A new occupational therapy doctoral program based in Fayetteville expects to enroll a first class of 24 students in fall 2018, according to a joint announcement from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and UA-Fayetteville.
The Arkansas Higher Education Coordinating Board on Friday approved the program, to be based at both UA-Fayetteville and the UAMS Northwest Regional Campus. Accreditation remains pending, with plans for an eight-semester program that would take students three years to complete.
The partnership, the first between UAMS and UA-Fayetteville, will bring more students to the UAMS Northwest campus, which in fall 2015 enrolled its first class of students in a new physical therapy doctoral program.
This fall, the Northwest campus has 45 physical therapy students and a total of 228 students in various programs. UAMS, based in Little Rock, opened the Northwest campus in 2007.
Occupational therapy helps patients living with an injury, illness or disability to perform daily activities.
About half of all occupational therapy jobs are in hospitals or offices devoted to occupational therapy, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, with other jobs based in schools, nursing homes and home health settings.
Arkansas State University at Jonesboro already has a doctoral program in occupational therapy and enrolled its first students in August 2015. The University of Central Arkansas is starting a doctoral program in occupational therapy and expects to enroll students next fall.
The state has 1,520 active licensed occupational therapists, according to the Arkansas State Medical Board, plus 684 occupational therapy assistants.
Stephanie Gardner, provost and chief academic officer at UAMS, said the school took into account demand for therapists before starting the program.
"What we do before we start any academic program is we call potential employers and talk to them about their current needs and ability to hire people currently, and then what are their projected needs," Gardner said.
An aging population contributes to the demand, Gardner said. There is also a need for therapists to work with children, she added.
The program is the culmination of about 2½ years of work, said Douglas Murphy, dean of the UAMS College of Health Professions. He described the importance of partnering with UA-Fayetteville.
"UA-Fayetteville has a lot of the foundational disciplines that are either necessary or will enrich the occupational therapy experience of the student," Murphy said.
Ashok Saxena, provost for UA-Fayetteville, told the coordinating board that degrees will be awarded jointly between the two institutions, with large classes and clinical training to be handled by UAMS. Admissions and research opportunities will be handled by UA-Fayetteville, Saxena said.
"I think there are plenty of exciting things about this program, not the least of which is our first official joint program with UAMS," Saxena said. "We are very much looking forward to it."
Information for this article was contributed by Eric Besson of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Metro on 10/29/2016