Curriculum

The curriculum for the residency program includes training in the management of patients with a wide variety of neurologic conditions as guided by the APTA’s Description of Specialty Practice. However, the MUSC program also includes topics designed to improve all aspects of being a therapist, including neuroplasticity and motor learning, movement analysis, statistical interpretation, business management, professionalism, cultural competency, and teaching and learning theory. As educating peers is paramount to being a leader in the profession, all residents produce several written analysis projects and also teach at least one content module.

Focused weekends occur in Charleston four times per year to address the following topics:

  • Spinal Cord Injury
  • Stroke
  • Movement Disorders
  • Traumatic Brain Injury / Vestibular Disorders

The curriculum totals approximately 300 hours of didactic training including live classroom experiences in Charleston, virtual classroom experiences, and recorded lectures in addition to a minimum of 150 1:1 hours of mentoring.

Mentoring

Each resident is mentored by an employee of the clinical partner, and involves at least 150 hours of 1:1 time together, 100 of which must be in patient care. Mentoring a resident is different than mentoring an entry level student, as many residents will enter the program with some degree of clinical experience. The resident-mentor relationship:

  • Is a partnership in which the mentor actively supports the professional growth and development of a resident
  • Is a reciprocal and evolutionary process
  • Challenges AND supports
  • Promotes knowledge translation (how does that gained knowledge relate to this patient situation today)?
  • Helps the resident integrate the knowledge – not the mentor’s responsibility to provide the knowledge
  • Teaches the resident how to learn so they can approach any future situation
  • Opens discussions of intention versus impact
  • Guides clinician to finding their own professional identity
  • Strives to provide just the right amount of challenge, just the right amount of support at the right time to obtain learning and professional growth
  • Promotes rapid transformation of research into clinical practice