Doctor of Physical Therapy Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences

As a physical therapist, you have the power to improve the health and well-being of people across the life span. This program builds on your bachelor's degree to help you develop the advanced knowledge and skills required for contemporary physical therapy practice.

In this full-time, three-year doctoral program, you will experience a challenging course of study designed to prepare you to diagnose and treat a wide variety of patients, assess their outcomes, and provide evidence of effectiveness. You will have the opportunity to work with real patients in our on-campus Balance, Movement, and Wellness Center and gain real-world experience through a wide range of clinical experiences both on and off-campus.

When you graduate, you will be eligible to sit for the PT licensing examination and begin your rewarding career in a variety of roles in practice, patient education, research, policy, and advocacy as a physical therapist.

Year 1-Fall

• PT as a Profession
• Foundations of PT Management I
• Clinical Medicine and Pathology I
• Clinical Human Anatomy
• PT in the Acute Care Environment (w/ lab)
• Integrated Clinical Education I

Year 1-Spring

• Foundations of PT Management II
• Clinical Medicine and Pathology II
• Evidence for PT Practice I
• Clinical Kinesiology
• Standardized Measurement in PT Practice
• Integrated Clinical Education II
• Neuroscience

Year 1-Summer

• Evidence for PT Practice II
• Lifespan Motor Control
• Human Gait
• Cardiopulmonary Patient Management
• Professional Issues In PT Practice I
• Therapeutic Exercise

Year II-Fall

• Pharmacology
• Clinical Imaging
• Musculoskeletal Patient Management I
• Neuromuscular Patient Management I
• Evidence for PT Practice III
• Orthotics and Prosthetics
• Integrated Clinical Education III

Year II-Spring

• Musculoskeletal Patient Management II
• Neuromuscular Patient Management II
• Evidence for PT Practice IV
• PT Management of the Geriatric Patient
• PT Management for the Pediatric Patient
• Professional Issues in PT Practice II
• Integrated Clinical Education IV

Year II-Summer

• Musculoskeletal Patient Management III
• Professional Issues in PT Practice III
• Special Topics in Ther EX
• Integrated Clinical Education V
• Occupational Health

Year III-Fall

• Clinical Education Experience I
• Clinical Education Experience II

Year III-Spring

• Clinical Education Experience III
• DPT Elective(s)
• Evidence for PT Practice V
• Professional Issues in PT Practice IV

Clinical Education

Integrated Clinical Experiences

You will gain hands-on experience through a variety of integrated clinical experiences in the first two years of the program. Integrated clinical experiences build on the information you learn in the classroom. For example, during the courses focused on acute care, students are assigned to an acute care setting to experience specialty clinics, post-surgical management, and intensive care.

Balance, Movement, and Wellness Center

In the on-campus, pro-bono Balance, Movement, and Wellness Center, you will gain experience working with real patients. You will work together with our expert faculty and other students to help improve patients’ strength, flexibility, endurance, balance, and overall wellness through group exercise classes that focus on patients’ individual needs.

Clinical Rotations

In the final year of the program, you will participate in three, full-time off-campus clinical education experiences. Each experience is 10 weeks long—one in an outpatient orthopedic setting, one in a complex medical setting such as inpatient acute, acute rehab, subacute rehab, or home care, and an elective in the area in which you have a strong passion.

Essential Functions and Technical Standards

Information on the University’s Disabilities Support Services is set forth in the MCPHS University Catalog. If a student feels s/he may require special accommodations to perform any of the fundamental requirements of the curriculum, it is the student’s responsibility to contact the Assistant Dean for Academic Support Services as set forth in the MCPHS University Catalog.

Essential Functions

The practice of physical therapy includes the examination, diagnosis, and treatment of people with physical disabilities, movement dysfunction, and pain. Physical therapists must be prepared to conduct in a timely manner a relevant patient examination, evaluate the results of this examination and synthesize these data to establish an accurate diagnosis, prognosis, and plan of care, implement an intervention and use the process of re-examination to assess patient outcomes. Physical therapists must also possess the skills necessary to determine when referral of the patient/client to another health care professional is appropriate. Physical therapists must provide evidence that the care that they provide is effective, often through the conduct of clinically based research.

DPT students must be able to complete the following:

• Participation in all required aspects of classroom and laboratory activities.
• Participation in all required aspects of clinical experience activities.
• Effective communication with other students, instructors, assistive personnel, patients, family members, payers, and other health care professionals.
• Maintenance of a safe environment for other individuals and for one’s self, including the use of universal precautions.
• Provision of emergency patient care, including, but not limited to, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).
• Completion of elements of patient/client management, including examination, evaluation of data, formulation of physical therapy diagnosis and prognosis, intervention, assessment of outcomes, and record keeping.
• Completion of specific patient/client interventions and treatments, including patient and family education, application of modalities, therapeutic exercise, and functional training.

Clinical agencies may have additional or agency-specific technical standards, which take precedence over MCPHS University technical standards.

The Commission on Accreditation of Physical Therapy Education (CAPTE) accredits professional physical therapy programs and requires that graduates of these programs be able to deliver entry-level clinical services. Graduates of entry-level programs are required to possess a broad base of knowledge and skills requisite for the practice of physical therapy. Physical therapists require intellectual—communication, behavioral—social, observational, and motor abilities to meet the standard of practice.

Certain disabilities can interfere with a student’s ability to complete the program of study and acquire the essential functions necessary for the practice of physical therapy. Reasonable accommodation can be made to compensate for some limitations. However, those that interfere with patient care, safety or require the use of an intermediary may be incompatible with independent professional practice.

Technical Standards

Intellectual – Communication abilities

Intellectual skills include the ability to recall and comprehend large amounts of didactic information and to apply this information to the examination, evaluation, and management of routine and complex physical therapy problems. Effective communication skills enable the physical therapist to elicit appropriate information from patients and to effectively explain examination and treatment procedures.

Some of the skills an individual must be able to demonstrate include but are not limited to the ability to:

• Communicate clearly and in a timely manner with patients, physicians, other health professionals, community or professional groups, and colleagues.
• Report clearly, legibly, and in a timely manner through progress notes in patient charts, reports to physicians, insurance forms, and order forms.
• Respond to such things as a patient calling from behind a curtain, warning calls from anyone, and machine alarms.
• Participate in group meetings to deliver and receive information and respond to questions from a variety of sources.

Behavioral and Social Attributes

Students must demonstrate the ability to practice in a professional and ethical manner and possess the emotional stability to practice in a stressful work environment. Compassion, integrity, concern for others, interpersonal skills, cultural competence, and motivation are all personal attributes associated with the practice of physical therapy.

Some of the skills an individual must be able to demonstrate include but are not limited to the ability to:

• Recognize and respond appropriately to individuals of all ages, genders, races, socio-economic, religious, and cultural backgrounds.
• Cope with the stress of heavy workloads, demanding patients, and life-threatening clinical situations.
• Recognize and respond appropriately to potentially hazardous situations.

Observational Skills

Observation is one of the key tools that a physical therapist possesses. Gathering data on patient/client conditions and appropriately manipulating machinery are critical to being an effective physical therapist. Some of the skills an individual must be able to demonstrate include but are not limited to the ability to:

• Observe and interpret patient movement, skin condition, safety hazards, and changes in appearance.
• Read and interpret equipment dials, assessment graphs, patient charts, professional literature, and notes from patients, physicians, and other health professionals.

Motor Skills

The practice of physical therapy requires that the practitioner possess the ability to perform basic evaluative and therapeutic procedures that require specific physical skills and stamina (e.g. palpation, transfers, gait training). A therapist must be able to use vision and somatic sensation in the evaluation and treatment of patients. Some of the skills an individual must be able to demonstrate include but are not limited to the ability to:

• Lift, carry, and push patients (150 lbs.) in bed or wheelchairs, heavy equipment, body parts, and patients transferring from bed to chair or mat or be able to instruct others in the activity including proper body mechanics.
• Walk and balance well enough to help patients walk and transfer with or without equipment, and prevent injury to patient and self.
• Palpate anatomical structures and handle injured body parts without causing injury to the subject.
• Exhibit sufficient manual dexterity to manipulate very small equipment, provide support and resistance as needed through complex exercise movements, perform CPR, manipulate dials, and treat acutely ill patients without disturbing sensitive monitoring instruments and lines.
• Provide for the patient’s safety and well-being in all therapeutic or transporting activities.