Clinical Education

Clinical Education is the opportunity to apply classroom didactic knowledge and patient handling skills to direct patient care under the supervision of a clinical instructor. The philosophy of clinical education in our department is for graduates to be educated with a firm knowledge base and be capable of critical thought leading to effective analysis and interpretation of data on which to make treatment planning decisions and to predict outcomes based on sound research.

Clinical sites are located throughout California and some out of state. Students complete a total of 36 weeks of full-time clinical experiences throughout the 3-year program enrollment. The full-time off-campus clinical experiences are courses students must be enrolled in. The first and second 12-week full-time clinical experiences are scheduled during the summer semesters. The final 12-week full-time clinical experience is scheduled in the last spring semester of the program following completion of all coursework. Full-time experiences must include one inpatient and one outpatient setting in addition to a setting that exposes students to patients with medically complex conditions.  

Integrated Clinical Experiences introduce students to the clinical setting and provide an opportunity for the student to apply didactic knowledge, skills and attributes. It is an opportunity to further develop clinical reasoning and professional behaviors. The integrated experiences are embedded into courses taught in the second year of the program curriculum. Students will gain exposure to a variety of patient populations across the lifespan with varying complexity and system involvement.

Learn more about our on-campus clinics at the links below:

• Gait, Balance and Mobility Research and Education Center
• Musculoskeletal Care Clinic

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