TECHNICAL STANDARDS FOR ADMISSION

Technical Standards for Admission

Technical Standards for Admission
Enrollment in the DPT Program assumes certain essential cognitive, emotional, and technical skills. In addition to the academic admissions requirement, the Essential Technical Standards delineate the abilities and skills that degree candidates must possess to engage safely and competently in required learning activities. Overall, the purpose of technical standards are to delineate the skills deemed essential for continuation in and completion of the educational program. Technical standards are necessary to identify and communicate specific expectations for student performance in the academic and clinical environments. Reflected in the standards are those behaviors, knowledge, and skills that degree candidates must possess to engage safely and competently in required learning activities and in clinical practice to ensure the well-being of the patient/client, self, and others.

Skills fundamental to physical therapist practice and to the curriculum of the HPU DPT Program include but are not limited to the following:

Professionalism
A candidate must consistently demonstrate professional behaviors in interactions with patients, clients, families, caregivers, health care providers, students, faculty, consumers, and payers. The faculty of the HPU DPT program recognizes its responsibility to develop candidates in the DPT program with appropriate professional behaviors and it is the expectation that candidates possess the ability to self-reflect, assess, and implement feedback and plans for professional growth and development.

Observation
The ability to observe is required to for lectures, demonstrations, and laboratories. A candidate must be able to observe patients accurately and completely both at a distance and up close noting both nonverbal as well as verbal signals. A candidate must display sufficient vision, hearing, and touch to detect patient needs in a busy clinical environment.

Communication
Candidates should possess the ability to express and receive all types of communication including verbal, nonverbal, and written that meet the needs of the target audience including patients and their caregivers. Candidates should  convey both compassion and empathy both verbally and nonverbally. Communication in oral, written, and electronic form with the health care team must be effective, efficient, and timely.

Cognitive, integrative abilities
Problem solving and critical thinking is a crucial component of an effective physical therapist. Candidates should possess the ability to problem solve, analyze, and synthesize large bodies of knowledge in the basic, clinical, and behavioral sciences at a level deemed appropriate by faculty and CAPTE in a timely manner. Candidates must be able to organize, prioritize, and evaluate and synthesize information in an efficient and timely manner as warranted based upon patient presentation

Psychomotor skills
A candidate should have sufficient motor function to elicit information from patients via palpation, auscultation, percussion, and other examination tests. Candidates must demonstrate the strength, mobility, balance, fine motor coordination, endurance, perceptual, and sensory capabilities sufficient to provide physical therapy services to any adult or pediatric patient, including heavy or immobile patients. Candidates must demonstrate sufficient motor function to perform emergency procedures when required.

Behavioral and Social Skills
A candidate must have the emotional health to full use his or her intellectual ability, exercise good judgment, and complete all responsibilities pursuant to the educational process and to the care of patients. A candidate must be able to tolerate physically, emotionally, and mentally demanding workloads. A candidate must possess the ability to establish professional relationships, based on mutual trust, with all individuals of the learning and working community from a variety of backgrounds, ages, and needs. A candidate must demonstrate tolerance, altruism, honesty, empathy, integrity, respect for self and others, diligence, interest, and motivation during interactions in both the classroom and clinical settings. A candidate must demonstrate the ability to cope and adjust to recurrent stresses, which are inherent in clinical practice.