Clinical orthopedic medicine course for physical therapy students. Aligning content with current practice

The purpose of our study was to obtain information that would help align instruction in a clinical orthopedic medicine course for physical therapy students with the current practice of physical therapists. We sent a questionnaire concerning treatment of orthopedic conditions to 3,000 physical therapists. Of the 1,804 (60%) respondents, 58.8% were in general practice, and 35% combined specialty areas with general practice. The respondents indicated that they treated two distinct groups (four categories each) of musculoskeletal disorders. Of the respondents, 87.6% spent less than five hours a week treating bone infections, tumors, and developmental and congenital disorders, whereas 63.4% worked more than five hours a week with fractures and dislocations, low back and neck pain, ligament and soft tissue injuries, and arthritis. We provide a model that uses survey results and course content analysis for planning critical orthopedic medicine instruction for physical therapy students.