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

Neurology Report, Aug 1999 by Nicholson, Diane E

In summary, Part Two.:Preferred Practice Patterns is presented to students during the second and third years of the physical therapist curriculum in courses titled Motor Control in Rehabilitation and Neurologic Rehabilitation. The goal for these courses is for students to reach an evaluation level of skill for applying the elements of the Guide to clinical practice. The format for these courses is lecture, laboratory, small group discussion and assignments, and reading assignments.

Discussion

The purpose of this manuscript is to present how the Guide to Physical Therapist Practice is used in the professional physical therapist program at the University of Utah. Specifically the emphasis of this paper is on how the Guide is used to foster skills in neurologic physical therapy. The process that is presented in this paper is the result of changes implemented over 2 years.

My first attempt at using the Guide in a course failed. Students were provided with a quick summary of the Guide in a 20-minute lecture. Then the Guide was included in the videotape assignment of the Motor Control in Rehabilitation course. Specifically students were asked to classify patients presented on their videotapes into a preferred practice pattern and to evaluate the videotape session based on the Guide. Students fulfilled the assignment by stating that a patient fit into preferred practice pattern X and that the therapist used elements of the pattern in their session. Nei ther the students nor I felt that they were competent in using the Guide with this format.

The current format requires an expanded introduction to the Guide. The expanded introduction was easily incorporated into the Professional Issues in Physical Therapy course for 2 reasons. First, the instructor of the course was familiar with the Guide and he had a strong interest in using the Guide in the classroom. Second, the topics in the Introduction, Part One:A Description of Patient/Client Management, and the Appendixes of the Guide were already being taught in the Professional Issues in Physical Therapy Course.

The current format also requires that the Guide be used in multiple courses. Our curriculum includes separate cardiac, musculoskeletal, neuromuscular, and chronic disease courses. In addition, several topic areas of the curriculum include multiple courses. For example our Neuroanatomy, Motor Control in Rehabilitation, and Neurologic Rehabilitation courses all focus on neuromuscular physical therapy. In order for students to embrace the Guide, we felt that students needed to see multiple role models (eg, faculty members) using the Guide.

Several of our courses focus on only a few elements of the Guide. For example, the Motor Control in Rehabilitation course focuses on examination and intervention. We felt it was necessary for some courses to include all elements of the preferred practice patterns in order for students to see "the big picture" or to reach an evaluation level of performance on Bloom's taxonomy. This learning objective has been achieved in our Orthopedic Rehabilitation and Neurologic Rehabilitation courses using case scenarios.