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Campus Buzz
A New Doctorate in the House
By Kathi Vieser (alumni@nyit.edu)
Got a body ache? Graduates who earn NYIT's Doctor of Physical Therapy (D.P.T.) degree can ease your pain.
NYIT's Class of 2003 included 27 D.P.T.s, marking the first time that the college has awarded doctorates in physical therapy. Dozens of additional students are currently working toward the degree.
The enhanced physical therapy program, which previously awarded a master's degree, reflects recent mandates within the profession.
In 2000, the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) announced an expectation that by the year 2020, all physical therapy would be delivered by D.P.T.s.
Key Issues
Several U.S. states, including New York, don't allow physical therapists to practice without a physician referral. Moreover, most health insurance plans do not cover costs without that referral, says Peter Douris, Ed.D., PT, chairperson of NYIT's physical therapy program.
The APTA has been lobbying legislators at both the federal and state levels to remove the need for physician referral, emphasizing that most PTs will possess doctoral degrees within the next decade.
NYIT's physical therapy program is fully accredited by the Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education (CAPTE), and the college is one of only a few in the New York metropolitan area that currently offers the D.P.T.
There are several ways to earn the D.P.T. Students can enter the combined bachelor's and doctoral degree program as freshmen or transfers, or they may enter NYIT as graduate students and work toward the doctorate.
"We were a 90-credit master's degree," says Douris. "We added 10 more credits for the doctorate, more medicine, pharmacology, more about diagnostic procedures like X-rays, MRIs, etc. We provide the education to make everyone a practitioner at the national level."
NYIT plans to expand the D.P.T. program to include a transitional doctorate for licensed professional PTs who want to bring their educational standards up to the doctoral level. "There's a big market for [the doctorate]," says Douris, "because it's what the public will be looking for.
Physical therapy is one of the nation's fastest-growing professions, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
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