Physical Therapy Program Mission and Curriculum Philosophy

The aim of the professional phase is to produce clinicians, trained for general practice in a dynamic health care environment, who provide best care, respectful of patient/client values, grounded in evidence-based practice and clinical reasoning, and contribute to the profession and their community.

The program aim is reflected in its curricular philosophy. The curriculum is developed around four tracks, incorporating both traditional and problem-based learning concepts. Each track is composed of courses that find their foundations in the same basic or professional science. The professional track presents material in a manner that develops content from general to applied concepts in professional practice, patient/client management, practice management, clinical decision making and evidenced-based practice. The neurological, musculoskeletal and general medicine tracks present basic science, applied science in the absence of pathology, and applied science in the presence of pathology within the context of patient care. Across and within the four tracks are common themes that include ethical inquiry and practice, continuous integration of theory and practice across the curriculum, self-management of the learning process by students, and self-reinforcement whereby students learn because they value their growing competence. The curriculum includes both didactic and practical experiences. There is collaborative teaching within and across tracks and the courses with planned redundancy of subject matter. Constant reinforcement of content with clinical experiences occurs through observations of and exposure to patients in academic courses, exposure to clients in the program’s Teaching Laboratory Practice, and integrated clinical education.

Admission to the Program
There are three options for admission to the Physical Therapy Program at Carroll College and they are described the “Admission Information” Web page you can access through the link in the right hand column of this page. Pre-professional education is grounded in the liberal arts and the natural, behavioral and social and health sciences with prerequisite course work in biology, chemistry, physics and psychology. The professional phase begins the senior year for students who attend Carroll College their freshman, sophomore and junior years; for students who complete their undergraduate education at another institution, it begins after graduating with a bachelor’s degree. Thus, students who attend Carroll for both their pre-professional and their professional education will graduate with a Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) degree from Carroll College in six years; students who transfer to Carroll after completing undergraduate work at a different institution will require three years of study in the professional phase at Carroll to earn the DPT degree.