FAYETTEVILLE -- They hobbled along the hallways using walkers and crutches, early steps in a three-year journey for the group of 24 students making up the first class of future physical therapists at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
The exercise in active learning doubled as an orientation tour Friday. Come Monday, the first day of class, "they'll hit the ground running," said John Jefferson, chairman of the UAMS physical therapy department.
Classes and training will take place after renovations to the UAMS Northwest campus, with the program's start also a milestone for the university.
It's the first stand-alone doctoral program at Fayetteville; other doctoral programs are tied to the main UAMS campus in Little Rock.
The Northwest campus, which was established in 2007 and enrolled its first students in 2009, offers training for future doctors and pharmacists who begin their academic studies in Little Rock, as well as graduate training for nurses and a few others enrolled in health-related academic programs.
The new physical therapy program "complements the other programs so nicely, particularly as we're beginning to do more in interprofessional education," said Dr. Peter Kohler, vice chancellor for UAMS Northwest. The term refers to health care providers interacting across disciplines to better serve patients. Community clinics at the campus have embraced the model.
The campus's total enrollment as of July was 158 students, not including 32 residents -- still a small sliver of the total UAMS enrollment of roughly 2,900 students as of last fall.
Kohler said he anticipates further growth at the Northwest campus.
"I think our plan is to be able to look at what UAMS needs and what the needs of the region are," Kohler said.
The University of Central Arkansas in Conway, Harding University in Searcy and Arkansas State University-Jonesboro offer doctoral programs in physical therapy, but Kohler said there was no such program in Northwest Arkansas.
The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics projected a growth rate of 36 percent in physical therapy jobs from 2012 to 2022, a rate far higher than the average job growth rate.
Kohler said he's interested in academic collaborations with the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, mentioning an occupational therapy program as a possible example of the two universities working together. Kohler said talks are in the very early stages, however.
For the group of new students -- which includes 16 from Arkansas -- the physical therapy program offers a chance to fulfill lifelong dreams.
"I've always wanted to be a PT. I can't see myself doing anything other than PT," said Kayla Hulsey, using a common abbreviation for physical therapist.
The former collegiate basketball player said she knows firsthand about physical therapy. A knee injury in the first game of her senior year cut short her playing career at Ouachita Baptist University and led to about a year of physical therapy.
"I feel like it will make me more able to empathize with my patients. I've been there," said Hulsey, who studied biology and kinesiology and has already worked as a physical therapy assistant.
Jefferson said the first class was drawn from a pool of 79 applicants. The program gained official candidacy accreditation status this summer from the Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education, with the commission waiting to fully accredit the program until the final semester of the first class of students.
"At that point, they'll actually interview clinicians who have had our students as interns. So they'll see not only how students are performing on exams, but how they're performing in the clinic," Jefferson said.
Jefferson, who previously served on the physical therapy faculty at the University of South Alabama, described an emphasis on learning-by-doing, with the curriculum following what's known as a "flipped classroom" model of teaching that will feature online lectures.
"In the traditional model, you do the lecture here and the homework at home. We, instead, do the lectures at home and the homework here, because it's the homework you need the help with," Jefferson said.
From the start, students will begin rotations to shadow therapists at a recently established rehabilitation clinic at the UAMS Northwest campus.
"It's separate from the program, but it's affiliated with the program," Jefferson said. The clinic helps students and also helps in recruiting faculty by giving them a place to practice, he said. In addition to outpatient services, therapists work with veterans at the Arkansas State Veterans Home in Fayetteville, providing another learning environment for students.
The emphasis early in the program on working with patients appealed to Michael Osterbur, a recent graduate from a master's program in exercise physiology at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville.
"A lot of schools wait until their second or even the third year to go out into the community and work with PTs. You're doing that right off the bat, and I think that's awesome," said Osterbur, who said he knew the area well even before applying because of visits to family in Arkansas.
He also gushed about the new facilities and the hands-on approach to learning.
"I couldn't ask for anything better than this," Osterbur said.
Metro on 08/15/2015