Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences: About the Professional DPT Program

Mission
Our Mission is to educate Doctors of Physical Therapy to meet current and future healthcare needs and challenges through a learning environment that promotes academic excellence, evidenced-based practice, and a diversity of clinical experiences. Drexel University strives to graduate innovative and caring practitioners who possess a sense of civic and professional responsibility and value life-long learning.

Program Description
The Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) Program is designed to prepare competent physical therapy clinicians who understand the delivery of patient care within the changing health care system. The curriculum values the physical therapist as a health care provider who gives particular attention to the anatomical, physiological and biopsychosocial aspects of the mind and body utilizing both prevention/wellness and disablement models. Emphasis is placed on evidence-based examination, evaluation and intervention plans in order to determine a diagnosis and prognosis to affect optimal outcomes throughout the continuum of care.

Although historically semester-based, the DPT curriculum was completely redesigned and converted to a quarter format to be more in-line with the majority of Drexel’s educational programs. This conversion incorporated the best elements of the semester-based system with some exciting, new features for the curriculum in quarters. Overall, the curriculum is a combination of classroom work and clinical experiences spread over 10 quarters and completed in 31 months.

Following Drexel’s reputation as a technological university, the students in the DPT program make use of Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) throughout the curriculum. To our knowledge, we are the first physical therapy program to fully integrate this technology into their curriculum. For our students, from the first day they receive their PDA and then throughout their classroom and clinical experiences, the PDA becomes a window to the vast array of available health care information. Students are encouraged to use this device to make them more efficient and productive health care providers.

Drexel’s Physical Therapy program also makes use of a multidisciplinary, state-of-the-art Standardized Patient Lab in which students receive an unparalleled opportunity to put into practice the knowledge they receive in the classroom.  The Standardized Patient Lab utilizes paid actors who simulate various clinical scenarios in 10 private examination rooms.   In addition to the necessary medical equipment, each room is fully equipped with computers, pan/zoom/tilt cameras, and microphones to monitor and record the student sessions.  Faculty are able to view the student sessions “live” from adjacent viewing rooms or access the recorded sessions later.  Students receive feedback from the actors and can view their digitally recorded sessions after they happen.  Many of these recorded sessions are used to enhance classroom teaching.  The addition of these experiences to already established lab interactions with their peers, and clinical education rotations with real patients, enhances Drexel’s DPT students' practical knowledge as they grow into professionals in the field of Physical Therapy.

Graduates of our program are able to function in a variety of heath care settings and are well-prepared to seek licensure by state board examination. In fact, the DPT program at Drexel University and its predecessor Hahnemann University, have a 100% pass rate on the state board license examination. In addition, the program is fully accredited by the Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education (CAPTE). Click here for a printable version of our Doctor of Physical Therapy Fact Sheet.