Objective: In 2016, the Parkinson’s Foundation partnered with clinical and research experts to implement a training program for physical therapy (PT) faculty who want to develop skills in teaching entry-level PT students about Parkinson’s disease (PD). This poster highlights the benefits and outcome measures of training PT Faculty in the teaching and clinical domains. PT faculty trainees teach an average of 60 new PT students each year. As of March 2020, 44 new faculty members completed the program and went onto to teach approximately 5580 PT students.

Background: Despite the clear benefits for people living with Parkinson’s, physical therapists (PTs) have reported to the Parkinson’s Foundation the need for better training in the disease.
This poster is an update from original data from 2016-2018 presented at WPC 2019.

Method: The PT Faculty Program provides faculty with PD-specific didactic and observational training at expert clinical and research centers.
Program evaluation surveys include knowledge and confidence domains.

Results: We found that the Parkinson’s Foundation PT Faculty Program improves curriculum content, teaching confidence, treatment confidence, increased time in both lecture and lab hours devoted to PD education and specialized knowledge related to PD for the PT Faculty who attended our 4-day program.
Updated for 2019 evaluation results summary:
Participants significantly increased their knowledge from before to after the training on a five question test (pre: 3.25 +/- 1.13; post: 4.19 +/- 0.75; p=0.009).
Post Teaching confidence rating 8.8 +/- 0.7  (out of 10)
Post Treating confidence rating 9.1 +/- 0.8  (out of 10)
Post “to what extent did this course benefit your students” 3.8 +/- 3.6 (out of 10

Conclusion: The Parkinson’s Foundation PT Faculty Program improves curriculum content, teaching confidence, treatment confidence, and specialized knowledge related to PD.

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