A Pediatric Service-Learning Program in Physical Therapy Education.

Abstract

The purpose of this report was to describe a pediatric service-learning program in entry-level physical therapy (PT) education in Taiwan. To meet the needs of the local community and provide preclinical service-learning experience to PT students with people with physical disability, a service-learning program of a 2-day camp for children with cerebral palsy (CP) was developed in 2012. To date, 356 entry-level PT students have participated in this program, serving 286 children and their families. Important professional attributes, identified by the World Confederation for Physical Therapy guideline, such as altruism, compassion and caring, cultural competence, personal and professional development, professional duty, social responsibility and advocacy, and teamwork, were in the reflective reports of some of the PT students. The experiences provided by this pediatric PT service-learning program appear to have the potential to foster the development of professional attributes in entry-level PT students.