Program

Program Outcomes:

Graduation Rate: 100%
OCS Exam Pass Rate (first attempt): 100%

"The residency program has significantly advanced my critical thinking and clinical practice skills, which has allowed me to develop into a better clinician." - Mike Roberto, PT, DPT, OCS, Good Shepherd Penn Partners, Philadelphia, PA

Program Overview:

Our ABPTRFE accredited program will provide residents with a comprehensive curriculum of didactic and clinical education to develop into evidence-based practitioners ready and able to advance the profession and patient care in the community. Residents will receive 1:1 mentorship, take advanced knowledge courses, participate in physician shadowing, and gain experience in teaching entry-level physical therapy students.

Program Features:

• Average of 32 hours/week of patient care at The Drexel University Physical Therapy Clinical Services at the following centers
  • The Recreation Center on University City Campus including services for Drexel Athletics
  • Stephen and Sandra Sheller 11th Street Family Health Services, a multidisciplinary facility helping the under served
• Minimum of 3 hours of 1:1 mentorship/week
• Coursework in advanced clinical practice in orthopaedics with emphasis on the evidence
• Participate as a teaching assistant in the PDPT program
• Participate in non-surgical and surgical care observations with our partnering physician groups (barring COVID restrictions)
• Participate in a scholarly project for publication, the Orthopaedic Journal Club, and in Case Rounds

Program Mission:

The mission of the Drexel University Orthopaedic Physical Therapy Residency is to provide post-professional didactic and clinical training to physical therapists who seek to develop advanced clinical decision making, manual, and diagnostic skills in orthopaedic physical therapy.

DUOPTR Faculty

Admissions Requirements

Applying to Drexel's Orthopaedic Residency program is done through the Residency and Fellowship Physical Therapy Centralized Application System (RF-PTCAS) at https://rfptcas.liaisoncas.com/applicant-ux/#/login. The application deadline is December 15 of the current year. All applications will be reviewed as they are received. All candidates considered for an interview will be scheduled in March.

The following are required for admission to the residency program:

• Applications All applicants must be APTA and Orthopaedic Section members, must have graduated from a CAPTE accredited program and must have a PA license by the start of the program. If offered a position, candidates will be expected to complete the 12.5 month program beginning in June. Interested applicants can apply through RF-PTCAS.
• Send official transcripts from all US universities attended for physical therapy education directly to RF-PTCAS. Copies do not need to be sent to Drexel.
• Three letters of recommendation must be submitted electronically through RF-PTCAS. Two references must be professional references (e.g. Clinical Instructor or Supervisor, Professor, etc.) and one reference may be a personal reference.
• Five essays in RF-PTCAS.

All supporting application documents must submitted through RF-PTCAS.

If chosen for an interview, candidates will be required to apply through drexel.edu/hr/atDrexel/employmentops/.

COMPLIANCE

The College of Nursing and Health Professions has a compliance process that may be required for every employee. Some of these steps may take significant time to complete. Please plan accordingly.

Visit the Compliance pages for more information.

Curriculum

Curriculum Layout

The DUOPTR is a 12.5 month program developed to promote post-professional education toward achievement of the Orthopaedic Clinical Specialist certification and lifelong learning. The length of the program is 12.5 months to provide overlap with the start of new residents every June to facilitate the transition of patients from seasoned residents to new residents without disrupting the quality of care.

The DUOPTR program plan to fulfill the criteria for credentialing through the American Board of Physical Therapy Residency and Fellowship Education (ABPTRFE) is to provide a quality didactic educational and the clinical mentorship experience. Below you will find a summary of the program layout covering these two components.

Didactic Portion:

The Didactic Program provides a variety of learning experiences split into three categories; Residency Modules, Program Modules, and independent learning. The modular courses will cover the following content to supplement the independent learning requirements.

The Residency Modules are courses taken by all PT residents of Drexel University. Courses include:

• Advanced Anatomy
• Application of Evidence to Practice
• Leadership

The Program Modules include topics such as:

• Introduction to Orthopaedic Guidelines & Evidence-based Practice
• Imaging
• Chronic Pain
• Differential Diagnosis
• Running Analysis & Management
• Non-Arthritic Hip Injuries
• Spine Stabilization
• Manual Therapy
• Return to Work/Sports
• Leadership

Independent learning is a foundation of residency education. This process starts with the independent study course Current Concepts of Orthopaedic Physical Therapy, which will be a building block for many of the modular courses. This component carries the expectation that residents search for and review literature on topics they have questions about during their self reflection on patient cases throughout the year.

Throughout the year residents will be developing and implementing their scholarship project, so by the end of the spring quarter, he/she is able to submit the project for a national conference the following year and developing a plan for future publication.

The clinical experience requires a minimum of 150 hrs. of 1:1 clinical mentoring. The 150 hours is guaranteed in the clinical practice schedule within DUPTS, and more than another 100 hours is possible. This does not include weekly mentor and administrative meetings with the program director and/or program coordinator. A minimum of 1500 hours of direct patient care both supervised and unsupervised is scheduled for each resident.

The residents will spend an average of 32 hours working in DUPTS clinics per week, with 15% of the time in our pro-bono clinic, 11th Street Family Health Services. At 11th Street, the residents get the opportunity to work with chronic pain in an interdisciplinary environment, treat various orthopaedic/musculoskeletal disorders, and participate in primary care of the uninsured and low-income patient population. The other 85% of their treatment time for DUPTS is in our fee-for-service facility, the DU Recreation Center. This facility service a general orthopaedic population from the DU community and surrounding Philadelphia area. We are also the primary referral facility for Drexel Varsity Athletes, and DU Workers Compensation. Since our patients on campus are primarily young, active and athletic, we partner with other outpatient clinics where needed to increase the variety of patients across the spectrum of orthopaedic physical therapy.

Outside of scheduled clinic time, the program director will attempt to schedule time with physicians during office hours and in surgery. As permitted based on post-COVID-19 policies, residents will observe the medical clinical decision making process with regard to the utilization of physical therapy services, surgery, medication/supplements, and referral to other health care practitioners. The residents will have the opportunity during surgical observation to become familiar with techniques and devices/materials typically used in orthopaedic surgery. This experience will enhance their ability to discuss how those procedures affect the rehabilitation process.

Throughout the year, the residents will treat any patients presenting to our facilities. All efforts will be made to schedule patients needed so that residents achieve the percentage of populations required under the current Description of Residency Practice. The residents will provide monthly statistics about the patients they are seeing in all clinics to the program coordinator of the Orthopedic Residency. The director will monitor and make suggestions to scheduling staff and our partners to direct appropriate patients to the residents' schedules.

Residents Schedule during the Winter Quarter - Example (Click on image to enlarge):