Week 3 Open Post

In the past three weeks, I've already learned more than I thought I would about physical therapy. I've learned through textbooks, videos, articles, and people. After learning from my mom this week about physical therapy I feel like I'm starting to get a better feel for the occupation. For this weeks open blog post, I've decided to do a little research on the DPT or the Doctor of Physical Therapy. 

A DPT is a step above being a physical therapist with a masters degree. This is technically reaching doctoral status. It's additional schooling added on to the masters degree in physical therapy. It's a very controversial topic in the physical therapy school. It's changing the entire occupation as a whole. The entry-level standards for entering into the profession. There are some people who see this as a good thing and that it's raising the level of physical therapy and they think that it's good that it has doctoral status. Then there are some people who are already working as physical therapists who are viewing themselves as not good enough because of the license they have. Both viewpoints are valid, but no matter how people see it, the amount of people continuing on to becoming a DPT is growing and it's becoming the new norm of physical therapy. 

I think this is an interesting topic because there are so many questions that could be asked about the DPT as a whole... like what is the difference in salary between a regular physical therapist and a doctor of physical therapy? How much extra schooling does a DPT need? When did this title become available to people? 

From the article I found, I was only able to learn about the evolution of the DPT. The Doctor of Physical Therapy came around in about 1992. USC was the first school to offer schooling to become a DPT. As for the rest of my questions, I guess I'll just have to do try and find more out through textbooks or someone who is a DPT. 

CITATIONS 

Plack, Margaret. "The Evolution of the Doctorate of Physical Therapy: Moving Beyond the Controversy." Paeaonline. Journal of Physical Therapy Education, 2002. Web. 1 Feb 2014.