Become a guide on the road to recovery.
Learn more about the Health Professions at Lane
Most of your courses will be located in Building 30, home of the Health Professions division.
Learn more about internships through our cooperative education department
Employers are interested in knowing you have real world experience. Throughout your studies, you'll receive practical instruction through lab courses. You'll also complete three clinical internships! During these internships, you'll put the skills you've learned into practice, earning the experience you need to stand out. Our program partners with physical therapy providers throughout Oregon and beyond, and many students even continue on to paid employment at their former internship site.
Get Program Updates!
Moving Forward, our program newsletter that provides updates and other programs and events hosted by the program that will keep you informed as you move forward in your education and planning.
Rogue Community College PTA Partnership
Whether you’re completing your degree at Lane’s main campus in Eugene or at our partner campus at Rogue Community College in White City, you’ll have access to well equipped, state of the art classrooms. Equipment and materials including a Shuttle Balance, standing frames, biophysical agents, and more allow for authentic practice and skill building that meets the needs of today’s physical therapy provider.
Support the PTA Program
Your contribution does double the work! Not only do you help students pursue a rewarding career, these students go on to help people in the community with injury recovery, pain reduction, and more. Donate today to make a difference.
What you’ll earn
At Lane, you’ll gain the knowledge and hands-on experience for a rewarding career as a Physical Therapist Assistant (PTA). You'll help people improve movement, manage pain, and return to the activities that matter most.
Our program prepares you to work under the direction of a licensed physical therapist in a variety of healthcare settings, like outpatient clinics, hospitals, and rehabilitation centers.
Associate Degree
Do you find the human body fascinating? Do you like helping people live full, active lives? Do you enjoy working in a team that helps others improve their health and recover from injury or surgery? Physical Therapist Assistants (PTAs) are licensed healthcare providers who help prevent, restore, and optimize movement. Whether you’re interested in working with athletes, amputees, injured workers, the elderly, or in general practice, Lane’s PTA program can help you achieve your dreams.
Through online lectures, lab practice, and realistic simulations with faculty and peers, you’ll learn the skills you need to thrive as a PTA. During the first year of the program, you’ll need to be on campus at least one full day per week. In the second year, you’ll continue with online lectures and in-person lab classes and complete three full-time six-week supervised internships in an assigned physical therapy setting.
WHAT YOU'LL LEARN
- Physical therapist assistant training in therapeutic exercise, mobility, balance, gait, transfers, functional activities, and patient-centered rehabilitation.
- Rehabilitation technology and modality training using assistive devices, adaptive equipment, ultrasound, electrical stimulation, and heat therapy to improve mobility and manage pain.
- Patient assessment and clinical documentation skills focused on monitoring progress, collecting functional data, and communicating with supervising physical therapists.
- Interprofessional healthcare collaboration and communication with patients, caregivers, nurses, physicians, and rehabilitation specialists.
- Professional physical therapy education emphasizing ethical practice, cultural responsiveness, and standards from the American Physical Therapy Association and the Oregon Board of Physical Therapy.
- Community outreach, service learning, patient education, and healthcare advocacy that support leadership and public health promotion.
AFTER LANE
When you graduate Lane’s PTA program, you'l be eligible for the National Physical Therapist Examination. When you get your license, you'll be prepared to enter the workforce with confidence, practical skills, clinical knowledge, and a commitment to helping others improve their quality of life.
Some Physical Therapist Assistant courses transfer to Pacific University and Oregon Institute of Technology. PTAs that earn four-year or advanced degrees may choose to become educators, researchers, and administrators.
PTA Program Mission
We provide comprehensive, accessible, quality, learning-centered and patient-centered education that promotes student and graduate success in working effectively under the direction and supervision of physical therapists.
State of the Art Facilities
Whether you’re completing your degree at Lane’s main campus in Eugene or at our partner campus at Rogue Community College in White City, you’ll have access to well equipped, state of the art classrooms. Equipment and materials including a Shuttle Balance, standing frames, biophysical agents, and more allow for authentic practice and skill building that meets the needs of today’s physical therapy provider.
Physical Therapy Assistant video
Awards
Lane's PTA program won an Innovation of the Year Award for the school year 2025-2026 from The League for Innovation in the Community College for Skillapalooza: Interprofessional Clinical Simulation for High School and College Healthcare Students.
Program Accreditation and Disclosures
The Physical Therapist Assistant Program at Lane Community College is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education (CAPTE), 3030 Potomac Ave., Suite 100, Alexandria, Virginia, 22305-3085; telephone 703-706-3245; email acccreditation@apta.org; website: capteonline.org. If needing to contact the program/institution directly, please call (541) 463-5617 or email pt-assistant-info@lanecc.edu.
Financial Aid Consumer Information
Three-Year Acceptance and Matriculation Rates
| Admission Year | Applications | Students Admitted |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 42 | 20 Eugene, 7 So. OR |
| 2024 | 40 | 20 Eugene, 6 So. OR |
| 2025 | 61 | 20 Eugene, 6 So. OR |
Average Program Outcomes (2023 & 2024)
| Location | Graduation Rate | NPTE Pass Rate | Employment Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eugene Campus | 81.8% | 100% | 100% |
| Southern Oregon Campus | 90.9% | 90% | 100% |
Physical Therapist Assistant Program Information
- Advising Information for Health Professions Students
- Health Professions Clinical Education Requirements
- Technical Standards
- Application and Prerequisites
Other Requirements & Resources
Please be informed that students who are admitted to any Lane Community College Division of Health Professions program must show evidence of meeting Health Professions Student Clinical Training Standards for the State of Oregon before placement in clinical courses and internships. The programs will provide provisionally accepted students with information related to submitting required documentation to a third-party agent at mandatory orientation and/or through program correspondence.
Students are advised that any flag on a drug screen or criminal background check (e.g., positive results for narcotics, marijuana, and/or other illicit substances; any criminal history) may interfere with, or prevent, clinical placement and graduation. Students are responsible for all costs associated with meeting the Health Professions Student Clinical Education Requirements.
The program includes online lectures and lab and clinical classes with online requirements. All students are required to have basic digital literacy skills and the ability to find, understand, analyze, produce, and share information through network devices such as smartphones, tablets, laptops, and desktop computers. PTA students are encouraged, but not required, to have a personal computer or internet access at home. Lane has several computer labs that all Lane students may access.
Health Profession Students must be knowledgeable and respectful of the principles of patient/client privacy and confidentiality in safeguarding identifiable patient/client information as it relates to social media;
Health Professions Students who use social media should represent their own views, be professional and accurate in their communications.
Errors and omissions in communication, harassing statements, and unprofessional language presented via social media may have a long-lasting and possibly negative impact on the individual, their profession and/or the HPHPEA Division at Lane Community College;
Health Professions Students shall consider when and how to separate their personal and professional lives on social media.
Health Professions Students should be knowledgeable about clinical training sites' published policies on social media.
Health Professions Students shall not misrepresent when they are speaking for themselves or other organizations, educational institutions, clinical sites, or employers;
If an individual identifies content posted to social media by a colleague that appears unprofessional, they have a responsibility to bring that to the attention of the individual who has posted the content so that they can remove it or take other appropriate action.
Health Professions Students engaging in social media activities shall demonstrate appropriate conduct in accordance with the Student Code of Conduct.
Students are required to have a minimum 2.0 GPA at the time of graduation to graduate and receive an associate degree from LCC. Only LCC courses count toward the final program GPA.
Faculty Spotlights
Christina Howard
Program Coordinator
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4000 East 30th Avenue
Eugene, Oregon 97405
Thursday, 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.
Friday, 8:30 a.m.-2:00 p.m.
LCC is closed on Fridays in the summer