Required Placements

The DCE/ADCE is responsible to ensure that each student is provided with a placement site for clinical education during each scheduled Clinical Education Course. The placements will satisfy the requirements to complete courses PDPT-59000, PDPT-59102, PDPT-69200, PDPT-69300, or PDPT69400/69500. Assignments to clinical education placements are based on several factors, including but not limited to: program requirements for a breadth of experiences, DCE/ADCE advisement, student performance, student preference and clinical site availability.

Variety requirement: A variety of clinical education experiences is required and monitored by the DCE/ADCE which reflect the following dimensions:

o    diversity of ages in patient populations

o    variety of diagnoses, variety of settings (inpatient/outpatient)

o    diversity in physical therapy management and administrative approaches 

Student preferences for clinical placements will be reviewed by the DCE/ADCE to determine that each student will participate in a variety of clinical experiences. Students will be assigned to affiliating sites that provide each student with the breadth of clinical experiences necessary to demonstrate entry-level skills in all aspects of physical therapy. Students must meet this requirement for variety of experiences to graduate from the program. Decisions are made individiually in consultation between the DCE/ADCE and student to select placements that will saatisfy the requirement for breadth of experiences.

In general, students have 4 clinical education placements:

• One must be inpatient care (inpatient acute, skilled nursing facility (SNF), long term care (LTC), subacute, inpatient rehab)
• One must be outpatient orthopedic
• One must be a neurological emphasis (rehab, SNF/LTC, subacute rehab, outpatient neuro)
• One may be a specialty area (pediatrics, developmental disabilities, sports medicine, work conditioning/industrial rehab, women’s health, performing arts)