Technical Standards
The Technical Standards set forth the nonacademic abilities considered essential for students to achieve the level of competence required by the faculty to obtain the academic degree awarded by the college.
Candidates must be able to perform the following abilities and skills with or without reasonable accommodation:
- Observation: The candidate must be able to accurately make observations at a distance and close at hand. The candidate must be able to learn to use observational skills to make correct interpretations about patient health, impairments, movement, functional capacity, participation, and contextual factors to meet the curriculum requirement to individually complete a physical therapy evaluation. Candidates must be willing to learn to make observations through palpation of a patient.
- Communication: Communication includes speech, language, reading, writing and computer literacy. The candidate must be able to communicate in English proficiently and sensitively in verbal and written form and be able to perceive nonverbal communication.
- Motor: Candidates must be able to coordinate both gross and fine muscular movements, and possess sufficient postural control and neuromuscular control to perform profession-specific skills and tasks, including the ability to direct or execute immediate care to an ill or injured patient during an emergency situation. Candidates must be able to learn to safely mobilize patients using techniques consistent with standards of physical therapy practice, which may include the need to move 50 pounds vertically and/or horizontally.
- Intellectual, Conceptual, Integrative and Quantitative Abilities: The candidate must be able to problem solve, measure, calculate, reason, analyze, record and synthesize large amounts of information. The candidate must be able to comprehend three-dimensional relationships and understand spatial relationships. The candidate must have the ability to use computers to meet program requirements.
- Behavioral and Social Attributes: The candidate must possess the emotional health required for full utilization of their intellectual abilities, the exercise of good judgment and the consistent, prompt completion of all responsibilities and the development of mature, sensitive and effective relationships. Candidates must be able to tolerate physically, mentally and emotionally taxing workloads and to function effectively under stress. The candidate must be able to adapt to changing environments, to display flexibility, and to learn to function in the face of uncertainties. Compassion, integrity, concern for others, effective interpersonal skills, willingness and ability to function as an effective team player, interest and motivation to learn are all personal qualities required during the educational process.
Candidates who are accepted into the Doctor of Physical Therapy program are required to verify that they understand and are able to meet these Technical Standards at least 4 weeks prior to matriculation (or if admitted later, within 1 week of deposit). Candidates who may require accommodation to meet Technical Standards must contact the Office of Student Services to make a formal request for accommodation. The Dean of Students, in consultation with the College Dean/Program Director, will determine what reasonable accommodations can be provided. The College is not able to grant accommodations that alter the educational standards of the curriculum.
Students must meet the Technical Standards for the duration of enrollment at the College. After matriculation, if a student fails to continue to meet the Technical Standards during subsequent enrollment, the student may apply for accommodation by contacting the Office of Student Services. If the accommodation needed to meet the Technical Standards alters the educational standards of the curriculum, the student's ability to satisfactorily progress in the curriculum will be evaluated by the appropriate College's Student Graduation and Promotion Committee.