Becoming an Assistant Professor/Professor with the DPT

[TheOx777]

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Has anyone given this some thought? I know that there are a few DPT/PhD programs out there, but not a slew of them. I just wanted to get a sense from current DPT students and current professionals about how one might one day foray into a teaching position at a university specifically focusing on areas related to human movement? I imagine that one may be limited by only having the clinical doctorate and not the Doctorate of Philosophy(due to the extensive research component).

I really enjoy concepts like human physiology/pathophysiology, neuroscience, and movement biochemical concepts. I have given thought to possibly foraying into teaching at some point in time along side my clinical practice. Anyone have any feedback or input? Honestly, just kicking around some ideas.

 

[DancerFutureDPT]

I have every intention of teaching with the DPT.

At my program, ALL of our faculty, with 2 exceptions, are PTs...very few (I believe) have PhDs. Our anatomy prof is a PT/PhD, and a few of our profs have doctorates in Education or in public health, but most just have the PT degree (and many other certifications/initials after their name haha).

I think if you want to teach in a PT program, you can do so with a DPT. Additionally, we have a lot of TAs who are PTs (these folks are much younger, and mostly are grads from our program within the past 5 years). Some help out in anatomy, but a lot of them are in our foundations courses, helping with supervising labs on mobility, helping with goniometry, etc. However, all our main faculty do research, regardless of if they have a PhD or not, and all the students complete an intense research project over the 2 years of didactic education.

With the DPT you can also teach at community college, which is what I intend to do. I'd love to teach A&P, or even at a PTA program. At the schools around where I live, the requirement for teaching at a CC is a Master's Degree in the topic area (i.e. biology) with at least 15 hours in A&P, or a clinical degree (MD, DDS, DPT) with 15 hours, which I already have as of completing our second term of PT school. For teaching in a PTA program, the only requirement is being a licensed PT or PTA.

If you want to teach at a university undergraduate program, then you probably will need a PhD. But a lot will have to do with the school. I may be biased, but I think if you want to teach kinesiology/mov't science, or anatomy, for a bunch of pre-PT students, you should be just as qualified as someone with a PhD. You might be lacking the research component, but you make up for it in real world experience and knowing what the students will really need to know in PT school.

Long story short, I looked into the PhD, but my program's combined program is of no interest to me (only PhD option = neuroscience. No thanks), and you're right - there are very few programs out there, and they're usually limited in what the PhD would be studying. If you want to get a PhD, there's nothing stopping you from getting one in the area of your choosing afterward. But for me, I decided a PhD is probably not going to be necessary, at least not initially.

 

[TheOx777]

Dancer,

Thanks for the detailed reply. Correct me if I am wrong, but you are at Northwestern University in Chicago right? No stalker. Lol! I currently live in Chicago and I was shadowing at a hospital with a student at NU who was doing their DPT w/PhD in Biomedical Engineering from. Seemed like an interesting combo although I am not interested in a career in BME. I know at the program I will be attending that I will be required to do 2 intensive research projects and an option to do switch out one of our final clinical rotations with a research track. This seems enticing to me at this point, but I am going to take a wait and see approach.

Since we are required to do 53 weeks of full time clinical rotations, I thought it may not hurt to substitute a rotation with a research track. Either way, I really get the sense that I want to continue to be connected with higher education!

 

[jesspt]

You can find a job teaching with a DPT, or an MSPT for that matter, but it's quite a bit harder to do than if you had your PhD. Especially if you want to become a faculty member. If you just want to be adjunct faculty or teach one course, that is an easier proposition.

NU has very few PhD level faculty, and I think that it is in the minority. Here is a link to their faculty:
http://www.feinberg.northwestern.edu/nupthms/faculty/

Here is a link to my alma mater, Arcadia:
http://www.arcadia.edu/academic/default.aspx?id=3421

So, you can see, both programs have faculty that only have their clinical doctorate, but Arcadia's percentage seems to be more typical in my opinion.

 

[TheOx777]

You can find a job teaching with a DPT, or an MSPT for that matter, but it's quite a bit harder to do than if you had your PhD. Especially if you want to become a faculty member. If you just want to be adjunct faculty or teach one course, that is an easier proposition.

NU has very few PhD level faculty, and I think that it is in the minority. Here is a link to their faculty:
http://www.feinberg.northwestern.edu/nupthms/faculty/

Here is a link to my alma mater, Arcadia:
http://www.arcadia.edu/academic/default.aspx?id=3421

So, you can see, both programs have faculty that only have their clinical doctorate, but Arcadia's percentage seems to be more typical in my opinion.

Thanks for the info Jess! It would be an amazing 😱 opportunity to get a faculty position at either one of these programs. I am from Philly, so I am quite aware of the prowess of Arcadia's program. Living out here in Chicago, all you hear about is either NU or UIC being the top programs(very argumentative) because of their strong faculty. I certainly want to take time to become a master clinician, but I do foresee a time where I would want to dip my toes in the academic and clinical arena. Do you have any ties to the faculty at these programs?

 

[jesspt]

Thanks for the info Jess! It would be an amazing 😱 opportunity to get a faculty position at either one of these programs. I am from Philly, so I am quite aware of the prowess of Arcadia's program. Living out here in Chicago, all you hear about is either NU or UIC being the top programs(very argumentative) because of their strong faculty. I certainly want to take time to become a master clinician, but I do foresee a time where I would want to dip my toes in the academic and clinical arena. Do you have any ties to the faculty at these programs?

No ties to either of those programs, but I am in the early stages of a study with a couple of faculty members from Rosalind Franklin University.

 

[TheOx777]

No ties to either of those programs, but I am in the early stages of a study with a couple of faculty members from Rosalind Franklin University.

NICE!!! Best wishes with the entire process, which I understand can be daunting.

 

[DancerFutureDPT]

I am indeed at NU. And even though we are definitely a research heavy program, since we do have that component to our curriculum, I like that almost all our classes are team taught to some extent, and that we have clinicians teaching instead of researchers...i.e. for physiology, instead of having one PhD teach everything, we have a certified cardiac specialist PT teach the cardio pulm section, and a lymphedema specialist teaching the oncology unit...it just makes all the "boring" hard sciences seem more relevant. But I agree...a PhD would make finding a teaching job easier than just having the DPT.

And yeah our dual degree is in BME...not many people do it though. We have one girl in our class, one who is a second year, and three incoming (Class of 2014 for the DPT portion) next year. It's a great program, it's just not my thing.

Ox, where are you going to school?

 

[Akiramay]

I would love to be an adjunct faculty member helping out with labs or being a guest speaker or something. I like teaching, and so it would be a nice way to switch up my normal routine. That's why I'd like to be a Clinical Instructor for students someday. My CI for my upcoming clinical graduated in 2010! I might not want to start that early though, ha ha.

 

[TheOx777]

I am indeed at NU. And even though we are definitely a research heavy program, since we do have that component to our curriculum, I like that almost all our classes are team taught to some extent, and that we have clinicians teaching instead of researchers...i.e. for physiology, instead of having one PhD teach everything, we have a certified cardiac specialist PT teach the cardio pulm section, and a lymphedema specialist teaching the oncology unit...it just makes all the "boring" hard sciences seem more relevant. But I agree...a PhD would make finding a teaching job easier than just having the DPT.

And yeah our dual degree is in BME...not many people do it though. We have one girl in our class, one who is a second year, and three incoming (Class of 2014 for the DPT portion) next year. It's a great program, it's just not my thing.

Ox, where are you going to school?

I really like the idea of how you have described your class set up. I am attending to the Mayo Clinic's DPT program this fall! It is creeping up ever so quickly. Excited, Anxious, all of that!

 

[goyo1010]

I really like the idea of how you have described your class set up. I am attending to the Mayo Clinic's DPT program this fall! It is creeping up ever so quickly. Excited, Anxious, all of that!

I'm actually planning on teaching after practicing for a few years and getting some certifications. =]

Texas Woman's University is actually one of the VERY few that offer the PhD in physical therapy. And they have just recently launched a new program that after you graduate from you DPT degree, you automatically enter the PhD program, while as a practicing clinician. One would take the PhD program on a part-time basis, doing all your research and dissertation, etc. The good thing about this though, is that the "Fast-track" PhD program cuts out those "refresher" courses one would have to take after being away from school for years. They open the application to TWU DPT students in their second semester.

This sounds awesome, so I may do it. It's still a while off, so I'll have to see... and I can't wait to start in the Fall... It's going so slowly. I've never been so excited to attend school... =D

We're also fortunate to have 11/13 faculty members hold PhD degrees here in the Houston site, the other two currently in the process of earning their PhD.

 

[markelmarcel]

I'm also interested in dipping my toes in higher education at some point, especially since my first degree is in education. It's nice to know that as an adjunct/part-time faculty I could teach with just the DPT.

Time will tell if I have enough money/time to go back do a PhD, although I'd really love to.

 

[Shelby029]

My A&P 1 and 2 teachers were a chiropractor for the first semester and a physical therapist for the second. It was at a community college. That particular PT worked with the PTA department as well.

I really don't see why you wouldn't be able to teach kinesiology classes at a University. It was probably vary between universities.

 

[goyo1010]

Mhmm. We have a PT here at UH working in the Health and Human Performance department doing research and teaching some Kinesiology and science courses. Many universities require you to also do some type of research conjuct to teaching. This is for the big research universities though. Not sure about the smallerones though. Shouldn't be a big problem though, esp with comm college