Mission, Goals and Program Outcomes

Program Goals

1. Education: The programs will create a collaborative learning community that develops adaptive, reflective physical therapists with sound clinical reasoning skills. 

2. Research: The programs will improve healthcare through scholarship in clinical and educational practice, collaborative care, social justice, and rehabilitation and movement science.

3. Service/Social Determinants: The programs will promote social accountability and act as agents of change to have a positive impact on health and the human experience. 

Program Outcomes

Upon graduation, each student should be able to demonstrate the following abilities as a professional and a physical therapy practitioner.

Professional Core Abilities

• Professional formation and critical self-reflection: The student will use a process of deliberative self-reflection to enhance his or her understanding of self and engage in continued professional formation. Formation of professional identity is based on the following core values: accountability, altruism, compassion, excellence, integrity, professional duty and social responsibility.

• Communication skills: The student will read, write, speak, listen and use media and technology to communicate effectively. The students will demonstrate respectful, positive and culturally appropriate interpersonal behaviors in the counsel and education of patients and families, as well as when communicating with other healthcare professionals.

• Critical thinking and clinical judgment: The student will acquire, comprehend, apply, synthesize and evaluate information, integrating these abilities to identify, resolve and prevent problems and make appropriate decisions. The student will demonstrate the behaviors of the scholarly clinician by developing and utilizing the process of critical thinking and systematic inquiry for the purpose of clinical reasoning, decision-making, and exercising sound critical judgment.

• Learning and professional development: The student will consistently strive to expand his or her knowledge and skills to maintain professional competence and contribute to the body of professional knowledge. The student will demonstrate the ability to gather, interpret and evaluate data to assess the suitability, accuracy and reliability of information from reference sources.

• Ethical foundation and moral agency: The student will practice in an ethical manner, fulfilling an obligation to demonstrate moral responsibility and social justice. The student will identify, analyze and resolve ethical problems.

• Social awareness, leadership and advocacy: The student will provide service to the community and to the profession, assume responsibility for proactive collaboration with other healthcare professionals in addressing patient needs and be prepared to influence the development of ethical and humane healthcare regulations and policies that are consistent with the needs of the patient and society.

Physical Therapy Care Abilities

• Patient examination: The student will perform a thorough patient interview with appropriate medical history and review of systems as well as a physical examination using appropriate tests and measures.

• Patient evaluation and physical therapy diagnosis: The student will interpret results of the physical therapy examination and other diagnostic procedures, synthesize pertinent data and then formulate an accurate physical therapy diagnosis. The process of evaluation also may identify the need for consultation with or referral to other healthcare providers.

• Patient prognosis: The student will predict the level of optimal improvement that a patient may attain through intervention within a given period of time.

• Patient intervention: The student will design an appropriate, customized plan of care consistent with the physical therapy diagnosis and prognosis, as well as with the patient’s/family’s expectations and goals. The student will also assume responsibility for delegating patient care activities and supervising those entrusted with them.

• Patient re-examination/re-evaluation: The student will perform an accurate re-examination and re-evaluation to determine changes in patient status and to modify or redirect physical therapy intervention. This process also may identify the need for consultation with or referral to other healthcare providers.

• Patient outcomes: The student will track the results of physical therapy management, which may include the following domains: pathology; impairments; functional limitations; participation; risk reduction/prevention; wellness; community and societal resources and patient satisfaction.

• Systems management: The student will identify the specific contribution of physical therapy management within the healthcare system and the influence of healthcare policy on that system. In addition, the student will demonstrate knowledge and be able to effectively interact within the independent framework of the healthcare team in a complex society. The student will extend his/her responsibility for physical therapy care beyond individual patients to include care of communities and populations.