clinical physical therapists; other professionals; basic, behavioral, and social scientists; patients and care givers; and the community. Academic and clinical faculty facilitate learning, serve as resources, and share their content expertise in their area of specialization, allowing intradisciplinary and interdisciplinary instruction. They are also responsible for the design, implementation, and evaluation of the professional curriculum. The academic faculty members participate in other Carroll College undergraduate departments in the design, implementation, and evaluation of the pre-professional curriculum.

Adopted by the Department of Physical Therapy Faculty in November, 1995
Revised and Approved in July, 1996
Revised in February, 1998
Revised in January 2000