Using the Guide to Physical Therapist Practice in professional physical therapist education

Neurology Report, Aug 1999 by Nicholson, Diane E

The final unit (application) fills the last 2.5 weeks of the course. It consists of observing and analyzing physical therapy examinations and interventions as they relate to patient goals for physical therapy. Groups of 3 students are asked to videotape a physical therapy session (examination or intervention) that focuses on function, balance, or upper extremity function. Then the students make a chronological outline of the examination or intervention with the goal of documenting the amount of time devoted to each of the 24 examination and 11 intervention categories of the Guide. For example, a therapist may spend 10 minutes on gait, locomotion, and balance and 5 minutes on therapeutic exercise. [Note that some interventions may overlap (eg, patient education and therapeutic exercise.)] Then students are asked to study the relationship between patient goals for physical therapy and the videotaped session and to justify what occurred during the videotaped session and/or to suggest and justify suggestions for change. The basis for making changes and for evaluating the session is based on the preferred practice patterns in the Guide. Note that students at this level are not asked to perform evaluations or make diagnoses - the emphasis in this course is on examination and intervention.

After analyzing the videotaped session, students edit their videotape to produce a 10 to 15 minute videotape that includes the main part of the session that focuses on motor control, or sections that might be altered to optimize motor control. Students also develop a 1- or 2-page handout summarizing their project. Then students present their edited videotape and handout to their classmates. Each presentation, consisting of an introduction, presentation of an edited videotape and handout, a summary, and a call for questions and discussion, lasts approximately 20 minutes. Each student participates in 12 videotape discussions (ie, they present 1 videotape and they participate in 11 other videotape discussions that their classmates present).

A goal for the Motor Control in Rehabilitation course is for students to reach an analysis level of performance for examinations and interventions. For example, students should be able to categorize patients and identify examinations and interventions when observing a physical therapist. They should be able to perform several examination and intervention techniques and they should be able to suggest multiple examinations and interventions appropriate for a patient's goals for physical therapy. The key for students to reach an analysis level of performance is the videotape assignment.

Students enroll in Neurologic Rehabilitation in the third year of our physical therapist program. This course consists of 3 hours of lecture and 3 hours of laboratory for 15 weeks. The text used in this course is Neurological Rehabilitation by Darcy Umphred.7 The course follows 2 sequences. One is a developmental sequence where students learn techniques to progress patients through a developmental sequence. For example, a unit on neurodevelopmental and biomechanical techniques to facilitate rolling precedes a unit on techniques to facilitate transfers. The other sequence, which corresponds to a medical lecture course, follows pathologies. The latter sequence will be the focus of the following paragraphs.