School of Physical Therapy Clinical Education

Clinical education is an essential component in the physical therapy curriculum. Clinical affiliations provide the integration of the student’s didactic and laboratory coursework into a real clinical practice setting. The student will integrate his/her cognitive, psychomotor, and affective skills in an environment that facilitates them to develop and become a competent entry-level physical therapist. It is through a cooperative effort between the University, clinical site, and student that the clinical education program meets its goal of ensuring quality fulltime clinical experiences for our students.

The Clinical Education Program provides the student with a series of clinical experiences, which exposes the student to a variety of practice settings. It is through the integrated and full-time clinical affiliations that the student achieves curricular goals which lead to entry-level competence.

Students have several different types of clinical experiences in our program. The first type occurs throughout the curriculum. The student participates in clinical experiences based on the didactic information presented in the classroom. Students are introduced to patient populations in courses such as Clinical Skills, Evidence-Based Physical Therapy, Advanced Clinical Physiology, Neurosciences, Movement Science, Medical Pathology in Physical Therapy, Rehabilitation in Select Patient Populations, Neurorehabilitation, Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation, Musculoskeletal and Integumentary. In many of these courses, students have opportunities to visit local clinical sites to observe, examine, evaluate, and/or treat patients. During the clinic visit, the students are supervised by faculty or clinical faculty.

The second type of clinical experience are the integrated and full-time clinical affiliations of approximately 35 weeks. The clinical affiliations provide the student with opportunities to learn the foundation of patient care, to develop skills in patient/staff education, health promotion/prevention, and administration.

• PT 791 Clinical Internship I: The first full-time clinical education experience occurs during the fall in the fifth semester of the program after successful completion of all required academic coursework and practical examinations. The educational experience is eight weeks in duration and is scheduled from early August to late September. The students are placed in an acute care hospital, sub-acute facility, or outpatient The student is supervised by a licensed physical therapist and will have the opportunity to apply the knowledge learned during the prior full year of the program. Emphasis is placed on safe and effective physical therapy practice, applying principles of professional conduct, competence with basic tests/exam, basic patient management skills, competence in communication skills, and documentation.

• PT 792 Clinical Internship II: The second full-time clinical education experience occurs during the fall in the eighth semester of the program after successful completion of all didactic curriculum and practical examinations. The educational experience is twelve weeks in duration and is scheduled from early October to mid-December. A student may choose from a variety of clinical settings such as acute care, outpatient, orthopedics, geriatrics, neurology, pediatrics, or rehabilitation. During this education experience, the emphasis is on the student mastery of patient examination/evaluation, re-evaluation, patient management skills, and interventions.

• PT 793 Clinical Internship III: The third full-time clinical education experience occurs during the spring in the final semester of the program after successful completion of all didactic curriculum and practical examinations. The educational experience is fifteen weeks in duration and is scheduled from early January to late April. Students may choose a specialty area of interest or improve their skills while participating in a clinical setting in which they have already The emphasis for the students is clinical competence and entry-level performance in all areas of patient care.

Clinicians may also visit the Marshall University School of Physical Therapy website to obtain additional information about the College of Health Professions and the School of Physical Therapy.

Clinicians can also access the University Graduate Catalog for additional policies and procedures.

PT 791 Clinical Internship I

An eight-week affiliation scheduled from early August to Late September, which is usually an acute, sub-acute, or outpatient affiliation. Students participate in this affiliation after successful completion of the first four semesters.

PT 792 Clinical Internship II

A 12-week affiliation scheduled from October to Mid-December. Students participate in this affiliation after successful completion of all didactic coursework and Clinical Internship I.

PT 793 Clinical Internship III

A 15-week final affiliation scheduled from Early January-Late April. Students participate in this affiliation after successful completion of the first two and a half years of coursework and Clinical Internship I and II.

The Marshall University School of Physical Therapy Clinical Education Program contracts with over 350 clinical sites at 950+ locations. Internship sites occur across a variety of practice specialty settings and in urban, suburban and rural communities.

• Outpatient: 60%
• Inpatient Rehabilitation/skilled nursing: 20%
• Acute Care: 20%

Our goal is to provide students with a variety of clinical education internships to ensure a well prepared graduate who is able to practice in any environment following graduation. Student internships are all full time and range from 8 to 15 weeks in length.

Becoming a Clinical Site

The School of Physical Therapy at Marshall University is continually searching for superb new clinical practice sites for our students. If you or your clinical facility is interested in partnering with us for clinical education, please contact us at arnott2@marshall.edu, lane36@marshall.edu.

To determine if you or your site is appropriate to serve as a clinical education site, you may refer to the APTA’s Guidelines and self-assessments for Clinical Education.

Marshall University SOPT Tiered CI Program

We know that our Clinical Instructors provide Clinical Education freely because they want to give back to the profession and the next generation. Many of us were the benefactor of an inspirational CI and we just simply want to pay it forward.  While you don’t expect anything in return, the Marshall University SOPT is committed to fostering the highest possible clinical education experience for our students and we want to support you in this collaborative effort.

Clinical Instructors (CIs) are the heart and soul of our Clinical Education Program; therefore, we are excited to now offer tangible support to our CI’s. The concept is simple. The more clinical education you provide; the more support we provide. Below, is a tiered program that lists the support provided by the SOPT based on the number of students you help us to educate.

All CI’s Received

1. Certificate of Appreciation (Check state practice act if qualifies for CEUs)
2. Library access for 6 months
3. Discount on CEUs provided by Marshall University SOPT University†
   • Send out the list of upcoming courses to CIs with packet

Tier 1 (1 student/year)

• 15% discount on Marshall University SOPT Courses† CEUs
• Raffle for one CI advanced training course registration (for those who don’t have it)

Tier 2– All offers of Tier 1 plus… (2 students/year)

• 25% discount on Marshall University SOPT Courses† CEUs
• Raffle 2 Marshall University football tickets
• 1 free PT textbook of choice OR 1 course through the APTA Learning Center (up to $100)

Tier 3– All offers of Tier 1 plus…. (2 students/year for 2 consecutive years)

• 50% discount on Marshall University SOPT Courses† CEUs
• Raffle for one ELC registration
• Raffle for one CSM registration

Yearly Clinical Sites Lunch Raffle– 1 ticket per student, 1 clinical site per rotation (Winning Clinic receives lunch on us ($150.00 max)

Featured partner on our website
Free booth at Job Fair in July

• 1 student/year = 1 student for a minimum of 7 weeks

† All course provided by the Marshall University SOPT. Excludes outside course offered by 3^rd party companies (e.g., McKenzie Institute, LSVT Big, etc.)