FIVE-YEAR TREND IN INCIDENCE OF APPLICANTS WHO WERE VERBALLY DISCOURAGED FROM ENTERING THE PHYSICAL THERAPY PROFESSION. Dennis W. Fell* Department of Physical Therapy, University of South Alabama, Mobile, AL PURPOSE: A survey study over five years (2000-2004) examined the incidence of occasions of verbal discouragement from entering the physical therapy profession among applicants to one PT program. Of particular interest was the number of occasions where the discouragement came from practicing physical therapists. This survey was part of the program's survey regarding admissions trends and factors. Comparisons to national PT unemployment over this period points to a possible relationship between employment rates and discouraging comments from physical therapists. BACKGROUNDS/SIGNIFICANCE: If physical therapists are discouraging students from entering the profession, particularly highly qualified candidates, specific steps may be implicated to appropriately promote the profession even in the midst of higher than usual physical therapist unemployment. SUBJECTS: All qualified applicants who applied to this program from 2000-2004 were surveyed. Among the qualified applicants the return rates were 75%, 81%, 71%, 67%, and 38% respectively for 191 respondents. METHODS AND MATERIALS: For five consecutive years, first semester PT students and all other qualified applicants to the program were surveyed regarding the admissions process at this institution. The survey included items regarding frequency of occasions the applicant was discouraged from applying to physical therapy programs. Respondents who reported occasions of being discouraged were asked to categorize sources of those discouraging comments. ANALYSES: Descriptive statistics were used to examine incidence of discouragement, and changes in incidence over the five years. RESULTS: Among the surveys a decrease in incidence of verbal discouragement is seen among respondents from 2000 to 2004: 70.2%, 74.3%, 48.1%, 30.9%, and 22.5% respectively. Applicants who reported a physical therapist as the source of discouragement also changed: 38% in 2000, 17% in 2001, 26% in 2002, 4.7% in 2003, and 10% in 2004. National employment survey data indicates unemployment among PTs since 1998 was highest at 3.2% in October 1999 and steadily dropped to 1.1% in November 2001. CONCLUSIONS: The overall incidence of applicants being verbally discouraged from entering the physical therapy profession has decreased over the past five years. The timing of this decrease in incidence coincides with an improvement in the national PT job market. It remains a concern that such comments from physical therapists may particularly discourage some top candidates from entering the physical therapy profession. FUNDING SOURCE: None KEYWORDS: admissions, Education: Physical Therapist Students, Professional Issues, Professionalism, recruitment Copyright 2009 by the American Physical Therapy Association. Requests for reprints should be directed to the corresponding author of the article. Educators, students, and other academic customers may receive permission to reprint copyrighted material from Physical Therapy (ISSN 1538-6724) by contacting the Copyright Clearance Center Inc, 222 Rosewood Dr, Danvers, MA 01923. Other types of customers who want permission to reprint should contact the APTA Editorial Office, Attn: Physical Therapy.