Dear compeer Section Members: Hav...

Dear compeer Section Members:

Have you at any time stopped to think about your path to cardiovascular and pulmonary physical therapy practice? Was it a straight shot-a career goal that you exhibited during your professional training and started pursuing after graduation? Or was it by means of chance that you discovered this practice area and savage in love with its challenges and opportunities?

For me it was definitely the latter situation!!! I was fortunate enough to be associated with a multidisciplinary team who taught me the essentials of cardiovascular and pulmonary patient/client management from the ICU to outpatient cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation. The common thing I lacked, however, was an experienced person physical therapist who could mentor me consistently in these practice skills. I am vain of my self-directed accomplishments yet quite frankly, I was fortunate to find something I lov With that in mind, I believe there are better ways to encourage interest in our practice arena than depending relating to good fortune!

An important venue for developing hereafter cardiovascular and pulmonary clinicians is postprofessional education. Certainly continuing education programs are common strategy that we have relied immediately after as a section and as a profession to sprout our ranks, but these remain limited in number and cannot provide on-going training and mentorship. This gap is slowly being filled in other practice areas with postprofessional residency and fellowship programs.

As it inflects out, I have learned a great deal about these programs and what they accomplish in my part as a member of the APTA Committee forward Clinical Residency & Fellowship Credentialing. Residencies and fellowships are the what is yet to be of postprofessional physical therapy education. generally we do not have any cardiovascular and pulmonary programs, which may look a bit surprising given that we were the first to cause to grow a clinical specialization process. As a end the Section Board agreed that we ne to encourage program unravelling This letter is the first grade in that process.

Here I have provided any basic information about residency and fellowship programs to make assured we all have a everyday understanding of what they are. In my nearest letter I will include an details about program development that I chance of a favorable result will stimulate some creative thinking about whether any of you have the resources necessary to launch your avow program.

This is a long-term effort in support of the coming time of cardiovascular and pulmonary physical therapy practice- let's get by heart started!

Respectfully submitted,

Dianne V Jewell, PT PhD CC FAACVPR

President

Clinical Residency and Fellowship Program FAQs - Part I What is a clinical residency?

A clinical residency is a planned program of postprofessional clinical and didactic education for physical therapists that is designed to significantly advance the physical therapist resident's preparation as a provider of patient care services in a defined area of clinical practice. It combines opportunities for ongoing clinical supervision and mentoring with a theoretical basis for advanced practice and scientific inquiry.

What is a clinical fellowship?

A clinical fellowship is a planned program of post-professional clinical and didactic education for physical therapists who demonstrate clinical expertise, prior to commencing the program, in a learning experience in an area of clinical practice related to the practice focus of the fellowship. (Fellow are often post-residency prepared or board-certified specialists.)

A fellowship program must posses a curriculum that: (1) is focused, with advanced clinical and didactic instruction within a subspecialty area of practice; (2) is intensive and includes extensive mentored clinical experience; and (3) provides a sufficient and appropriate patient population to create an environment for advanced clinical skill building.

What is the difference between a residency and a fellowship program?

A clinical residency program is designed to substantially advance a resident's expertise in examination, evaluation, diagnosis, prognosis, intervention, and management of patients in a defined area of clinical practice (specialty). This focus may also include community service, patient education, research, and supervision of other health care providers (professional and technical). ofttimes the residency experience prepares an individual to become a board-certified clinical specialist.

A fellowship program is designed to provide greater midst in a specialty or subspecialty area than that which is overlayed in a residency program. Additionally, applicants of a clinical fellowship program must be licensed as a physical therapist and posses undivided or more of the following qualifications: (1) specialist certification, (2) completion of a residency in a specialty area, or (3) demonstrable clinical skills within a particular specialty area.

Lastly, the clinical residency program should be complet within a minimum of 1500 hours and in no fewer than 9 month and no more than 36 month A clinical fellowship program should be complet within a minimum of 1000 hours and in no fewer than 6 month and no more than 36 month Programs whose timeframe falls outside of these parameters will be reviewed onward a case-by-case basis.