Physical Therapy Fundamentals

This course is designed to prepare the student for patient care activities including patient-centered communication, assessing vital signs, body mechanics awareness, patient positioning and draping, transfers, assistive device training, and basic exercise. Learners will be introduced to fundamental physical therapy skills for various clinical settings and a patient management framework used throughout the curriculum. Psychomotor skills that are foundational to examination and evaluation are introduced, including vital signs, goniometry, range of motion, muscle testing, and anthropometric measures. Students will begin to develop patient interview and documentation skills, perform examination tests and measures, and use standardized patient outcome measures.