Physical Therapy (DPT)

Through extensive clinical placements, students gain hands-on experiences in well-renowned medical and rehabilitation centers.

What DPT Students Can Expect

• Extensive clinical placements and hands-on experiences with Pitt’s wide network of clinical partnerships, traveling within a 60-mile radius of housing location. This provides students with opportunities to learn in a variety of clinical settings during the 42 weeks of full-time clinical experience.
• Clinical experiences include:
  • 6-week full-time integrated clinical (Term 2)
  • 6-week full-time integrated clinical (Term 3-4)
  • 15-week full-time terminal clinical (Term 6)
  • 15-week full-time terminal clinical (Term 7)
• Clinical education placements are determined through a collaborative effort between the clinical education team, student and clinical site coordinator. Every effort is made to place the student at a site within the community in which they live.
• Interactions with a variety of working professionals, patients/clients and clinical settings. Terminal clinical placements may allow students to experience specialty clinical settings, such placements are dependent on student preferences (experience versus financial) and performance during prior foundational clinical experiences.

Opportunities to collaborate with experts in the following areas:

• Women’s Heath
• Neurologic Rehabilitation
• Spine Care
• Balance and Vestibular Disorders
• Concussion Management
• Musculoskeletal Injury
• Movement Dysfunction

Student Responsibilities

• Students in both options are responsible for their own transportation to and from their clinical sites and costs associated with this transportation.
• Students are responsible for the cost of site-specific attire, if required.

Clinical Partners

Our clinical partners provide over 1250 clinical sites across the country, including a longstanding partnership with the Pittsburgh-based UPMC integrated health care delivery system and UPMC rehabilitation Institute. The University of Pittsburgh DPT Clinical Education team continues to seek new and innovative clinical partnerships that enrich the clinical education opportunities for DPT students.

Have a question about our clinical education program? Reach out to our clinical education team today!

Research

Our clinical partners are also an integral part of research at the university. Research is conducted in therapy clinics across the health care spectrum and several of the therapists are involved as co-investigators. Additionally, several quality/outcomes studies are conducted throughout our clinical network.

Learn more