Course Description:

Clinical Presentations with high complexities are commonly encountered in outpatient physical therapy settings. Physical therapists are expected to be innovative, collaborative, patient-centered, practitioners. To engage in this high level of practice, therapists must possess the knowledge, skills, behaviors and values to address the naturally ambiguous nature of patient cases within complex and uncertain contexts. The purpose of this course is to advance understanding and application of clinical reasoning and decision-making process for the management of patients that present with medical complexities along with clinical presentations that are unstable/unpredictable. Practitioners should understand condition recognition, differential diagnosis, identify red flags, integration of exercise prescription principles into plan of care, application of behavioral change education strategies, referral to additional medical practitioners, and advance functional performance overall wellness. Didactic education will cover basic physiology and evidence-based practice guidelines for assessments and treatment interventions in various complex clinical presentations. Lab will be focused on exercise prescription, and clinical decision-making during the course of a plan of care.