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Clinical Education
The clinical education portion of the curriculum provides opportunities for students to refine learned skills and behaviors and apply them in clinical practice settings. With supervision and instruction from a physical therapist clinical instructor, students work directly with patients, their families, and other members of the healthcare team in a variety of clinical settings. The expectation is that students will progress toward greater independence and improved consistency and efficiency with performance in increasingly complex environments and with increasingly complex patient/client problems. By the end of the final clinical course, students will be functioning on the level of an entry-level physical therapist.
Clinical education experiences are designed and planned to afford students opportunities to demonstrate mastery of the program’s expectations for clinical performance. Students are required to seek assignments based on available clinical slots that will ultimately provide them with the education and experience they need to function as entry-level practitioners across the age span and the continuum of care. Assignments are made via a random, computerized matching program which takes into account the students’ needs and preferences. Students consult with their advisor and/or the Academic Coordinator of Clinical Education (ACCE) during the match process to ensure that their preferences reflect their educational needs and the program’s expectations. Every student will complete at least one rotation in an outpatient orthopedic setting and one rotation in an inpatient acute/general medical setting. Final approval of clinical assignments is made by the ACCE.
In order to ensure that each student attains the desired depth and breadth of experiences, students should expect that at least one assignment will involve travel to a community outside the Augusta area; students should plan accordingly to meet cost of living expenses during all assignments.