Physical Therapy Students\u27 Perceptions of the Value of the Pre-Admission Physical Therapy Experience

Purpose: To look at how the social contact theory can be applied to pre-admission experience in determining how the quality of the students\u27 experiences have an affect on their PT education. Subjects: Graduating students from two physical therapy programs in Florida. Method: A self-generated questionnaire designed to measure the quality and quantity of physical therapy students\u27 pre-admission experience and the benefits of the experiences. Results: The results of frequency distributions showed that on average 49% of the subjects refer to their pre-admission experience all the time or often in order to: understand a concept, visualize a patient\u27s injuries, visualize a patient\u27s presentation of an illness, understand insurance and billing, and learn a skill. Chi Square analysis resulted in significant relationships between the amount of time spent performing or assisting patient treatment and four out of five level of agreement statements on overall view of the profession and all statements on frequency of referring to pre-admission experience. Significant relationships were also found between amount of time spent interacting with patients and one level of agreement statement and two statements on frequency of referring to pre-admission experience. Significant relationships were also found between amount of time spent interacting with patients and one level of agreement statement and two statements on frequency of referring to pre-admission experience. Conclusions: If more time is spent treating or assisting patient treatment during pre-admission experience then, the experience will have more influence on the student\u27s views of the profession and their learning experience during their PT education