Physical Therapy. Boston-Bouve College Northeastern University

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1 Physical Therapy Boston-Bouve College Northeastern University

2 Boston-Bouve College: A Special Educational Experience Boston-Bouve College-It's Physical Education and Physical Therapy, Health Education, and Recreation and Leisure Studies. It's four departments, each with its own curricula and degree programs; but it's four departments sharing a mutual commitment to the goals of the entire College. Boston-Bouve College-It's quality education in a particular field of study, in the classroom and on the job. It's learning to understand the physical, social, and psychological needs of people and learning to prepare for the professional challenges created by those needs. It's working with faculty, administrators, and other students to establish personal goals and a.basis for their achievement. It's peopleteaching them, helping them, and working with them. Boston-Bouve College is a// these things. Perhaps that's why it's also a very special educational experience.

3 A New Place for Physical Therapy At a time when medical and health-care specialists are defining and limiting their groups of patients, the physical therapist is somewhat unique. In fact, the specialized skills and training of physical therapists are being used in wider application than ever before among a larger, more diversified group of patients, and that group continues to diversify. With increasing attention focused on factors that contribute to patient rehabilitation, other specialists are relying more and more frequently on the physical therapist's assistance to provide a total program of care for their patients. Consequently, each year brings increasing demand for qualified professionals who can provide care and treatment to patients suffering permanent disability or other difficulties because of injury, disease, or birth defect. To these patients, the physical therapist offers valuable assistance, not only by helping them adapt to disability and by promoting their healing through working to restore physical function or relieve pain, but also, in many cases, by working with patients to prevent disability or pain. The Physical Therapist's Complex Role As doctors and other health-care specialists must be licensed to practice, so too the specialized role of the physical therapist demands years of preparatory training and the certified professional competence that is governed by licensure standards. These strict regulations are easily understood, considering the complex range of care and treatment offered by the physical therapy practitioner.

4 To provide necessary patient care, the physical therapist must master a wide variety of skills. Only careful evaluation of neuromuscular, cardiovascular, or respiratory function, for instance, can provide the basis for selecting appropriate therapeutic treatment. In making such evaluations, the therapist is called upon to administer and interpret sophisticated tests which aid in diagnosing problems and in determining factors such as the degree of impairment in a patient's muscular strength, motor development, or other functional capacity. Therapeutic treatment is based on the results of these tests and must be carefully planned and implemented to conform to the specific needs of each patient. Such treatment may be in the form of exercises to help increase strength, coordination, or range of motion; stimuli to facilitate motor activity and learning; or the application of such agents as heat, cold, sound, or water to relieve pain or alter the patient's physiological condition. In addition, the physical therapist must also be skilled in human relations... which means much more than having 8 good "bedside manner." Perhaps the therapist's most difficult task is helping to motivate and instruct not only patients who are receiving treatment, but also their families and others who may work with patients during the period of treatment and convalescence.

5 Education for Professionals The Physical Therapy Department at Northeastern's Boston-Bouve College helps students to prepare for licensure as professional physical therapists. Under the five-year Cooperative Plan of Education, the Department offers a unique program leading to the Bachelor of Science degree in Physical Therapy and structured to provide students the opportunity to acquire the knowledge and skills that may help determine their professional success. To assist students in preparing to meet state licensure requirements, the Department offers a physical therapy program that is both rigorous and challenging. During their first two years in the program, students follow a curriculum emphasizing courses in basic science and mathematics, as these subjects form the core of the physical therapist's professional

6 } knowledge of human anatomy and physiology, including the neurophysiological and biomechanical principles underlying skill training. This foundation is expanded, beginning in the third year, through more intensive study in anatomy and applied anatomy. At this time also, students receive skill training through therapeutic exercise and other procedure courses which allow them to implement their knowledge in the laboratory setting, to test theory against the actual physical response of other students acting as laboratory partners. During their last two years in the program, students are required to participate in supervised clinical training, one of the most important aspects of the overall curriculum. The Physical Therapy Department maintains a variety of clinic affiliations with hospitals and with rehabilitation and health-care centers to provide students the opportunity to acquire firsthand experience in a clinic environment. In these assignments, students generally spend five or six weeks during their junior year and twice that time during their senior year working regularly with patients on a one-to-one basis under the instruction and guidance of a clinic supervisor. Not only does such experience help to reinforce professional knowledge and skills, but it may also draw attention to areas in which students may wish to specialize. Students who successfully complete this rigorous program are eligible to apply for state licensure and, after satisfactorily completing a written examination, may have the opportunity to select careers from among the diverse options open to qualified therapists. Although departments of physical therapy represent the most obvious career choice, others include schools for special-needs children, long-termcare hospitals and nursing homes for the chronically ill or elderly, community and governmental agencies providing health services, rehabilitation or research centers, and colleges and universities offering educational programs for physical therapists and physical therapist assistants. With the variety of openings available to today's therapists, the specific career a practitioner selects may be largely a matter of personal choice.

7 Cooperative Education Education with a professional point of view-that's Northeastern's Cooperative Plan of Education. Under the Cooperative Plan, students spend the freshman year on campus and, beginning with the sophomore year, alternate periods of academic work with periods of paid employment in off-campus positions related to their field of study. The benefits of such a system are extensive. Cooperative education often permits students to test the validity of classroom theories and principles in an off-campus situation and, in turn, to bring to their classrooms the new ideas and insights gained from the work environment. Co-op provides students the chance to work closely with professionals actively employed in the field, and an opportunity for firsthand exposure to the specific skills and activities they must master to achieve their own career goals. Co-op experiences may be in a single career area or may be used to explore a variety of related possibilities, thus ensuring that students have ample opportunity to acquire familiarity with the nature of various professional options. Not only can co-op provide students with up to two years of valuable work experience, but it also provides a salary that may help defray much of the cost of tuition. More important, perhaps, is the fact that upon graduation, forty percent of Northeastern's coop students are usually offered full-time positions by their cooperative employers.

8 Co-opportunities in Physical Therapy For the Physical Therapy student, studying at Northeastern means the chance to select coop assignments from among available positions at a wide range of medical facilities. General hospitals, rehabilitation and specialty hospitals, as well as nursing homes, clinics, schools, and state health-care facilties provide settings for these assignments. Because strict licensure requirements mandate that only qualified professionals may administer physical therapy, co-op positions in the field are generally limited to those in which students are employed as physical therapy aides. In such positions, the co-op student always works under the direction of a supervising physical therapist. Specific work assignments depend, in large measure, on the individual's academic progress and previous experience, especially since most students do not begin intensive professional study until their third year in the program. \ ~ For these reasons, co-op students should expect to be assigned initially to positions which may provide a broad exposure to the overall operation of a physical therapy clinic, but offer only limited training in direct patient care. Patient-related duties in such positions might include assisting patients to and from the facility, preparing patients for treatment, helping them with assistive devices, and administering such treatment as hydrotherapy or hot and cold packs. As students progress in the program and accumulate clinical experience, they may begin to assume additional responsibilities for patient care. Depending upon the specific co-op assignment, students who are familiar with the techniques of providing basic therapeutic treatments might be asked to administer such treatment themselves, including massage, diathermy, and basic therapeutic exercises.

9 Advanced students may have the opportunity to work in positions enabling them to conduct patient-care programs or portions of such programs as planned and directed by their supervisors. In such assignments, students may be responsible for the patient's personal care throughout treatment, for training patients in exercises or ambulation, for administering treatment requiring the use of special equipment, and for assisting the physical therapist supervisor in performing tests, evaluations, and complex treatment procedures. Cooperative assignments in Physical Therapy may provide more than the opportunity to acquire firsthand experience in the clinical setting. Students may also be able to work in positions which help familiarize them with more specialized areas of the physical therapy profession, thus enabling them to acquire a broader base of experience from which to make specific career choices. Some students are interested in providing physical therapy care for a particular special-needs group such as the chronically ill or mentally handicapped. Others may select co-op assignments which will introduce them to the specialized roles of other health-team members such as the occupational therapist, the orthopedic technician, the nurse, or the special education teacher. Department Facilities Students enrolled in the preparatory program in Physical Therapy may take advantage of the Department's special equipment and facilities to work on developing the techniques and 1 skills necessary to professionals in the field. ' Three classroom laboratories equipped with mat tables and plinths provide a setting for demonstration and practice sessions. In addition, the laboratories are provided with heat, light, and hydrotherapy equipment such as whirlpools, machines for infrared and ultraviolet light treatments, and machines for diathermy and microwave treatments. Students also have ready access to supplies necessary

10 for various hot and cold packs, as well as to exercise equipment offering both resistance and assistance to motion, and equipment for testing muscular/neural stimulation and diagnosing nerve injuries or respiratory problems. The Department also owns sophisticated electromyographic equipment, which is frequently used by seniors involved in research projects. Moreover, all students in the program may use the Department library which provides scientific, technical, and research materials relevant to the educational and research needs of students and faculty alike. Accreditation Northeastern's Physical Therapy Program, one of the first established in the United States, is accredited by the American Physical Therapy Association. The Program has had continuous accreditation since l ; l

11 General Information Requirements for Admission If you are considering enrolling in Northeastern's Physical Therapy degree program, we strongly recommend that you have previous work experience, at least on a volunteer basis, in a physical therapy department or clinic. Considering the demands. placed upon members of the profession, there is no substitute for practical experience when making responsible decisions about your career objectives. Students wishing to apply for degree candidacy in Physical Therapy must submit transcripts indicating evidence of their successful completion of a secondary school program, including several courses in English, mathematics, and laboratory science. As there is a ceiling limiting the number of students accepted for degree candidacy in any one year, qualification for admission will be judged, in part, by a student's class rank in a college preparatory program and by his or her performance in science courses. In addition, Northeastern also requires students to submit scores resulting from the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and three College Board Achievement Tests in subjects such as English composition, mathematics, and biology or chemistry. Although not required, a personal interview with an Admissions counselor is suggested. Application Procedure For information on applying for admission to programs in any of Northeastern's Basic Colleges, contact the Department of Admissions, Northeastern University, 360 Huntington Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02115; telephone:

12 Transfer Policy Depending on the number of openings available within a single class of degree candidates, the Physical Therapy Department accepts, in September only, a limited number of transfer students into the second or third year of study. Students will not be accepted into the program after the beginning of the third year because the curriculum necessitates their following an established sequence of courses. If you are interested in transferring into the Physical Therapy degree program in your second year, you are generally required to provide evidence of your successful completion of the following courses at another accredited two- or four-year institution: Fundamentals of Mathematics Basic Animal Biology English General Chemistry Health Education First Aid In addition to those listed above, the following courses are prerequisite to acceptance to degree candidacy at the beginning of the third year: Basic Physics Human Physiology Human Anatomy Foundations of Psychology I and II Perceptual Motor Learning Students wishing to transfer into the Physical Therapy Program are also expected to comply with general transfer policies established by Northeastern University. The following criteria constitute the basic requirements for transfer into the Basic Colleges of Northeastern: 1. Only a candidate who presents satisfactory college records may be considered for advanced-standing credit. 2. Credit toward a Northeastern degree is generally allowed for any course reasonably equivalent to a Northeastern course and

13 completed with a satisfactory grade at another accredited institution. 3. Candidates must be in good standing and eligible to continue in the institutions they are currently attending. Financial Aid Financial assistance in the form of loans, grants, and work-study is available on an annual basis to qualified students. Applicants seeking financial assistance for the freshman year are required to submit a copy of the Financial Aid Form (FAF) to the College Scholarship Service by February 15. The FAF is available at secondary school guidance offices or Northeastern's Office of Financial Aid. When completing the Financial Aid Form, students must apply for the Basic Educational Opportunity Grant Program, the basic program for financial aid. Assistance awards are announced in late March for applicants who file before February 15.