School of Physical Therapy & Rehabilitation Sciences Clinical Education
College of Medicine · Doctor of Physical Therapy

Clinical Education General Information Overview

 

A major component of physical therapy education is the opportunity to apply what is learned in the classroom to the demands of the real-life, contemporary physical therapy practice.  The clinical education is critical to the development of effective clinical decision making and quality hands-on skills.

 

Clinical education in our curriculum here at the USF School of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences combines two, two week full-time integrated clinical experiences in the first two years of the program (160 total hours) with three full-time experiences that occur in each of the three years of the program (28 weeks total).  This is 1,280 hours of clinical education!  Click here for a chart of the clinical education program.

 

This organization of clinical education accomplishes several important things:

 

Each student rotates through at least seven different physical therapy centers which provide many opportunities to identify which aspects of physical therapy practice they prefer.

 

  • Each student has learning experiences with people across the life span – from pediatric to geriatric physical therapy practice to reinforce the broad scope of understanding of the disablement model.
  • Each student has learning experiences with people at all stages of illness – from acute stages of illness and immediate post-surgery to chronic stages where the focus is on return to the community by the elimination of barriers to optimal function.  These experiences reinforce the understanding of injury and healing.
  • Each student has the opportunity for learning experiences in the range of health care delivery systems such as medical centers, community hospitals, private practice physical therapy offices, corporate rehabilitation companies, community-based rehabilitation organizations, skilled nursing homes, and home care services.  These opportunities build on the understanding of today's complex health care system.
  • Each student develops skills that are critical to working with other members of the health care team whose roles vary from one type of setting to another.
  • Each student has the opportunity to develop long-term mentoring relationships with the many professionals they meet in their clinical education rotations which form the foundation for their professional development.

 

We have agreements for affiliation that include over 400 centers that provide our students with learning opportunities, to accomplish these objectives.  The majority of these centers are within the university's service area, but there are clusters of centers throughout Florida.  Some students travel out-of-the-state for some parts of their clinical education.

 

If you are interested in more information about becoming an affiliated center please contact us.