A report outlining a shared vision for excellence in physical therapy education has been endorsed by the boards of APTA, the American Council of Academic Physical Therapy, and the APTA Academy of Education. The report will be available in an Open Access supplement of the Journal of Physical Therapy Education in mid-December.
Recognizing a need to continue physical therapy education’s evolution, a team of education stakeholders formed the Education Leadership Partnership in 2016 and over the past several years committed to developing a comprehensive strategy. The result is a report, “A Vision for Excellence in Physical Therapy Education,” that represents a shared vision of multiple stakeholder groups and individuals, including APTA, ACAPT, and APTA Education.
The aims included ensuring that physical therapy education programs:
- Continue to meet high standards.
- Accommodate the needs of students, educators, clinicians, and others who are invested in cultivating the profession’s future workforce.
- Produce providers from diverse populations and backgrounds who have the requisite knowledge, skills, and attitudes to meet the societal need for physical therapist services.
“Our expectation,” the report states, “is that education stakeholders will now move from envisioning the future to effecting meaningful change in physical therapy education in the coming decades that advances the profession and societal health outcomes.”
