An Examination of the Effectiveness of Novel Manual Therapies to Improve Patient Care: A Dissertation of Clinical Practice Improvement

The Doctor of Athletic Training degree combines elements of a professional-practice and academic doctorate, with an emphasis on improving clinical practice. The Dissertation of Clinical Practice Improvement (DoCPI) is the culminating project that provides evidence of my evolution and progression as a scholar and advanced practitioner. Included in this document is a case study, which highlights a patient who presented with scapular dyskinesis. In addition to demonstrations of advances in clinical practice, Chapter 3 is an example of scholarship via a study that was completed to establish reliability of a single rater (intra-rater) and multiple raters (inter-rater) when rating V-Sit-and-Reach. The reliability study, found in this chapter, was completed as an effort to expand the available knowledge on the V-SR and to disseminate new knowledge regarding the reliability of the test. Chapter 4 includes two Critically Appraised Topics (CATs), which are manuscripts that have been developed to establish clarity in the literature related to the treatment of patient-reported hamstring tightness. The publications are a part of my professional growth as a scholar who can evaluate our current body of knowledge and disseminate those findings to the athletic training profession. The final component details my primary multisite, a priori-designed research, which examined a Total Motion Release (TMR) treatment technique on patients with apparent hamstring tightness. This multi-site research study was designed to assess the effects of TMR (a novel paradigm) in treating hamstring extensibility without targeting the hamstring musculature directly. This fifth chapter serves as more evidence of my progression towards advanced practice and scholarship as an AT.doctoral, D.A.T., Movement & Leisure Sciences -- University of Idaho - College of Graduate Studies, 201