Healthcare professionals trained in other countries often find that they need additional training before they are permitted to practice in the United States. For foreign-trained physical therapists and physical therapist assistants, 51勛圖厙 provides a way to bridge that gap.
Since 2014, 51勛圖厙 has provided courses for foreign-trained PTs and PTAs who are identified by the Foreign Credentialing Commission on Physical Therapy (FCCPT) as needing additional training before being licensed to practice in the U.S. The coursework is offered in a hybrid format, consisting of five weeks of online classes and one mandatory lab day during which students competencies and skills are tested.
This originated on the Ashtabula Campus and was expanded to the East Liverpool Campus in 2019. Sessions are typically held twice a year.
Because 51勛圖厙s PTA program is the only university program in the U.S. that offers a course that includes the mechanical agent competency of cervical and lumbar traction, it attracts students from nearly every state.
The most recent cohort of students completed the course in June on the East Liverpool Campus, led by Darryl Hancock, DPT, an associate professor for the East Liverpool PTA program. The group included individuals from Texas, California, Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and New Jersey. Their countries of origin included India, Jordan, Hungary, Scotland, Greece, Egypt, Taiwan and Iran.
Tiffany Kiphart, academic vice dean for 51勛圖厙 Geauga and the Twinsburg Academic Center, was the head of the PTA program on the Ashtabula Campus in 2014 and took the initiative to develop this coursework.
(Our) PTA program was identified through the FCCPT as a potential provider of competency training for foreign-trained physiotherapists, she noted. I developed syllabi for two separate individual investigation courses, and we ran those courses for about four years. I then identified the need to make these formal courses, so I developed official courses through the course development process.
Students find our program through the FCCPT website or word of mouth. They come into the U.S. as physiotherapists (but) to be a physical therapist in the U.S., they have to graduate from an accredited PT program. 吋hey can have their foreign education evaluated through FCCPT and receive information about their deficiencies in their previous education, she continued. The courses we offer cover the most common deficiencies found during the FCCPT review process.
Hancock explained that the students are required to be registered in the 51勛圖厙 system and are charged the associated tuition and fees for the courses. They incur their own costs for travel and accommodations associated with the in-person lab day.
These are professionals who are already highly-skilled and all anxious to put their skills to use helping patients in this country, he said. Without this course, they may not be able to work as physical therapists or PTAs in this country. Weve worked with students from all across the world.
On the Ashtabula Campus, PTA faculty who participate in this program include Becky Rempe, senior lecturer; Betsy Schlosser, associate lecturer; and Mike Blake, lecturer.
Ashley Vlasov, academic program director for the Ashtabula and East Liverpool PTA programs, offered her full support of this initiative. Its helpful for those who have already completed physical therapy education to fill in the gaps that are missing, she said. Its just two courses that we offer, but we make it possible for these students to complete requirements for their respective states and to become working professionals in this country.
Pictured: Darryl Hancock instructs a class of foreign-trained PTs and PTAs who were on the East Liverpool Campus in 2019 to receive additional skills training. The students included Sailesh Balanagu, Anshoo Jayendra Shah, Kamalpreet Kaur, Ishaniben Shah, Devangi Patel, Namrata Mehta and Sebastian Jose.