Awareness, Application, and Advocacy-Teaching Safe Patient Handling and Mobility Content in Doctor of Physical Therapy Education

Physical therapists (PT) are called by the American Physical Therapy Association to be advocates, educators, and user of SPHM equipment and principles. Despite this, research shows the majority of Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) programs continue to teaching manual handling techniques as the standard of practice, with little to no emphasis on the use of SPHM equipment and principles. Educators find adding SPHM content challenging in already crowded curriculums, along with lack of faculty expertise in SPHM content, lack of access to equipment and perceived financial burdens as identified barriers. This poster will describe how Central Michigan University has successfully integrated SPHM content throughout curriculum. Details of lecture and lab information and student perceptions of their learning will be provided