Myth Busting in Physical Therapy Education and Professional Development
John D. Childs, PT, PhD, MBA, FAPTA, and Gail Jensen, PT, PhD, FAPTA, FNAP
3 Contact Hours
Competency Level: Open to All Levels
Conventional wisdom is alive and well in physical therapy education. However, this "wisdom" is unfortunately often disconnected from reality. Many stakeholders in physical therapy education claim there are too many physical therapy education programs when there's actually insufficient capacity to meet current or future demand for PTs. The health needs of society including the growth of aging population with chronic health conditions, coupled with the acceleration of direct access will only increase the role and need for physical therapists. The problem isn't too many physical therapy education programs, rather the failure to ignore the unintended consequences of "degree creep," the regulatory structures that often restrict innovation in higher education along with workforce distribution challenges in meeting critical health needs. We can all agree that student debt is a significant concern and that programs should be resourced with qualified faculty that have adequate depth and breadth of clinical education and produce competent practitioners. Rather than limiting the expansion of PT education to achieve these goals, innovative approaches to address important challenges in meeting our societal obligations are needed. During this session, we explore common myths related to physical therapy education, professional development, and discuss innovative solutions to solve these important challenges. The presenters hope to tailor the discussion to the needs of the audience members. After registering for this course please send any questions or topics you would like to be discussed by the panel to aptawi@aptawi.org.
Dr. Childs is a co-founder of Evidence In Motion (EIM) and partner in Confluent Health, which includes EIM, a network of 380 outpatient physical therapy centers, and Fit for Work, which provides workplace injury prevention services. A Distinguished Graduate from the U.S. Air Force Academy (1994), he completed a Masters in Physical Therapy from Baylor University, MBA from the University of Arizona, and PhD from the University of Pittsburgh. Having served 20 years in the Air Force, Dr. Childs has collaborated on more than $10 million in grant funding and published more than 150 papers in leading scientific journals. He served for 10 years as Associate Editor for both the Physical Therapy and Journal of Orthopaedic and Sports Physical Therapy journals. Dr. Childs has received numerous awards to include being an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year finalist and San Antonio "Health Care Hero". He is also the youngest ever Fellow of the American Physical Therapy Association.
Dr. Jensen is Vice Provost for Learning and Assessment and Professor of Physical Therapy at Creighton University. She is known nationally and internationally for scholarly contributions in expert practice, clinical reasoning, professional ethics, and interprofessional education. She is author or coauthor of more than 90 publications in peer-reviewed journals and has coauthored 13 books. She led the research team that completed a National Study of Excellence and Innovation in Physical Therapist Education funded by the American Physical Therapy Association and APTA components. She received her master's degree in physical therapy and her PhD in educational evaluation both from Stanford University.
John Buford, PT, PhD and Merrill Landers, PT, DPT, PhD
Dr. Buford completed is degree in physical therapy at the University of Wisconsin - Madison in 1984. He began his career at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago in Neurologic Rehabilitation. He then went on to graduate school, earning a PhD in Kinesiology with a specialization in Neural Control of Movement from UCLA. As a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Washington in Neurophysiology, he developed a non-human primate model for the study of reticulospinal system control of voluntary movement. He joined the faculty of The Ohio State University in 1999, and became director of the program in 2011. He has served on multiple university level committees at Ohio State, including the school's budget advisory committee, appointment promotions and tenure committee (as chair), and the university’s Council on Academic Affairs (as chair) and Council on Enrollment and Student Progress (as chair). He has overseen multiple NIH grants, and served on NIH study sections, and on the scientific review committee for the Foundation for Physical Therapy, and trained multiple PhD students. He is a graduate of the ELI fellowship program. He helped found the research intensive programs in physical therapy consortium within ACAPT, and has was among the original members of finance committee for ACAPT. Presently, he is in his second term as a director on the ACAPT Board of Directors. He has served as one of ACAPTs representatives to the Educational Leadership Partnership, and presently serves as the ACAPT board liaison to the National Consortium for Clinical Education (NCCE) and for the Simulation in Physical Therapy Education Consortium (SIPTEC).
Merrill Landers, PT, DPT, PhD, is a Professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and the Director of the Gait and Balance Lab. He has been at UNLV since 2001 and is in his 11th year as the Chair of the Department of Physical therapy. He earned a BS in Exercise Science from Brigham Young University, a DPT from Creighton University, and a PhD in Integrative Physiology from UNLV. He is a graduate of the APTA Fellowship in Higher Education Leadership. Dr. Landers’ current research interests focus on understanding fear of falling avoidance behavior and exercise neuroprotection in Parkinson’s disease. Dr. Landers is the Chair of the Education Leadership Conference for the American Council of Academic Physical Therapy and is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Neurologic Physical Therapy.
