Partnerships to Advance Excellence in Physical Therapy Education and Practice: The Time Is Now.

Abstract

A practice owner is on a morning run. He counts 20 emails from academic programs by the end of his run. He’s confused, then realizes, “It’s March 1st, the annual clinical education request date. I have significant relationships with only 3 of these people.” His thoughts turn to how he will make decisions about clinical education this year. “The staff is busy…what will I say to them to advocate? I need to hire 2–4 more clinicians…who will advocate on the clinic’s behalf?” There has been recent attention on physical therapist education in the United States arising from factors including the evolving health care and higher education climates and student debt.1–3 These factors have placed quality and sustainability of our profession in jeopardy because of the impact on training of physical therapists and the pipeline for workforce development across all sectors. The term “partnership” has emerged to describe relationships between academic and clinical stakeholders4 and has been strongly associated with excellence in physical therapist education and practice.2,5 We challenge the general assumption that these are true partnerships because of perceptions that these relationships are unbalanced.5 Given the financial realities under which both health care and education must operate, it is imperative that we advance these relationships to adapt to current and future conditions and collectively strategize educational and workforce solutions. The purpose of this Point of View is to call for action in evolving academic-clinical partnerships to prepare and sustain our workforce and meet our social contract.