Faculty Advisor

Smith, Gerald

Publication Date

Spring 2018

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate the percentage of credit hours in Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT )program curriculum that are dedicated to each of the four practice domains of the National Physical Therapy Examination (NPTE) and compare it to the percentage of questions on the NTE in each domain. This can be used by program faculty to develop curricula that closely resembles NPTE content. Methods: Program curriculum from 106 DPT programs in southern regions of the United States were gathered and divided into the four domains of practice on the NPTE. A percentage of total credit hours in each domain was obtained and then compared to the percentage of questions on the NPTE in each domain. Results: Program curricula have the following credit hour percentages in Physical Therapy Examination (P); Foundations for Evaluation, Differential Diagnosis, and Prognosis (F); Interventions (I); and Non-Systems Domains (N) respectively: East South Central- 24.83, 21.44, 10.03, 19.59; Mountain- 21.02, 31.80, 5.63, 17.23; Pacific- 23.63, 29.42, 9.62, 17.10; South Atlantic- 24.57, 23.44, 11.99, 18.7; West South Central- 19.3, 28.43, 12.22, 21.53. NPTE content is broken down as follows: P: 26.5, F: 32.5, I, 28.5, N: 12.5. Conclusion: The results of this study show that credit hours in the F, P, and N domains are within 10% of respective domains on the NPTE whereas credit hours in the I domain vary > 10% from the NPTE. Deviations in credit hours dedicated to NPTE domains could contribute to variance in performance on the NPTE. Further research is recommended to investigate this theory.

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