Lab Hours
Lab intensives are held in partnership with physical therapy sites spread across the country, including at Bellin Health in Green Bay, WI. This design decreases costs by allowing students to attend the weekend intensive courses at the most convenient location.
FiTs will take labs associated with the four management courses (lumbopelvic, cervicothoracic, lower extremity and upper extremity), a pain science lab, and 2 advanced manual technique labs. FiTs will also have the opportunity to assist in teaching labs during teaching practicum labs.
There are 160 hours required of clinical / supervised lab time of which 100 is to be focused on the spine and 60 on the extremity. The hours must be performed with a FAAOMPT or someone with similar training who is approved by the program director. These hours must be performed while enrolled in the fellowship program (can't count hours for previously taken weekend intensives).
All fellows must maintain a log of 40+ hours of manual therapy practice with faculty, FAAOMPT mentors, other fellows-in-training, or PT colleagues. These hours will be submitted monthly in the online Form 01 These hours are in addition to the required 160 supervised/clinical lab hours. FiTs should keep copies of their practice log to support Form 01 submissions as needed.
Clinical Mentorship Hours
FiTs are required to receive a minimum of 150 hours of clinical mentorship while in the program in order to graduate. Up to 20 hours can be done via observation and the remaining 130 hours are to be done with the FiT as the primary provider of patient care. Up to 75 hours can be done virtually as aligned with ACOMPTE accreditation standards. Mentors must be approved by the Program Director and sign an agreement stating that they will mentor the FiT. The FiT may not start mentor hours until these components have been verified. If the FiT starts mentorship without approval of the Program Director, the FiT will be at risk for any unapproved mentor hours not counting towards the 150 total required for graduation.
Mentors do not have to be graduates of the Bellin College fellowship program, however, it is important to make sure that the mentor understands the reasoning model that is taught in this program. A person-centered, signs and symptoms approach is a commonly used reasoning framework that many FAAOMPTs use in clinical practice, but not all. This can make it difficult to gain valuable feedback for refining clinical reasoning. Furthermore, the program’s focus on being person-centered (integration of a biopsychococial, lifestyle behavior, etc.) framework may not be commonplace.
Mentors are observed on an annual basis and feedback is sent to both the FiT and mentor regarding mentor performance. The mentor will provide feedback on FiT performance via the form03 and the FiT will provide mentor feedback and self-reflection feedback using the form 04/05.