News from Education Section, APTA

Education Section, APTA Newsletter

May 2009

In This Issue

2009 Slate

2009 Elections

Scholar One Manuscript is HERE!

Academic Administrators SIG

Academic Faculty SIG

Clinical Education SIG

AFSIG Teaching Pearls

2008 Section Award Winners

2009
Election Slate

Treasurer
Nancy Reese, PT, PhD

Secretary
Heidi Dunfee, PT, DScPT, CCCE

Representative-at-Large
Professional Development
Kathy Hall, PT, EdD

Nominating Committee Member
Daniel E. Erb, PT, PhD

Academic Administrators SIG
Vice-Chair
Michael Sheldon, PT, MS

Academic Administrators SIG
Nominating Committee Member
Peter Altenburger, PT, PhD
Mark F. Reinking, PT, PhD, SCS

Academic Faculty SIG
Chair
Wanda Brown Nitsch, PT, PhD, MTC

Academic Faculty SIG
Representative-at-Large
Professional Development
Elizabeth Oakley, PT, MSPT

Academic Faculty SIG
Nominating Committee Member
Coral Gubler, PT, PhD
Elizabeth C. Ennis, PT, EdD, PCS, ATP

Clinical Education SIG
CCCE Co-Chair
Misti Timpson, PT, MSPT, NCS

Clinical Education SIG
Recording Secretary
Harriet K. Lewis, PT
Kelly Hawthorne, PT, GCS
Stephanie Kelly, PT, MS

Clinical Education SIG
Nominating Committee Member
Lisa Besserman Johnston, PT
April D. Newton, PT

PTA Educators SIG
Chair
Becky McKnight, PT

PTA Educators SIG
Secretary
Robyn Lee Wilhelm, PT

PTA Educators SIG
Nominating Committee Member
Lori Marie Khan, PT, DPT

Quick Links...

Section Website

Contact Section Office

Greetings!

At this time of year, many students are completing their final clinical education experiences and graduation ceremonies are right around the corner. Isn't it great to see those students and remember how far they have come in a relatively short period of time? New students, smart and enthusiastic, will soon be coming to our clinics or into our academic programs. One cycle follows another and our jobs are to assure that graduates are prepared for the future. Have you seen the You Tube video, Did You Know?, that cites amazing figures related to how the world is changing? Check it out (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cL9Wu2kWwSY). Some examples from it include: "Today's learner will have 10-14 jobs by the time s/he is 38 years old." "The amount of technical information doubles every 2 years." "One half of what learners learn in their first year of study will be outdated by their third year." Makes you wonder: are we teaching our students what they need to know to be physical therapists and physical therapist assistants in the future?

We have a new president who promises long overdue healthcare reform. What will this mean to future practitioners? Changes will likely require new thinking about how care is delivered, to whom it is provided, and the outcomes that are expected. Physical therapists will likely be evaluated and/or reimbursed based on the quality of care they provide. For example, have they provided a standardized examination to determine fall risk in all elderly patients? Have they taken baseline blood pressure for all adult patients? Have they assessed the waist circumference of all adult patients to determine risk of metabolic syndrome? Given the epidemic of obesity in both children and adults, new graduates will likely need to take on the responsibility of determining the overall health status of all their patients, including their needs for information and counseling about risks for disease and the benefits of routine exercise.

With the rapidly changing world in mind, we, as educators, need to ask ourselves, do our students (soon to be graduates) understand that it is their responsibility to work within communities to contribute to their wellness? Have we taught them how to work within policy and government structures to influence change? Will they be prepared for a future we cannot possibly imagine? Let's hope so.

Sincerely,

Diane U. Jette, PT, DSc
Education Section President

2009 Elections

On May 8, 2009 all members with email access will receive a message containing voting instructions and a direct link to a secure voting page on www.aptaeducation.org. After logging in using their unique APTA member ID and password, members will be able to review the slate of candidates, including candidate statements and biographical information, and to cast their vote. Votes must be cast no later than 11:59 pm on Friday, May 15, 2009.

To make this process successful, all section members must maintain their current email address with APTA and check their email accounts regularly.

If electronic voting instructions sent to a member are returned to the Section office at APTA as "undeliverable," that member will automatically receive a paper ballot by postal mail. Similarly, members without email addresses will automatically receive a paper ballot. Even with an active email address, any member may request a paper ballot at any time by contacting Sharon Kneebone, IOM, CAE in the Education Section Office at APTA (1-800-999-2782, ext. 8506, educationsection@apta.org)

Dennis Fell, MD, PT

Nominating Committee Chair
dfell@jaguar1.usouthal.edu

Scholar One Manuscript Central

Scholar One Manuscript Central is here! On Friday, May 15, 2009 the Journal of Physical Therapy Education is officially launching Scholar One Manuscript Central. Please access JOPTE for all manuscript submissions and Journal information.

Academic Administrators SIG

The main focus of the AASIG over the past two years has been working on a reorganization plan, to develop an independent council within APTA that will represent all academic physical therapy programs. A taskforce appointed in 2007, chaired by Jim Carey, developed an initial proposal that was brought to the Education Leadership Conference (ELC) in 2008. Following a rich discussion at that meeting, an Organizing Committee was formed to move forward with concrete plans, composed of 16 members representing public and private institutions, small colleges and research intensive universities, CESIG and PTASIG, and regions across the country. This group has been working over the past year to develop a full proposal for this new organizational entity.

A preliminary report was presented to the AASIG at CSM, and a follow-up will be discussed at the Education Section business meeting in Baltimore. In addition, each of the members of the committee has contacted a cohort of program directors and members of the clinical education community to engage in conversations about how the council can best meet the needs of programs and physical therapy education. We hope to involve all of our stakeholders in this important discussion. The committee has established workgroups to address specific issues, including finance and budget, nominations and elections, involvement of PTA and clinical education stakeholders, membership benefits, governance structure within APTA, and bylaws. We urge all members of the education community to continue to provide feedback to the committee. A final report and recommendations will be made at the Education Leadership Conference in Philadelphia on October 2-4, 2009.

Members of the Organizing Committee include Leslie Portney and Jim Gordon (co-chairs), Stuart Binder-Macleod, George Coggeshall, Jenny Collins, Diane Jette, Beth Marcoux, Tom Mayhew, Terry Nordstrom, Nancy Reese, Mark Reinking, Barb Sanders, Rick Segal, Dave Somers, Alecia Thiele, and Steve Tippett.

Leslie Portney, PT, DPT, PhD, FAPTA

Chair, Academic Administrators SIG

lportney@mghihp.edu

Academic Faculty SIG

Dear Faculty,

The Academic Faculty Special Interest Group is involved in two main activities this year:

Starting a presentation of "teaching pearls" to our section members. This is a volunteer submission about teaching strategies used in physical therapy education that is innovative and has lead to successful learning outcomes. If you have a "pearl" you would like to share in our upcoming newsletters, please email them to Dr. Wanda Nitsch (wnitsch@usa.edu). See our first teaching pearl by Dr. Alan Lee of Mount St. Mary's DPT program in this issue. Thank you, Alan.

We are investigating, along with Dr. Jody Gandy of APTA, the feasibility of starting a database of research articles about teaching methodology, pedagogy, and outcome measurement in health sciences education. Perhaps not as robust as our "Hooked on Evidence", it will be a step in helping all of us to be evidence-based in our teaching approach. We are currently seeking individuals interested in working on this project. Drop me an email if would like to advance our teaching by helping to present current research.

I would also like to thank our current slate of nominees for AFSIG officer positions. We appreciate your willingness to serve the SIG and Education Section.

As always our SIG leadership is here to listen to our PT and PTA faculty about ways we can work together to advance your research, teaching, and service initiatives. We are open to your ideas, love to hear of your enthusiasm for our profession, and your educational needs for future conference programming.

Hope to see you at the June National Conference. Until then...........Happy Spring!

Wanda Nitsch, PT, PhD
AFSIG Chair

WNitsch@usa.edu

Clinical Education SIG

1. CESIG news and Member Update

Watch for the Annual Summer CESIG Newsletter headed your way in the next month prior to PT2009: Annual Conference!

2.CMS Info Regarding Medicare Provider Feedback on therapy services Section 230 - Practice of Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy and Speech-Language Pathology, B. Therapy Students:

Last year CMS solicited widespread feedback regarding the applicability of Part B reimbursement rules to the Part A inpatient hospital, rehab and SNF environments. Of specific interest to the CESIG was the section outlining billing and reimbursement of student provided services. The CESIG leadership disseminated a survey for feedback. No updates or changes in the current status of the Medicare regulations have taken effect. If we become aware of any updates, we will be in contact with membership.

3. Educational Leadership Conference: National Clinical Education Conference:

Please mark your calendars for the 2009 ELC in Philadelphia, PA October 2-4, 2009. The meeting will take place at the Loews Philadelphia Hotel 1200 Market Street Philadelphia, PA, 19107.

The content of this ELC will primarily focus on activities related to the future Council of Physical Therapy Programs. Programming will be of interest to all educators (academic, clinical, PT and PTA) involved in the future of physical therapy education. Specific clinical education-related content will include the clinical education platform presentations, a presentation on the evolving role of clinical education consortia and roundtable discussions on leadership and clinical education topics for PT and PTA educators. There will also be opportunities for breakout workgroups and involvement in discussions on the future of physical therapy education.

Research abstracts for clinical education platform presentations are now being accepted for the Educational Leadership Conference (ELC) to be held October 2-4, 2009 in Philadelphia, PA. Please submit abstracts in 2 forms: 1) an abstract with all identification omitted, and 2) an abstract with all authors listed, complete with school and/or clinical facility included and contact information. The deadline for submission is May 1, 2009. After all submissions have been evaluated, notification emails will be sent to the individual who submitted the abstract, by May 15, 2009. Send abstracts to Peggy Gleeson at pgleeson@twu.edu or Heidi Dunfee at Dunfee.heidi@mayo.edu .

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact any of the program chairs:
Heidi Dunfee: dunfee.heidi@mayo.edu
Peggy Gleeson: pgleeson@twu.edu
Reva Rauk: Reva.Rauk@hsc.utah.edu
Alecia Thiele: Alecia.Thiele@clarke.edu

Teaching Pearls

Problem statement (2 sentences) with course content:

Course content for Health Care Procedures includes the psychomotor assessment of goniometry, muscle length testing and manual muscle testing. With lab instructors and teaching assistants, we have a ratio of nine students to one instructor; however, some students still require additional learning opportunities to become competent in these skills.

The decision to try video podcasting:

Changes in our pedagogical approach were driven by course objectives of achieving competence in these psychomotor skills. In addition, instructor analysis and students' feedback of health care procedures directed us to personalize learning. The instructional tactic implemented in our classroom was video podcasting which allowed students to view lecture and lab demonstrations via downloading MP4 files into their computers or personal media players. This generation of technology-savvy students in our classrooms enhanced our decision to implement this strategy at the Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) program at Mount St. Mary's College in Los Angeles.

How was it developed and included into course content:
The Office of Information Technology (OIT) acquired the video editing software, server setup, and portable laptop that allowed for this instructor of record to learn, produce, and upload the video podcasts into ANGEL course management system. The actual launch of video podcasts began during the fall semester of 2008 while a beta test phase was completed in 2007-2008 academic year with the previous DPT class. All DPT students that gave informed consent to participate in video podcasting in the classroom served as subjects during lab demonstrations.

How did the students use video podcasts?
DPT students were able to use the ANGEL course management system to either view the video podcasts online or download the MP4 files into their personal media players for viewing at their own discretion. All DPT students were instructed to use video podcasts for learning purposes only. All materials were copyright protected.

General outcomes:
Effective use of multimedia instruction with video podcasts can create opportunities for program faculty members and clinical instructors to assess skill mastery in DPT students. Initial student responses were predominantly favorable regarding use of technology. In a post-course online survey, sixty-six percent of respondents strongly agreed that they could review the e-Learning materials at their own pace and at times that were convenient to them. On our course evaluation forms, some respondents found video podcasts to be helpful in achieving course objectives. Interestingly, some respondents were undecided about the benefit of downloading videos into their personal media players in order to help understand the course materials. Further research is needed to determine the effectiveness of video podcasting to improve psychomotor learning of skills and its potential benefits to all stakeholders.

Key Teaching Pearls:

Do not assume OIT will have all solutions to your technology questions.
Elicit the help of technology-savvy students and engage them in the classroom.
Beta test phase is necessary when using new technology.
You must protect all participants from potential cyberspace threats.
In order to use technology effectively, you must be vested intellectually.

Dr. Alan C. Lee is an assistant professor at Mount St. Mary's College in Los Angeles. He has served as adjunct instructor at CSU Long Beach and University of St. Augustine in San Diego. Dr. Lee was awarded the APTA Minority Faculty Development Scholarship Award in 2008. Dr. Lee is completing his PhD in Physical Therapy from Nova Southeastern University.
Contact: Allee@msmc.la.edu
Alan Chong W. Lee, PT, DPT, CWS, GCS
edited - dr. lee