Characteristics of hospital provisions for continuing education for physical therapists in California

The authors surveyed 197 acute general hospitals in California to determine characteristics of hospital provisions for continuing education for physical therapists. Most hospitals in California were found to provide continuing education opportunities for physical therapists, but physical therapists in small hospitals and in private-profit hospitals could be at a disadvantage financially if continuing education becomes compulsory for relicensure. A relatively low proportion of physical therapy departments in hospitals with less than one hundred beds budgeted continuing education, but a relatively high proportion of the same facilities required that therapists take time off without pay or use vacation time and pay their own expenses for continuing education. Similar circumstances characterized private-profit hospitals.