- Degree Level
- Doctorate
- Graduate
- Degrees Offered
- Doctor of Physical Therapy
- Department
- Physical Therapy
- school/college
- College of Health Sciences
Transitional DPT Program
Arcadia University offers a Transitional Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) program for physical therapy students.
- All post-professional DPT courses are 2-credit, fully online courses with both synchronous and asynchronous components.
- The program can be completed in one to three years, or one-and-half to three years for the internationally educated.
- Pricing schedule makes the program affordable and competitive.
- Students can start any semester, and most courses can be taken in any sequence.
- Course waivers, based on experience documented in a portfolio, are possible for up to 6 credits.
- Students network and interact with nationally recognized faculty and peers.
- Students can take two courses before formal application and matriculation.
- Arcadia’s Physical Therapy program is ranked among the top 10 percent of accredited programs in the nation by U.S. News and World Report.
Arcadia’s Transitional DPT Experience
The profession and practice of physical therapy is rapidly changing. The demands imposed upon a physical therapist today are very different from those of even five or 10 years ago. These demands often go beyond the formal education provided in more traditional entry-level programs. Therapists increasingly are required to justify their practice patterns based on research evidence, to take on consulting and supervisory roles, and to provide administrative expertise and leadership.
Offered completely online, this program gives practicing clinicians easy access to make their formal education congruent with students graduating from entry-level DPT programs. The program’s goal is to educate clinicians to achieve practice consistent with the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) Vision 2020 and beyond. Graduates will function with a high degree of professionalism and possess the requisite knowledge, skills, and behaviors to practice physical therapy in a truly scientific manner (i.e., using evidence-based practice).
Graduates will demonstrate the ability to do the following:
- Solve clinical problems using evidence.
- Critically evaluate current literature and popular theories.
- Communicate professionally through scientific writing.
- Function as an effective teacher at multiple levels—with patients, students, peers, and the public.
- Lead others and advocate effectively (serve as a consultant or manager).
- Enhance skills required to be a lifelong independent learner.
This is a program for practicing professionals who want to learn from and interact with nationally recognized faculty and exceptional peers. The program is highly interactive and capitalizes on the wealth of knowledge clinicians bring with them.
Featured Courses
Clinical Decision Making
Required Course
Physical therapists, like all other healthcare providers, routinely make decisions affecting patients in daily care. Such decisions may be based on a variety of sources, including experience, intuition, testimonials from teachers or colleagues, and findings from literature. This course is designed to provide a framework for making future and evaluating past clinical decisions based on the best available evidence. This course assists the student in developing the tools needed to provide evidence-based physical therapy practice. The course includes projects and online discussions relevant to each student’s clinical practice and ensures that the student applies the theories and tools to everyday situations.
Health Promotion
Required Course
Prevention, risk reduction, and health promotion are activities included in the Guide to Physical Therapist Practice, and although physical therapists have performed these activities with individual patients and clients, participation in broader programs for communities or groups of people is an area of significant need and opportunity. Health promotion and wellness theory are presented in this course to prepare physical therapists to integrate these concepts into their current practice and/or to expand their practices and consultative skills in the prevention arena. Students also are introduced to a variety of techniques commonly used in the strategic planning process and use those techniques to develop a plan for the introduction of a health promotion program relevant to their own practice settings or worksites. After the introduction and discussion of key concepts, including assessment and program planning, students complete a project and develop a health promotion program using the health promotion approach and strategic planning processes.
Pharmacology
Required Course
Individuals involved in healthcare recognize that drugs can influence patients’ response to physical rehabilitation. Medication can provide beneficial effects that act synergistically with physical therapy treatments, or they can generate side effects that may adversely affect rehabilitation goals. This course presents some of the basic drug classes and the physiologic basis of their action. Drugs are grouped according to their general effects and the type of disorders for which they are routinely used to treat. Special emphasis is placed on drugs that are commonly used to treat disorders seen in patients receiving physical therapy and how drug therapy interacts with rehabilitation.
