Manipulation in Education

This article summarizes why we should be optimistic that our profession's best days are ahead of us. Just imagine examples like this being replicated in the roughly half of first-professional physical therapist educational programs across the country that currently do not include thrust manipulation in their curricula. If you know someone who served on APTA's Manipulation Task Force or others who may have been involved in developing the recently published Manipulation Education Manual, please express your sincere appreciation to them for the countless hours of effort poured into this effort. The fruit of this effort is being realized. Many other stakeholders also paved the way for the CAPTE's revised Evaluative Criteria, which now stipulate that thrust manipulation be integrated into the first-professonal curricula. Thank anyone you know who may have been involved. This quick read provides an insightful glimpse into a physical therapy profession of tomorrow whose future is even more bright than it is today.

John

Comments

[Louie Puentedura]

John, I sincerely hope that your optimism bears fruit. It's certainly great to read about PT programs that are being proactive about including manipulative thrust training in their first-professional curricula instead of merely as 'electives' that students can take, if they have any interest in the field. The general sense I've had from educators is that they want to include thrust manipulation in their programs but they lack appropriate faculty, or alternatively, they express the concern that thrust manipulation is a higher level skill that therapists should seek training in AFTER they have graduated from the program. I will certainly offer my heart-felt thanks to everyone who served on the APTA's Manipulation Task Force and everyone involved in developing the recently published Manipulation Education Manual. But we can still do more.....