Our first cohort of Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) students graduated in May. This group of 31 new Doctors of Physical Therapy is ready to serve the community and meet the workforce needs of the State of California.
The high demand for Physical Therapists is projected to continue over the next 20 years as our baby boomers age. With the growth of the profession, requirements for entry level employment have increased in scope. As of 2015, the new entry level requirement for Physical Therapists in California is the Doctor of Physical Therapy degree. CSUN PT anticipated this need and met it.
“This is the first stand alone Doctoral level PT degree ever offered by the CSU. It’s a milestone in higher education,” said Sheryl Low, Chair of CSUN Physical Therapy (PT). “With the DPT we can continue to provide professional education to students who wish to become physical therapists. Our new DPT graduates are ready to serve the community and meet the workforce needs of California.”
“This was no small feat,” Low added. “The Master Plan for the CSU, which was established in the 1950’s, did not include Doctoral level degrees.” Today, the CSU has a new aspect to its plan, thanks to the foresight and diligence of CSUN PT. With strong support from the College of Health and Human Development, the California Physical Therapy Association and the California State University (CSU), CSUN PT has seized the opportunity meet a research need with the DPT.
“The curriculum is a three year, nine semester program which includes summers—that’s when students complete 30 weeks of full time clinical internships. The curriculum also includes integrated clinical experiences under faculty supervision, at the Klotz Student Health Center on campus.”
“We raised the bar for the students and they exceeded our expectations,” Low said. “This first cohort of students included a group of four students who invented a new ankle brace--with patent pending--and another group of award winning students who investigated the use of a mechanical resonating arm device attached to a wheelchair to increase arm use after stroke.”
Since the inception of CSUN PT in 1968, the program has kept pace with the profession. The program has progressed from a Bachelors level, then Master’s degree and now is at the Doctoral degree. The department has graduated over 1,500 Physical Therapists, and counting!
Physical Therapy Department Chair Dr. Sheryl Low is an alumni of CSUN PT. She earned her Bachelor of Science in 1986 (Class 28) and a Master’s of Public Health in 1991. She earned her DSc from Rocky Mountain University of the Health Professions. Low has served the PT program as faculty since 1999 and has chaired the department since 2008, leading the advocacy campaign to convert the MPT program to the DPT and heralding the approval from the CSUs and the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC).
This past spring, Low oversaw an accreditation site visit from the Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education (CAPTE), the accrediting agency of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA). CSUN PT received high praise for the expertise of its clinical faculty, the high performance of the students on the state licensure exam (97% pass rate) the high graduation rates (95%) and strong positive clinical relationships with hospitals and clinics in Southern California. Students are prepared to enter practice as competent, reflective practitioners who are able to practice both independently and interdependently in an ever-changing health care environment.
Sheryl Low with Jean O'Sullivan
Su2015