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Transitional Doctorate

The Transitional Doctorate of Physical Therapy (t-DPT) program provides licensed physical therapists with an opportunity to enhance their professional clinical competencies and career marketability by participating in a course of study designed to foment the skills necessary to achieve autonomous clinical practice. Widener's t-DPT is designed to prepare graduates who are autonomous, evidenced-based healthcare practitioners by augmenting their skills and knowledge in the areas of scientific inquiry, differential diagnosis, imaging, pharmacology, administration and human resource and materials management, communication, education, and heath and wellness screening and promotion.

Widener's t-DPT program has been conceptualized to meet the vision statement of the American Physical Therapy Association, which supports the Doctorate of Physical Therapy as the entry-level professional practice degree. Graduates of the t-DPT program will be better able to serve the health care needs of a variety of consumers and contribute to the advancement of the profession. The program will provide skills that will foster the efficient delivery of health care services to a diverse population of consumers. The curriculum will provide an opportunity for program graduates to build on their existing clinical experiences, while earning a clinical doctoral level credential.

Mission Statement

To meet the changing needs of the health care delivery system, the t-DPT program seeks to graduate an autonomous practitioner with the expertise and skills to examine, evaluate, and diagnose physical impairments affecting the musculoskeletal, neurological, integumentary, cardiovascular and pulmonary systems that occur as a result of injury, disease, or disability.  Program graduates will have the capacity to examine physical impairments as they relate to functional limitations and disability.  Graduates of the t-DPT program will be able to evaluate patients across the life span and make sound clinical decisions about prognosis. Program graduates will also be able to work with other health care professionals to develop a comprehensive interdisciplinary treatment plan.

Program Goals And Objectives

The goals of the Transitional Doctor of Physical Therapy Program are to prepare licensed physical therapists who can do the following:

    1. Function as primary, autonomous providers of physical therapy care
    2. Be a responsible member of the professional health care community
    3. Assume leadership roles in the health care community
    4. Identify relevant clinical problems and incorporate current research findings into clinical practice
    5. Demonstrate an understanding of the social, economic and cultural issues affecting clinical practice and effectively advocate for changes in health care policy
    6. Apply emerging theories to current clinical practice
    7. Participate in and provide education to various health care consumers, patients, peers, and students.

    Graduates of the t-DPT program upon completion of their course of study will be able to integrate the following skills into their current professional practice:

      1. Demonstrate an enhanced ability to use clinical reasoning skills to solve patient management problems
      2. Understand and apply evidence-based principles to contemporary physical therapy practice
      3. Provide services that are based on the best available evidence to all areas of clinical practice, including physical therapy examination, evaluation, diagnosis, prognosis, intervention, prevention activities, and wellness initiatives
      4. Demonstrate the ability to critically evaluate new or evolving theories and technologies that are relevant to physical therapy practice across a variety of settings and patient diagnoses
      5. Demonstrate the ability to meet the challenges of direct access and autonomous practice
      6. Participate in reflective clinical practice by implementing and participating in a program of critical self-assessment and demonstrating a commitment to lifelong learning
      7. Demonstrate the prerequisite leadership skills to effectively participate in all aspects of health care and contribute to the evolution of the physical therapy profession
      8. Demonstrate the professional and interpersonal communication skills that are necessary to adapt to changing health care environments, which will allow the efficacious provision of physical therapy care to clients across the life span and all episodes of care.
       
         
         
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