Bellin College Clinical Mentorship Requirements and Considerations for Fellows-In-Training
Clinical Mentor Requirements for Fellow Mentors
A Bellin College fellowship mentor for 1:1 clinical mentorship hours will have all the qualifications listed below. Additionally, many will have teaching experience (academic, continuing education presentations, and/or clinical instructor.
- Credentialed as a Fellow of the AAOMPT (FAAOMPT) with current FAAOMPT status
- Actively engaged in patient care
- Able to spend a portion of clinic hours in 1:1 time with the FiT at a mutually agreeable location
- Agrees to allow observation of active mentorship at least one annually, either live or via electronic means, by Bellin College Program Director.
- Approved by the Bellin College Orthopaedic Manual Physical Therapy (OMPT) Fellowship Program Director/Coordinator.
- Agrees with and upholds the patient care principles of Bellin College and the clinic, and is supportive of Bellin College's goals, philosophy, and requirements for fellowship clinical mentorship experiences
- Agrees to participate in Bellin College Mentorship Program Initiatives (mentorship webinars, mentorship courses, mentorship sessions at conferences, etc.)
In addition to the above requirements, a clinical mentor for Fellows should:
- Supervise the FiT in direct patient care, providing critique and guidance on fellowship-level clinical decision making and manual therapy skills
- Provide critique and guidance to the FiT on professional communication, teaching techniques, and teaching effectiveness
- Be proactive in modeling and instilling leadership and mentorship qualities
- Provide critique and guidance for the development of teaching modules, educational and marketing materials as applicable
- Work with Bellin College Faculty to conduct live patient and/or techniques examinations (note that live patient examinations need to be recorded for Bellin College Program Director review or two FAAOMPT credentialed examiners must be present on site).
- Support Bellin College Clinical Mentorship Initiatives (Mentorship Webinars, attend mentorship sessions at AAOMPT/CSM meetings as able, go through mentorship course with Bellin College, etc.) as able
Clinical Mentorship Hours Requirement for Manual Requirement for Manual Therapy Fellows
1 on 1 clinical mentorship hours
According to AAOMPT, none of the clinical mentorship hours for Fellows may take place in a POPTS or Referral for Profit (RFP) situation. An RFP situation is one in which a referring physician (medical doctor, doctor of osteopathy, podiatrist, dentist, or chiropractor) derives a financial benefit from the physical therapy services provided to the person who is referred. The situations to which this restriction applies include those in which: (a) a physician has an ownership interest in a physical therapy practice to which he or she refers, (b) a physician or the physician’s practice employs or contracts with physical therapists to provide physical therapy services within the physician practice, or (c) a physician’s income or bonus is directly or indirectly tied to the revenues of the physical therapy service to which he or she refers patients. Noncompliance with this clause constitutes grounds for withdrawal of credentialing, and therefore FiT must not perform all mentorship (1:1 and clinical practice hours) in clinical situations that are not in POPTS or other RFP situations.
It is each FiT's responsibility to document completion of their clinical mentorship hours using Form 01, 1:1 mentorship Forms 3/4/5, and their clinical outcomes tracking using FOTO (exceptions granted by program director on a case-by-case basis). By submitting your 1:1 hours to Bellin College, you are vouching that your hours were not performed in an RFP situation or POPTS.
Process and Documentation Requirements
Documenting Clinical Mentorship Hours
All FiTs must provide evidence of completion of all clinical hour requirements (1:1 and non 1:1 clinical hours) by documenting them on a monthly Bellin College Form 01 in the Bellin College.
FiTs may stop tracking and logging monthly patient care hours in the Form 01 submissions once:
- The FiT has logged >310 hours (and >/= 400 patients) of patient care management where manual therapy techniques were used in the overall care of the patient, and where the FiT had the ability to discuss this case with FAAOMPT faculty (either live or through electronic forms of communication). These hours must be in a non-RFP situation.
- The FiT has at least 400 patients total recorded.
- The FiT’s clinical hours and patient cases adequately represent a demographically and clinically diverse patient population as described in the DSP (shown above). Percentages must be within 2% of the minimum requirements of percentages shown.
Once all three criteria are met, FiTs should confirm with the mentor leader and Program Director.
Self-assessment
Fellows will engage in ongoing self-assessment and ongoing feedback with their mentors regarding their clinical performance and clinical reasoning. All forms will be completed through web-based links to mentorship forms. E-mail notification with links to the forms will be sent and will also be available in the respective program’s orientation course.
Forms 03, 04, & 05 will be used to both guide and document this process. Fellows will complete these forms through web-based links to survey forms, which are available in the Fellowship Orientation, Resource, and Archive Course. Form submission is required to submit completed forms for every 20 hours of mentoring completed. An exception is made for FiTs who spend a full week (5-6 consecutive workdays in a row) with a FAAOMPT credentialed mentor. In this situation, one set of forms (Forms 3, 4, and 5) can be submitted for the entire weeks’ worth of hours. These documents must clearly state how many hours are supported by the form/documentation. Additionally, at least one set of forms (Form 03, 04, and 05) must be completed per each FAAOMPT mentor that a fellow-in-training works with for 1:1 hours.
FiTs should be very detailed in documenting their 1:1 hours and should make sure that the hours documented on the monthly Form 01 submissions match all Form 03, 04, and 05 submissions.
It is important to note that your mentorship hours WILL NOT COUNT if the proper documentation is not submitted to Bellin College. It is the fellow's responsibility to initiate and ensure completion of all mentorship paperwork.
Responsibilities of the Bellin College Fellow
It is the responsibility of the FiT to seek and make arrangements with a fellow mentor directly. The Fellow must provide evidence of this arrangement submitting a Clinical Mentor Agreement form (Form 06) for every clinical mentor who serves in a 1:1 mentorship role and in a practical examination supervisory/grading role. Each clinical mentor must also submit: 1) Clinical Mentor Agreement form, and 2) their CV. Clinical mentors must then be approved by the Bellin College Fellowship Program Director and/or the Program Administrative Assistant. Bellin College will assist the participant as able in securing a clinical mentor.
Any financial arrangement related to activity with a clinical mentor is a matter addressed between the Fellow-in-Training, the residency/fellowship site, and mentor. Bellin College does not participate in this activity. If required, the costs associated with mentoring hours (honorarium to the mentor or practice, travel costs and additional liability insurance if necessary) are an added expense for the Fellow beyond standard tuition.
Please Note: It is highly recommended that each Fellow take a systematic and proactive approach to compiling documentation related to their clinical mentoring hours. We have found the best method to be in the form of a self-maintained (in addition to what Bellin College collects and maintains) well-organized portfolio of the clinical hours log (Form 01) and other forms associated with the clinical mentoring requirements. DO NOT approach documentation of clinical mentoring hours and requirements in a haphazard manner, be purposeful, proactive, and diligent in managing and documenting the work you do. You may be asked at any time to support the clinical mentoring hours you report.
All copies of the mentorship forms must be submitted to the Program and maintained in the Fellow’s files. If we do not have the paperwork supporting your 1:1 mentorship hours in your main student files, we cannot count the 1:1 hours towards graduation requirements. It is the Fellow’s responsibility to make sure all documents are submitted and received by the Registrar or by other Bellin College mentorship coordinators.
Completing mentoring hours can be a rate-limiting step to completing fellowship because there are still so few FAAOMPT qualified/credentialed therapists in the US who are available and willing to provide mentorship hours to FiTs. In coordination with Bellin College, persons considering fellowship training should give very careful consideration from the outset regarding how he or she plans to address this issue. The "find a fellow" function is available to AAOMPT members at the AAOMPT web page. This function can help the FiT to find a mentor in their region: