Lane Community College - Health Professions

Health Professions - Physical Therapist Assistant

PTA Program Achieves Candidacy Status

Updated May 30, 2009

The Physical Therapist Assistant (PTA) is a skilled technical health care provider who, under the supervision of a licensed physical therapist, performs patient treatment interventions. PTAs work in a wide variety of settings across the health care continuum, including home health, outpatient centers, hospitals, schools, and rehabilitation facilities.

PTAs are trained in treatment interventions using specialty equipment, educate patients in therapeutic exercise, implement functional mobility retraining techniques, provide patient interventions using specialty equipment, and perform and assist with functional tests and measures.

Lane Community College has been granted Candidate for Accreditation status by the Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education (CAPTE, 1111 North Fairfax Street, Alexandria, VA 22314; phone: 703-706-3245; email accreditation@apta.org). Candidacy is not an accreditation status nor does it assure eventual accreditation. Candidate for Accreditation is a pre-accreditation status of affiliation with the Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education that indicates the program is progressing toward accreditation.

Initial accreditation status will be determined in October 2011. Up to 24 successful applicants are eligible for admission every fall term.

Successful graduates are awarded an Associate Degree in Applied Science (AAS) and are eligible to take the state licensing exam (pending accreditation).

Students who are interested in preparing for successful admission into the PTA program are strongly encouraged to enroll in the Academic Advising for PTA Moodle resource at http://classes.lanecc.edu and contact the Counseling Department ptaprogram@lanecc.edu.

Center Coordinators of Clinical Education and practicing physical therapy clinicians interested in hosting a PTA student for clinical education can contact Beth Ann Thorpe, Academic Coordinator of Clinical Education, at 541-463-3274 or thorpeb@lanecc.edu.

This information is available in alternate formats upon request by contacting Disability Services: (541) 463-5150 (voice), 463-3079 (TTY), or disabilityservices@lanecc.edu (e-mail).