Post-Professional Transitional Program for Licensed Physical Therapists (PPtDPT)

Utica College’s highly regarded online post-professional transitional Doctor of Physical Therapy (PPtDPT) offers practicing licensed physical therapists the post-professional degree they need to advance their careers via a convenient online format. Courses are all facilitated by qualified and experienced clinicians with real world experience.

Designed specifically for licensed physical therapy professionals with BS/MS degree credentials, the online post-professional tDPT program is competitively priced and committed to provide each student with an individualized program of study that takes into account prior education. While a student in the program can take as many of the course offerings as they wish, our goal is to streamline the process so that tDPT students only take the courses they need. Students can complete the tDPT program in as few as 16 months. The online tDPT curriculum is designed to augment your current knowledge, gained through entry-level education that was designed prior to the advent of doctoral level preparation. This program provides guidance to obtain the professional recognition and credentials consistent with the clinical practice expectations in a direct-access environment. It builds on the skills, knowledge and experience of practicing clinicians and entitles graduates to the title of Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT).

Today’s clinician must be prepared to act as consultant, educator, administrator, and clinical scholar, which requires advanced skills in critical thinking in addition to the traditional entry-level preparation of the past.

Student Learning Goals

• Display adherence to physical therapy core values and professional standards
• Use computer and/or telecommunication technology to gather information to address clinical questions and about efficacy of practice including health and wellness, pharmacology and diagnostic imaging
• Create a formal written presentation/assignment to share with your peers
• Participate in the peer review process for seeking feedback on written assignments
• Appraise levels of sensitivity and specificity of evidence to make clinical judgments
• Debate principles of professional communication in relation to cultural competence, conflict resolution, negotiation skills, networking and cultural differences
• Identify normal findings and signs and symptoms of health risks through systems review and use of screening tests
• Apply principles of risk management and cultural competence to physical therapy practice
• Locate appropriate literature to address clinical questions
• Assess cultural, environmental, lifestyle, occupational, pharmacological or nutritional risk factors that require further examination or consultation by a physical therapist or that require referral to other professional or community resources
• Critique research literature effectively
• Identify ethical issues related to working with patient/clients and conducting and publishing research
• Use principles of evidence-based practice to develop hypotheses to guide clinical decisions for patient/clients with musculoskeletal, neuromuscular, cardiopulmonary, lymphatic, and integumentary systems problems
• Recognize how the study of medical imaging can make the clinician’s evaluation and treatment of the patient more comprehensive
• Describe, discuss, and analyze the clinical impact of common imaging technologies and image-guided interventional procedures used in musculoskeletal and neurological imaging
• Discuss the critical role of PT’s in the diagnostic imaging system through their correlation of clinical findings with imaging information
• Demonstrate the pathways through which physical therapists may recommend diagnostic imaging and the issues surrounding physical therapists’ access to diagnostic imaging for their patients
• Propose modifications to patient/client examination and re-examination based on pathologic changes and interpretation of signs and symptoms related to drug side effects
• Analyze results of diagnostic tests and medication side effects as part of evaluation of patient/client examination findings
• Revise physical therapy strategies and procedural interventions based on changes in histology, pathology, response to medications or results of diagnostic imaging