Characteristics of US-based physical therapist education programs cited for core faculty deficiencies in 2019-2020

Changes in the accreditation standards of physical therapist education have added new levels of rigor to core faculty qualifications. This study aims to determine if any program characteristics exist that are common to core faculty deficiency citations in the 2019-2020 review cycle. Recently, more than half of all accredited physical therapist education programs (51.5%) have earned citations in core faculty standards/elements.

A total of 266 Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education (CAPTE) accredited and developing physical therapist education programs were included.

A review and analysis of programs cited and programs without citation was completed in 2021, to investigate these characteristics in relation to citation status: Campus setting, Regional accreditor, Length of CAPTE accreditation, University control, Carnegie classification, Physical Therapist Centralized Application Service participant, and Program cohort size.

A regression model was found to correctly predict with 91.3% accuracy when including common characteristics of campus setting, years of accreditation, university control, and Carnegie class in programs cited for faculty deficiency.

Our results suggest that programs residing in a town or rural setting, accredited for ten years or less, housed in an institution with a Carnegie classification of Master's or Baccalaureate, within private institutions, and enroll cohorts less than 31 are more likely to receive citations related to the qualifications or adequacy of core faculty than their counterparts. The description of characteristics common to programs cited could provide guidance to other programs in factors that might predispose them to core faculty deficiencies in the future.