Doctor of Science in Physical Therapy

This course provides an introduction into what it means to be a manual physical therapy fellow. A variety of professional topics are discussed including the history of manual therapy, professional organization(s), and current and emerging issues.

This course reinforces the importance of evidence-informed, person-centered exercise prescription. The learner will investigate specific dosage parameters related to strength, endurance, motor control, power, and agility exercises and how to adapt these parameters to reach a person’s functional goals. The goal of this course is to distinguish basic dosage prescription strategies within a person-centered reasoning approach.

This course provides an in-depth review of the current concepts in pain sciences. The course challenges presuppositions and provides evidence-based insight into the current myths and gross misunderstandings of pain.

This course will explore the physical therapist’s role in optimal health promotion and wellbeing through select lifestyle medicine topics. Learners will investigate the impact that sleep and nutrition have on pain, health, and disability. Learners will review strategies to empower people to adopt behaviors that support a healthy lifestyle and address pain. The goal of this course is to empower the fellow-in-training to take an active role in inspiring healthy behaviors within in a person-centered approach to meet the needs of society.

In this course, students’ function as teaching assistants for students enrolled in DSC 650 Management of Lumbopelvic Disorders. Under faculty oversight, students participate in course oversight, instruction, student evaluation and mentorship.

In this course, students’ function as teaching assistants for students enrolled in DSC 651 Management of Lower Extremity Disorders. Under faculty guidance, students participate in course oversight, instruction, student evaluation and mentorship.

In this course student’s function as teaching assistants for students enrolled in DSC 653 Management of Cervical and Thoracic Disorders. Under faculty guidance, students participate in course oversight, instruction, student evaluation and mentorship.

In this course, students function as teaching assistants for students enrolled in DSC 666 Management of Upper Extremity Disorders.  Under faculty guidance, students participate in course oversight, instruction, student evaluation and mentorship.

This course integrates manipulative intervention techniques in the management of individuals with upper extremity disorders and dysfunction. Classification systems and outcomes assessment tools, within the framework of evidence-based practice, are included. Diagnostic information for the medical screening of systemic and vascular disorders is discussed. An intensive laboratory weekend is included.

This course provides graduates with the skills necessary to be a visionary leader by improving the performance of educational program, in accordance with accreditation standards, to drive continuous improvement, collaborative decision making, and strategic planning. Students will address contemporary and future educational issues relevant to the filed of physical therapy.

This course requires the student to complete a scholarly project that may include a patient case report or case series, data collection for a research project, contribute to a systematic review or contribution to scholarly work.  Fellow in Training may choose their scholarly project topic but must have it pre-approved through the Fellowship Program Director.

This course will provide a foundation for understanding biostatistics, and basic proficiency with running basic biostatistical models.  The course will cover such topics as simple descriptive statistics, basic probability concepts, probability distributions, sampling distributions, t-tests, and confidence intervals.

The purpose of this course is to build upon the topics of Biostatistics 1. This course will cover such topics as correlation, analysis of covariance, post-hoc testing, factorial designs, simple linear regression, and reliability analyses. Students will present doctoral research questions, hypotheses, methods, and data analysis plans for critique and discussion.

This Clinical Practicum is an advanced clinical practice experience in orthopaedic manual physical therapy in which students are mentored in both live 1:1 clinical practice hours and orthopaedic manual physical therapy clinical practice hours based on current American Physical Therapy Association requirements. Emphasis is placed on advanced clinical decision-making, outcomes evaluation and autonomous patient management.

This independent study course includes the completion of self-paced coursework focused on the foundations of manual physical therapy practice and the standardized manual physical therapy examination. This course is satisfied through successful completion of four practical examinations involving the lumbopelvic, cervical and thoracic, upper extremity, and lower extremity regions. 

This capstone course consists of the final examination process. Students complete a final comprehensive written examination that focuses on medical screening, clinical reasoning, decision-making, and the application of manual physical therapy concepts. Students complete 4 regional technique examinations to demonstrate mastery of selected manual physical therapy interventions. Finally, 2 live patient examinations are completed, one with a spinal/axial focus and another with a peripheral/appendicular focus.

A deep understanding of the development and implementation of curriculum will be explored by examining the philosophical and theoretical perspectives of the science of teaching and learning. This is the 2^nd course in a 2-part series that will utilize an in-depth analysis of curricular design models and application congruent with identified curricular objectives, goals and learner outcomes. Development of curriculum will systematically address technology integration, evidenced-based practices, and innovative and collaborative learning experiences.

Through the study of the basic principles of curriculum development and assessment this course is designed to provide the learner with knowledge, skills, and experiences to be actively involved in multiple facets of the curricular process. This is the first course in a 2-part series that will focus on developing the knowledge and skills to identify, develop, and design assessment instruments and strategies for effective evaluation of student learning through both formative and summative assessment methodologies. 

This course will assist students in facilitating completion of their systematic or scoping review. Students will be required to complete all screening of included studies in their systematic or scoping review and complete 50% of their data extraction by the end of the course.

This course will provide a foundation for the principles of evidence based-practice and research design so that the student may immediately integrate scientific knowledge with practice and complete a clinically relevant research proposal. This course is the first phase of the doctoral project and is designed to prepare doctoral students to develop a research project.

This course will familiarize students with the steps required to successfully complete a systematic or scoping review, which are considered gold standards for appraising and evaluating the scientific literature. Students will also continue to work on their group research project.

This course will require students to submit a draft manuscript of a systematic or scoping review. Students will also continue to participate in ongoing work on their group research project. This is a hybrid course including 15 weeks of online coursework and optional bi-weekly virtual meetings.

The goal of this course is to focus on the completion of the systematic or scoping review and continue with the group research project. This will be largely project-dependent, but will include data preparation and cleaning, data analysis, and creation of a manuscript draft. This is a hybrid course including 16 weeks of online coursework and bi-weekly virtual meetings.

The goal of this course is to finalize the research project data analysis and complete a final draft research project manuscript. This is an online 16 week course.

The goal of this course is to have the research project and systematic/scoping review manuscripts under peer review or accepted by a journal and independently defend a presentation of their research before a scientific panel. This is an online 16 week course.

The goal of this course is to have the research project and systematic/scoping review manuscripts under peer review or accepted by a journal and independently defend a presentation of their research before a scientific panel. This is a continuation course for those who are unable to complete the program requirements in the prior semester. This is an online 16-week course.

This course provides a comprehensive learning assessment by integrating the learning experiences of DSc 680, DSc 800 and DSc 810.  Students will complete a final teaching project with oral defense.