The Orthopaedic Residency Program began in January 2007 and the inaugural class completed their training in December 2007. The Neurologic Residency Program began in November 2007.
The Brooks Clinical Residency Program is one year in length and all participants must be Brooks staff physical therapists. The primary training will consist of three components that include didactic/psychomotor classes, clinical mentoring and supervision, and directed learning activities. Success in the program will be measured by both written and practical exams as well as grading of other activities that will be requirements within the program.
Summary of training
The didactic/psychomotor classes will be performed in three different manners. The first will be four hour classes held in the evenings, the second will be weekend classes, and then there will be classes that will be home study courses. The mix of the above formats will vary between programs as well as between years for each of the programs.
The clinical component will consist of three forms of clinical practice experiences. The first will be 150 hours of 1:1 clinical mentoring with an experienced clinician from that particular specialty area of practice. The second level will be 850 hours of supervised clinical practice where the resident will be able to communicate with their mentor immediately regarding clinical questions.
The resident will also participate in over 300 hours of "directed learning activities" that will consist of scholarly activities, clinical rotations through other specialty areas and/or with healthcare practitioners besides physical therapists, professional activities and activities related to practice management.
All of the Brooks Residency/Fellowship programs will be based on five foundational pillars that will be present within all of the training programs. The common thread for our training will be the mentoring that will be embedded within each of the foundational areas. The five foundational pillars with some examples of activities related to each of the pillars are listed below:
Advanced Clinical Competence
Residents will attain advanced skills including improved problem solving, improved efficiency/effectiveness with establishing and implementing a successful plan of care, and improved psychomotor skills. Each resident will receive approximately three hours of one-on-one mentoring per week as well as 17 hours of clinical supervision per week.
Scholarship
The goal of the program is to develop advanced clinical practitioners, however, we recognize the importance of our clinicians to be more scholarly. Therefore, the program will emphasize training to develop the ability of our clinicians to contribute to the body of knowledge of the healthcare profession as well as develop the mechanism to include current literature into their daily patient interactions (i.e. follow the principles of evidence based practice). Each resident will develop four (4) case studies, several of which will be presented orally during a presentation open to the local/regional healthcare community. At least one will be submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal and/or presentation at a Professional Conference (such as the APTA Annual Conference, APTA CSM, FPTA Conference, etc).
Each resident will also participate in one clinical outcome research project in conjunction with the staff of Brooks Rehabilitation Hospital and/or the University of North Florida (UNF), The University of Florida (UF), the University of St. Augustine (USA), the University of South Florida (USF) or the University of Central Florida (UCF). Additionally, each resident will participate in a Journal Club and be responsible for identifying the article that will be discussed.
Education
The Brooks training will create the opportunity for change in two different ways from an educational point of view. The first is that the residents will be trained to embrace the idea of being life long learners. The second component is that we want the residents to become our next generation of mentors within the classroom and in the clinic. The program will train the residents to be our next generation of mentors within the professional classroom and in the clinic. To gain this ability each resident will teach a "block" of a course in a Physical Therapy First Professional Program. The residents will perform inservices to the Brooks staff using the material they learned during the training. Lastly, each resident will be a clinical instructor for a physical therapy student.
Professionalism
Brooks supports the APTA's Vision 2020 and recognizes that physical therapists would benefit from mentoring to develop their knowledge and ability to include the concepts of Vision 2020 into their clinical practice.
Each resident will serve on a committee, board or something similar for a physical therapy related group while in the residency program. Each resident will also participate in a community outreach activity and/or perform pro bono physical therapy consulting for an underinsured population. The residents will receive continuous mentoring while performing these activities.
Practice Management
The final component of the five pillars is practice management. The residents will receive training to insure that they are complying with ethical, legal, and regulatory standards/guidelines in all areas of their clinical practice. Residents will perform marketing/PR visits and perform communications with payers regarding denials for services.
Testing methods
It will be an integral component of the training for residents to demonstrate accountability for the requirements of the program. Therefore there will be continuous assessment of the residents abilities throughout the course of the 1 year training. The Grading of the program will be composed of the following elements:
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One comprehensive written exam at the end of the program worth 30% of total grade.
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Two patient practical exams (one spine and one extremity) worth 30% of total grade (15% each).
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Three non-patient practical exams to be performed on models or classmates worth 15% of total grade (5% each).
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Monthly quizzes. An average grade for all quizzes combined will be worth 15% of total grade.
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Case studies will be worth 10% of total grade (2.5% each).
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The following activities will be graded on a Pass/Fail basis, but they must be passed to complete the program:
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Journal club
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Research project
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Education activities
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Professionalism activities
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Practice management activities
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You may download an outline of the Residency Program here.