Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Starting the application

I have now begun to look closely at the application for credentialing a residency and going through the application resource manual that I accessed through the APTA website. These 2 documents are very extensive and a bit overwhelming but provide some examples for each section of the credentialing document that provide good insight into program development. This also helps to understand on a more global level what will be expected and involved in the credentialing process.

The owners of the clinic are working on the financial aspect of the residency so that we can figure out what we will offer a resident while taking into consideration the clinic and resident’s needs. We have also started a discussion about local physicians and surgeons that may be interested in participating in the program and what needs each person will be able to fulfill in accordance with the sports Description of Specialty Practice (DSP).

We have discussed as a clinic when we feel an appropriate start date would be for a resident being mindful of athletic schedules and PT school graduation dates to encompass appealing to a wide range of applicants. We have decided that early spring would be ideal as new graduates that finish school in December/January would be able to apply, and residents would be able to start prior to spring sports and not have to begin in the middle of a high school sports season. With this date in mind, I have started to develop an application for potential residents to fill out as we would like to have this completed and ready for distribution by early summer. This would allow us the ability to interview applicants in mid/late fall and then begin the program in February. Another advantage to this start date is that we could then submit our document for credentialing soon after with the hopes of being credentialed prior to our first resident graduating from the program. So with all of this in mind, it is my goal for the next week to research what other programs have included in the application and to determine any additional information we feel is of importance.

While keeping curriculum development in the back of our minds, we realize we will be able to meet all of the needs of the residency on one way or another. Therefore, we are starting to complete the credentialing application from the beginning in Section 1, rather than starting on Section 3 of the application that deals with the curriculum.


Jen Flug PT, DPT, OCS
Premier Physical Therapy and Sports Performance

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Where to start?

Okay, this blog can get more interesting I suppose or challenging now that we need to actually start developing the sports residency program. As mentioned, our facility (Premier Physical Therapy) works with 2 local high schools which gives us immediate access to a large athletic population hence why we are working on developing a sports program. The owners are very supportive and excited to develop a residency program but my biggest challenge is where to begin. Having been through a credentialed residency program myself (graduated from the University of Delaware Orthopaedic Residency) in 2010, I feel I have a good idea as to components of the program I found particularly important and beneficial in developing me into a clinical specialist.

I began the process by browsing all available information. I went onto the APTA website and followed links to residency and fellowship development (http://www.apta.org/Educators/ResidencyFellowship/). I was able to find several resources including the application, application resource manual, the sports description of specialty practice (DSP) and contact information for support staff at ABPTRFE. I have found ABPTRFE to be very helpful and prompt with answering any questions I have had thus far.

After doing research on my own as to what the residency program involves and what additional components are required (athletic coverage, physician/surgeon involvement and other components outlined in the DSP) I was able to present this information to the owners of the clinic. They were able to look at the financial involvement and how a residency would fit into Premier’s business model. At the same time, I designed what I figured a weekly resident schedule would look like to determine the mix of clinical hours, mentored hours and outside experiences to make sure this too would work for the clinic and patients while following the guidelines set by ABPTRFE. Another one of my first undertakings was to determine when the majority of PT programs graduate to determine what may be an appropriate start date that would encompass the ability for new graduates to apply and work well with a high school sports schedule.

Realizing what a large undertaking this project will be, we have committed to having weekly meetings at which time one of the owners and myself will meet and slowly work away at the application. Aside from desiring to be a credentialed residency program, we figured the best way to ensure that we set up our program correctly would be to base it on the DSP and components required in the credentialing application. So now that we have a better understanding of what a residency program entails, and what components are required, we are ready to begin plucking away at the application.


Jen Flug PT, DPT, OCS
Premier Physical Therapy and Sports Performance

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Introduction

Well, here goes my first, of hopefully many blogs that I am going to create as I work on developing a Sports Residency Program. I figured it would be most appropriate to introduce myself and the program in this first blog and explain why we have decided to develop a sports residency program. I hope others will be able to find this blog useful and interesting.

I graduated from an APTA credentialed Orthopaedic Residency Program in 2010 and since then have had a desire to assist in the development of physical therapy residency programs. Upon completing my residency, I took a job at Premier Physical Therapy and Sports Performance in Middletown, Delaware. Premier is a PT owned and operated private practice with 2 offices in Delaware. The residency will be based in our Middletown office which has 3 full-time PTs plus one of the owners who practices part-time. Our facility is built on a mentoring model in which we greatly value evidence based practice and advanced clinical skills. All of our clinicians are either OCS or SCS and it is a goal of ours to help foster advancing clinical skills in other PTs. We act as a clinical affiliation site for several graduate PT students each year and would like to be able to expand this to mentoring other PTs wishing to advance his/her practice. Our clinic is affiliated with 2 local high schools which gives us direct access to a large athletic population which would provide a sports resident with ample learning opportunities. We feel that the experiences that we have had and our current specializations make us a perfect site for development of a successful Sports Residency Program.

Next week I plan to blog more on how we are now beginning to develop our program and where we chose to start. This is process is both exciting and challenging and we look forward to the development over the next several months!


Jen Flug PT, DPT, OCS
Premier Physical Therapy and Sports Performance