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Andrew M. Ball PT PhD -> Re: DOCTORATE IN PHYSICAL THERAPY (May 22, 2004 6:19:00 PM)
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Doug's advice is good. Figure out what you want to be, what you want to research, what kind of research you want to do, and then find out where the best in the world happens to be --- work with them.
For me, disabilities research from a social science, qualitative perspective --- there is no one better than Mary Keener Beresford, PhD. Formerly of Century University and University of New Mexico and now of University of New Mexico only. After much soul searching about application to work with other leaders in the fields of neurodevelopment and economics --- I decided on qualitative research with Dr. Beresford because of her presentation style, publication record, and quite frankly, the fact that she herself is disabled. We tailored my research questions to my interests --- namely joining behaviors of health professionals working with the disabled (e.g. What reasons do non APTA members give for not belonging to the APTA? --- surprisingly, although usually the initial answer, it WASN'T the "high cost of dues"), and what impact those issues had upon the quality of care received by individuals with disablilities, and I ended up with a PhD in Healthcare Management.
All PhD's, by the way, are first and foremost, research doctorates. They ALL focus upon how to conduct research, the varience is in the focus of that research and the modes of collecting, processing, analyzing and interpeting the data. Strictly speaking, other than the Drexel program, there are no PhD's in "physical therapy" per se. Unless something's changed since last I looked, most PT professors have PhD's in things like anatomy, neuroanatomy, biomechanics, exercise phys, and (more often than not) education.
The experience was invaluable and rewarding, but I'd honestly never do it again. I think that many PhD's would say the same, which may be why only about 30% of people who start their doctorate actually finish.
Be sure it's what you want to do, and FULLY research the program and your potential advisor before doing one.
Drew
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