Primary Care.
It is a phrase often heard within the medical field, but is now getting more buzz within physical therapy.With the trending shortage in physician primary care, is this the time to develop a specialty practice within physical therapy?
Over the past year or so, I have had the privilege to work with an outstanding group of individuals within the PT profession along with APTA staff to determine the feasibility of developing a primary care speciality within PT.The process has been painstaking and has allowed for much debate, discussion and future thinking.
We are at the point now where the APTA is currently developing a Description of Specialty Practice (DSP) in Primary Care moving toward an ABPTS recognized specialty. In order to do this, APTA needs input!A survey has been created that lays out components of the DSP in Primary Care and will help validate (or not) the DSP.
The survey will be released in the next few weeks.
If you have experience or strong feelings about primary care within PT, this survey is for you.
Are you involved with health promotion and wellness initiatives? We need your input!
Do you practice in a rural setting and see many different kinds of conditions and patients? Fill out the survey.
If you have thoughts on the name of this specialty (i.e. Is ‘Advanced General Practitioner’ a better name for the specialty?) – fill out the survey.
Do you work in the emergency department as a PT?Fill out the survey.
You get my point here.Now is the time to make your voice heard.
The data from this survey will be extremely valuable in the development of the DSP for this potential specialty going forward!
If you are willing to participate, you can email Hadiya Guerrero at hadiyaguerrero@apta.org or Jeannie Bryan Coe at jbryancoe@mindspring.com.If you have questions regarding the developing specialty, please contact Jeannie.
@ShepDPT
