The success of WesternU’s Professional DPT curriculum is evident in the fact that the
DPT 2017 graduates received a 100% overall pass rate on the national licensure exam!
The three-year Professional DPT curriculum is designed around a problem-solving approach to physical therapy clinical practice.
For more detail regarding the curriculum, please review the course descriptions (PDF) in our University catalog.
Students gain early clinical experiences starting in the second semester. This enables them to immediately apply, in real clinical settings, the knowledge and skills they’re learning in class.
To prepare students for their clinical experiences, they participate in simulated and real patient scenarios early in the curriculum while faculty provide feedback to maximize learning.
These labs and others like them have a high faculty to student ratio of approximately one faculty member for every 8-12 students, and class size is typically 54 students.
“Orthopedic and therapeutic exercise labs always prove to be incredibly fun and insightful – beyond learning essential manual skills, I am exposed to real clinical cases which broaden my understanding of different pathologies and hone my clinical reasoning skills. Due to the small class size, I also receive individualized guidance and correction of my techniques – one of the best parts of every lab is gaining these clinical pearls!”
Harriette Tuntomo DPT 2019
DPT Professional students are taught by gifted faculty, many of whom have 15-20 or more years of teaching experience and many are APTA board certified in a variety of clinical specialties.
The Office of Learning Enhancement & Academic Development Office (LEAD) is another resource for on-campus and distance students. LEAD helps students connect academic success with wellbeing. In individual counseling sessions, students learn time management, test taking, and studying strategies. LEAD facilitates training in managing stress, increasing focus, and professional skills. Also, LEAD offers a 5-week program for incoming students, Summer Preparedness and Readiness Course (SPaRC).
Our very high retention rate, and the fact that 100% of our 2017 graduates who applied for licensure passed their national licensure exam, is a clear indication that our students are receiving an excellent education and are afforded all the support required to succeed!
During their first semester in PT 5000 Psychosocial and Ethical Aspects of Health Care, DPT Professional students spend 48 hours in a wheelchair to get a sense of what it’s like to live in a world designed for people without full use of their legs.
Students also learn which adaptive equipment such as canes, walkers, crutches, etc. are best suited to address the patient’s functional limitations.
Learning the mechanics of such equipment and attempting to view the world through their patient’s eyes helps prepare our graduates to work exceptionally well with the growing number of individuals living with disabilities.
WesternU’s interprofessional curriculum provides a forum for you to collaborate and learn from students in eight other healthcare programs. This curriculum provides an opportunity for early networking with other health professionals and ultimately prepares you to better serve your patients through interprofessional collaboration and referrals.
WesternU is a thriving academic health center spread out over 22 acres in Pomona, CA. The main campus currently includes 19 major buildings and construction is complete on two new building projects totaling an investment of more than $100 million. These buildings are be shared by students in optometry, dentistry, osteopathic and podiatric medicine. The design fosters interprofessional education and patient care.
Our first and second-year students spend most of their classroom time in Cooper Hall and Lecture Hall West where they have access to up-to-date scientific equipment and learning resources.
In addition, students use the Library and Learning Resource Center that provides great hard-copy and electronic resources. The library is both hardwired and wireless for laptop use.
Join us for an information session where you can tour the facilities, chat with faculty and students, and learn more about WesternU’s Professional DPT curriculum and admission requirements.