Office of Public Relations — Newsroom
News Release
For Immediate Release
Contact: Tonya Ewers, 303.315.6374, pager 303.266.0941, Tonya.Ewers@uchsc.edu
Colorado's First Physical Therapy Degree Program Celebrates Its 60th Anniversary
University of Colorado Denver's Physical Therapy Program among best in the nation
AURORA, Colo. (April 10, 2008) - Community involvement and professional degrees are just a few examples of how far the University of Colorado Denver's Physical Therapy Program has come as it celebrates a major milestone in 2008. Sixty years ago, the UC Denver Physical Therapy Program became the first civilian professional program in the Rocky Mountain region and graduated its first class of six students in 1948. Since 1948, the 60 graduating classes have represented 1,800 new therapists, many of whom supported growth of physical therapy services in the Rocky Mountain region.
For the last 60 years, the Physical Therapy Program at the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine has prepared its students with the expertise and critical thinking skills that are necessary to both excel in the physical therapy profession and to adapt to the ever-evolving health care environment
"We are very proud of this terrific program in Physical Therapy whose wonderful faculty has trained fabulous practitioners for the state of Colorado for the past six decades," said Richard Krugman, MD, vice chancellor for Health Affairs at UC Denver and dean of the School of Medicine.
Today, the program is located on UC Denver's new Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, Colo. - the only academic health sciences campus in the region. Designed as a square-mile center for health care delivery, research and education, the campus includes two teaching hospitals, five health professional schools and a bioscience research enterprise. The PT Program's new facilities include high tech laboratory spaces and class rooms as well as a fully equipped physical therapy 'gym.'
UC Denver's health sciences campus was designed around the learning philosophy that a uniquely designed interprofessional learning environment can better prepare health sciences students for their roles as future health care professionals. As part of this learning philosophy, physical therapy students routinely interact with other health professionals on campus such as physicians, nurses, pharmacists, dentists, physician assistants and researchers. In addition, students take interdisciplinary courses including anatomy, ethics and physiology with students from the other health sciences schools and graduate programs as part of the curriculum for UC Denver's Physical Therapy Program.
"The UC Denver PT Program has emphasized interprofessional education for many years. We are able to further enhance this focus on this new Anschutz Medical Campus which was specifically designed with this approach in mind," said Margaret Schenkman, PT, PhD, FAPTA, director of the Physical Therapy Program and assistant dean for Allied Health at UC Denver.
The program made the transition from offering a certificate to awarding a baccalaureate degree in 1952, and then in 1990 to awarding a Master of Science degree. In 2004, in response to further changes within physical therapy education, the program was completely revised and expanded in order to meet the needs of new standards for doctoral-level education.
Today, UC Denver's Physical Therapy Program offers both a three-year entry level post-graduate Doctor of Physical Therapy Program and a Transition Doctor of Physical Therapy Program. Last year's graduating class of 2007 was the first to enter the physical therapy profession with a Doctor of Physical Therapy.
As part of the new degree, the clinical education component for each student now also includes 44 weeks of off-site experiences, designed to provide students with exposure to a variety of practice settings throughout a wide-ranging patient population.
One of the many innovative initiatives of the program includes the Community Volunteer Program-a recent addition to the curriculum that began with the doctoral degree. Classmates are paired with volunteers in the community who live with the effects of spinal cord injuries and/or strokes, or have cerebral palsy, Parkinson's disease or various other physical disabilities that challenge their accessibility in the community. The program provides PT students with guidance, but also allows a significant amount of flexibility depending on each student and volunteer.
PT Program students also volunteer at the Stout Street Clinic in Denver once a month, alongside peers and medical students from the UC Denver School of Medicine, providing comprehensive health care and physical therapy services to homeless and economically disadvantaged patients. The clinic's mission is to work collaboratively toward the prevention and elimination of homelessness through education, advocacy and improved services for the homeless. All levels of students from the School of Medicine volunteer their time to familiarize themselves with health care needs of homeless families and individuals and to also acquaint themselves with community resources available to assist the homeless.
"I am honored to be at the helm of this great physical therapy education program as we celebrate the past 60 years of success, look forward to new and exciting initiatives that are planned for the coming years, and welcome alumni, friends and colleagues to our new facilities here on the Anschutz Medical Campus," added Schenkman.
The UC Denver Physical Therapy Program will be celebrating its 60th Anniversary on Thursday, April 17, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. The event will be held at the Program's new location in the Education 2 building on the Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, Colo. For more information, call 303.724.9144.
The School of Medicine faculty work to advance science and improve care as the physicians, educators and scientists at University of Colorado Hospital, The Children's Hospital, Denver Health, National Jewish Medical and Research Center, and the Denver Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Degrees offered by the UC Denver School of Medicine include doctor of medicine, doctor of physical therapy, and masters of physician assistant studies. The School is part of the University of Colorado Denver, one of three universities in the University of Colorado system. For additional news and information, please visit the UC Denver newsroom online.