New hybrid physical therapy degree enables KU to meet students where they are

On a recent afternoon at the University of Kansas Medical Center, Alex Koszalinski’s class was all hands-on.

Amid model skeletons, exercise balls and colorful tape laid down in geometric patterns, half the students lay supine on treatment tables while the others scrutinized the joints of their arms. Fingers gently encircling wrists, rotating them inward, then outward. Hands feeling the nuances of hard bone versus soft tissue. Plastic folding goniometers measuring the degree of, or lack of, elbow hyperextension.

How was this different from any other typical physical therapy lab?

It wasn’t — except these classmates had just met each other and their professor face-to-face a couple days earlier. With their homes across Kansas and neighboring states, they are the first cohort of KU’s new hybrid Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) program.

“Having a very dynamic and engaging lab experience, that’s the sweet spot — or what we’ve referred to as the ‘secret sauce’ — in the hybrid program,” said Koszalinski, Ph.D., DPT, clinical associate professor in the Department of Physical Therapy, Rehabilitation Science and Athletic Training at KU School of Health Professions. “Students have the opportunity to really dive in and get simulated experiences that help them fully entrench themselves in the content and fully develop their skills.”

Launched this summer, the new hybrid program enables enrollees to achieve their degrees while living wherever they are currently rooted, traveling to Kansas City for multi-day, intensive “lab immersions” just once or twice per semester.

Adding the hybrid option enables KU to double the number of students admitted annually to its elite physical therapy program, from 60 to 120. It also endeavors to plant more physical therapists in rural Kansas by recruiting students who already live there.

Alex Koszalinski, Ph.D., DPT, clinical associate professor in the Department of Physical Therapy, Rehabilitation Science and Athletic Training at KU School of Health Professions.

“We’ve consistently seen an unmet need for physical therapists in rural Kansas,” said Patricia Kluding, Ph.D., PT, professor and chair of the Department of Physical Therapy, Rehabilitation Science and Athletic Training. “There are communities out there that cannot hire physical therapists to come. There are people who should be seen two or three times a week that are being seen once every two or three weeks.”

While roughly a third of KU’s physical therapy enrollees traditionally come from rural Kansas, only around 10% seem to return to rural areas to practice, Kluding said. In three years at KU Medical Center, students often fall in love or get attached to urban life and stay in the city instead. Other students have had to uproot their lives to achieve their degree. Kluding recalled one student who was married to a firefighter in a small Kansas town. For three years, they endured a long-distance marriage and put off having kids so she could pursue her physical therapy degree in Kansas City.

“I think there’s a lot of people who would love to become physical therapists but never thought it was within reach because they assumed they would have to move,” Kluding said. “Those are the people we’re trying to reach, with these stories, and let them know this is an option.”

KU’s physical therapy program is currently ranked No. 10 in the country of all physical therapy programs and No. 6 among public institutions. However, Kluding said only a handful of other well-established physical therapy programs at public institutions also have a hybrid program.

Students in the new program say they love being able to pursue their degree from wherever they are and have been surprised at how connected they feel.

Austin Smith has dreamed of earning a physical therapy degree from KU since high school. He was nervous about hybrid school at first but quickly felt like part of a close-knit group.

“The designated professors that we have are different from (those for) the on-campus students — knowing that we are their priorities and that the professors aren’t attempting to divide time between hybrid and on-campus students is nice,” Smith said. “The lectures are extremely interactive, and I felt that I already knew my classmates well before we had our in-person lab.”

Allyson Cohen said the hybrid program gives her the flexibility she needs to balance school with her part-time job at a physical therapy practice. She, too, was happy about how quickly she was able to bond with her classmates.

“My biggest surprise is the people, and how supportive my peers and my professors are,” Cohen said. “We became really close like day one. Once we got on campus the biggest surprise was how comfortable we were. It’s the same people I talk to every day, but it was so fun.”

Koszalinski is one of two new faculty members with expansive experience in hybrid physical therapy education brought in to help launch KU’s new program.

“Prior to the pandemic, it was very difficult for educators and clinicians to wrap their minds around the concept that students could be effectively taught the physical therapy profession in the distance hybrid model,” Koszalinski said. “Once the pandemic hit, the reluctance and resistance about the model became attraction… Then they could understand that we’re not substituting or replacing the hands-on experience of a traditional on-campus program, we’re simply reorganizing how that is delivered.”