Courses

• SAR HP 515: Practicum in Education
  Education experience under the supervision and guidance of a faculty member. This class will expose students to the theoretical foundations of educational practice and allow students to experience classroom teaching and evaluation from an instructor's perspective.
• SAR HP 522: Health/Lifespan
  
• SAR HP 531: Clinical Medicine I
  An overview of tissue response to injury, pain transmission, and pharmacology provide the foundation from which students will learn about physical agents and specific conditions from a medical perspective. Students will become familiar with the theoretical and practical application of physical agents as it relates to tissue response to injury and pain control. The laboratory portion of this course emphasizes safe and effective application of these modalities using a problem-solving approach to treatment planning and implementation.
• SAR HP 532: Clinical Medicine II
  This course introduces the athletic training and physical therapy student to the normal and abnormal physiology of different body systems as well as differential diagnoses in common medical conditions. Factors associated with those body systems that influence AT or PT examination and intervention will be discussed. Also discussed is when referral to other practitioners is recommended and required.
• SAR HP 560: General Medicine Practicum
  This course provides students with intensive exposure to the practice of general medicine and is designed to augment the content of HP 532: Clinical Medicine II. Students will observe several different health care practitioners (MD, DO, PA, NP) in the delivery of healthcare.
• SAR HP 561: Evidence Based Practice I
  This course is the first of a series of two courses on Evidence Based Practice for physical therapy students. Evidence based practice involves the explicit incorporation of evidence from three sources: (1) research evidence; (2) clinician knowledge, experience, and judgment; and (3) patient preferences. In this course, students develop skills to effectively ask clinically focused questions, access, appraise, and apply research evidence in decision making for clinical practice. The emphasis in EBP I is on research evidence related to intervention studies, encompassing systematic reviews, clinical practice guidelines and randomized controlled trials. This course will also emphasize the importance of practice-based evidence to further inform patient care.
• SAR HP 565: Biomechanics of Human Movement
  Biomechanics is a powerful tool for understanding why and how we control and coordinate movement in health and disability. The course is designed to provide a conceptual and theoretical basis of biomechanics using applications so that students will learn to problem solve using a biomechanical thought process. There will be many examples of applications including athletics, orthopedic injuries, central nervous system disorders, designing assistive devices, robotics, pediatrics and aging. The course is suitable for physical therapy, athletic training, anthropology, human physiology, and engineering students and anyone interested in understanding human movement from a quantitative perspective. Emphasis will be placed on how to use the tools of biomechanics along with an understanding of functional anatomy to think about normal and abnormal patterns of movement, and in some cases how this information might be used to guide interventions.
• SAR HP 572: Principles of Evidence Based Practice
  This course will develop essential skills for evidence-based practitioners in health care. Students will learn how to generate clinical questions; interpret, access, evaluate, and integrate relevant research literature; integrate their own clinical experience and the values and circumstances of their patients into principled clinical decision making; and select and use outcome measures to assess treatment effectiveness.
• SAR HP 650: Health Care Management
  This on-line graduate course introduces the fundamentals of management in the health care environment. It was designed to develop and enhance student understanding of the health care system and the social forces affecting health care, and to provide skills needed to function effectively in a management or supervisory role. Topics covered in this course include United States policies and legislation affecting healthcare management; the roles of a manager; conducting a market analysis; operating, cash and capital budgeting; process analysis; and risk management. Students will develop, design and execute a formal presentation.
• SAR HP 662: Evidence Based Practice II
  Excellence in physical therapy practice necessitates the incorporation of scientific evidence, clinical expertise, and patient values and expectations into decision-making. This course will focus on the appraisal of scientific evidence related to the synthesis of examination data (i.e., diagnosis) and the determination of the plan of care (i.e., prognosis). You will walk away from this course knowing how to ask focused questions related to these elements of clinical practice, appraise the associated literature, and use this evidence to enhance the care you provide patients and clients. We will also explore how qualitative research informs clinical practice differently from quantitative methods.
• SAR HP 720: Educational Theory and Practice
  This on-line graduate course focuses on developing effective teaching techniques and strategies that are needed in a variety of clinical and academic contexts. Topics covered in this course include; identifying instructional settings in one's own practice, the impact of ethical, legal, and economic factors on the educational process, principles of major learning and instruction theories, effective teaching strategies for learners at different developmental stages, strategies that facilitate motivation and improve compliance, and writing behavioral objectives for instruction. Students design and deliver a formal presentation and create a client-education brochure.
• SAR HP 722: Developing an Interdisciplinary Approach to the Health Management of Older Adults
  Health management for older adults is a major issue in contemporary society. Policy, economics, organizational structure, and clinical care are intermingled in responding on societal, institutional, and clinical levels. This course will challenge the inquisitive and creative student to approach the health of the older adult by addressing these complex issues. It will focus on effective outcomes and understanding the range of roles professionals may adopt. It will provide the knowledge base and skill set necessary for interdisciplinary professional practice. Students and faculty from various disciplines and universities will utilize a case study approach as the primary teaching model.
• SAR HP 725: Foundations of Education and Health Promotion
  Diagnostic imaging, manual therapy, therapeutic exercise, and cardiovascular and neuromuscular assessment are critical "tools" for successful physical therapy practice. What's missing? Adherence!! How do we guide people to optimally manage complex chronic conditions, engage in healthy lifestyle behaviors, minimize movement disorders and integrate our evidence-based PT treatments into their lifestyle? Can you as a practitioner foster optimal adherence to your health and medical recommendations? What aspects of rehabilitation and health should you as a physical therapist be addressing with your patients? Effective teaching, learning, and behavior change approaches can promote good health outcomes for your patients through education, health education, and health promotion programs. This course applies the foundations of patient education, health education, and health promotion fields to the field of physical therapy.
• SAR HP 737: Instrumentation for Analysis of Motion
  This course will explore the different equipment commonly used for human movement analysis. The course can be taken as a seminar (2 credits, 1 class meeting per week) or with the lab (4 credits). Students will gain an understanding of how the equipment works, the steps to using it, and what research questions can be answered with the different technology. Equipment covered in this course will include 3 dimensional motion capture systems, force plates, gait carpet, electromyography (EMG), musculoskeletal modeling and well as others. Students taking the lab portion will also complete a project using the equipment covered in the course.
• SAR HP 770: Health Care Management - PT
  This course will instruct and reinforce students in the fundamental theories and skills of health care management for the physical therapist. The course is designed for the student who intends to be a full-time clinician, with acknowledgement that leaders in the health care environment rarely are able to ignore sound management principles for long. Many health and rehabilitation professionals will assume the role of a manager or have supervisory responsibilities during the course of their career, often sooner than expected. This course develops and enhances the students' understanding of the health care system, the social and economic forces affecting the health care system, and its ability to function effectively. Additionally, the course will prepare students to enter the workforce by introducing them to a variety of tools and experiences that will enable them to manage organizations, programs, resources, and people more effectively. Emphasis in this course is on US and Massachusetts' policies and legislation, managing human resources, marketing, technology and information, accounting and finance, quality, and measuring performance. Current professional and APTA issues will be discussed as they relate to our course objectives. The course is largely based on a discussion/lecture format, with significant content being taught by guests who are experts in their fields. Students will learn and experience management skills first hand through class experiences and projects.
• SAR HP 771: Foundations of Motor Control
  The course includes discussion and synthesis of current theories of human action (performance, learning/plasticity, and development) with an emphasis on systems/constraints, dynamical systems and ecological psychology approaches to human action, perception, and action-perception coupling. It serves as an introduction to these theories. Emphasis is placed on understanding how to conceptualize and evaluate functional movement based on these theories. Student participation in class is essential and required reading should be completed prior to class so that each student can fully participate in discussion.
• SAR HP 791: Clinical Experience I
  This is the first of three full-time clinical experiences in the DPT curriculum combined with the final athletic training experience. It is designed to focus on the synthesis of knowledge, skills and behaviors learned in the classroom, laboratory and addressed during the integrated clinical experiences. Students are expected to demonstrate the ability to make sound clinical decisions in the management of non-complex patient problems in a moderately paced environment. Students are supervised in clinical and community settings by qualified physical therapists/athletic trainers.
• SAR HP 804: Practicum: Teaching in the Health Professions
  Supervised academic teaching in the health professions. Development and implementation of a teaching unit. Critique of teaching styles. Development of a teaching portfolio.
• SAR HP 905: Directed Research: MS
  Professionally significant research study, resulting in thesis presented in full length or journal article format. Thesis should be independent project incorporating rigorous application of scientific inquiry and writing skills. See degree requirements for specific programs.
• SAR HS 201: Introduction to Nutrition
  Reviews basic concepts in nutrition including the function of nutrients and the effects of deficiencies and excesses. These basic concepts are then applied to current issues throughout the lifecycle including the role of diet in malnutrition, heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and weight management. Dietary guidelines for prevention of chronic disease are stressed.

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