Our students complete three full calendar years of didactic and clinical education. Educational experiences include traditional lecture courses, laboratory courses, seminar series, nontraditional short intensive courses and clinical internships. Students will have laboratory instruction at the University of Illinois Hospital. Students experience extended clinical internships as well as shorter introductory clinical experiences.
Every effort is made to provide expert, thorough instruction.
The clinical education program consists of two components. The first component consists of half day experiences for the student, integrated within the class work portion of physical therapy education, and the second component is the full time clinical rotations. The overall purpose of these experiences is to expose the student to a variety of clinical settings and patient populations prior to the full time clinical rotations. In clinics, students are exposed to a variety of traditional and nontraditional service delivery models, including acute and rehabilitation hospitals, outpatient clinics, private practices, school system physical therapy, pediatric and geriatric residential facilities, and introducing the student to different patient populations such as pediatrics and geriatrics, as well as patients with neurological, orthopedic, and medical conditions who require physical therapy services. In addition, students are able to see first hand the application of clinical practices discussed in class, such as evaluations and the use of modalities and exercises, and exposure to other aspects of clinical practice such as patient care conferences and rounds.