WesternU CHS-Northwest and Lane Community College partnership strengthens PT and PTA student training 

Western University of Health Sciences’ College of Health Sciences–Northwest (CHS-Northwest) recently partnered with Lane Community College’s Physical Therapist Assistant (PTA) program to deliver an intraprofessional learning experience for students. In October, Lane’s student physical therapist assistants joined WesternU’s doctoral student physical therapists in the Practical Application Labs (PALs), working side by side with community volunteers in an immersive training environment. 

PALs is a five-part, laboratory-based course series that gives CHS-Northwest students hands-on experience with community volunteers under faculty supervision. The program is designed to sharpen clinical skills while fostering communication, teamwork, and compassionate patient care. 

During their October visit, Lane PTA students collaborated with CHS-Northwest students to evaluate and work with community volunteers and document their clinical education encounters. The partnership gave Lane students an opportunity to work in WesternU’s fully equipped lab, while CHS-Northwest students gained insight into the scope of practice and clinical role of physical therapist assistants. 

“Our program was actively trying to find a way to increase our students’ awareness of how to work with PTA students or PTAs in a clinic setting,” shared CHS-Northwest Assistant Professor and PALs Manager Erin McMullen, PT, DPT, NCS. “The sessions followed the structure of our usual labs. We had one lead student physical therapist and one lead student physical therapist assistant. They collaborated before seeing the volunteer; they discussed how they would approach things through the different lenses of what their scope is. Then they had the session together where they navigated how to give space to each other.” 

Lane Community College was equally eager to expand hands-on, collaborative learning opportunities as a meaningful enhancement to its existing curriculum and to deepen students’ educational experience. Christina Howard, PT, MPT, EdD, Physical Therapist Assistant Program Coordinator at Lane, has long been seeking sustainable ways to collaborate with other DPT and PTA programs in the state. “Because of the faculty champions on the WesternU side, we were able to have conversations where we looked at our curriculum together and saw where there were opportunities to align our existing curriculum,” said Dr. Howard. 

The students embraced the opportunity to collaborate in a professional team environment, gaining valuable insight into each other’s roles. 

“Today helped me recognize how much PT and PTA students have in common in terms of knowledge and clinical reasoning. Although PTAs are our colleagues within the same profession, it was still refreshing to interact at similar levels and use shared vocab,” said CHS-Northwest second-year student Miguel Andalon-Ordaz. “This experience reinforced my understanding that while PTs and PTAs have different scopes of practice, both bring essential knowledge and skills to the rehab process.” 

“The students all seemed very enthusiastic about it. They were eager to learn more about exactly what a PTA can and cannot do, so this was helpful to learn about the scope of practice,” shared CHS-Northwest Assistant Professor Amy Walker, PT, DPT, OCS. “Our students enjoyed talking about how they might approach a patient situation and getting ideas from somebody else.” 

For students, the experience was more than an academic exercise; it was a glimpse into the collaborative spirit of modern health care. Building on the success of this initial collaboration, both programs are eager to expand their intraprofessional education efforts. Dr. McMullen, Dr. Walker, and Dr. Howard are planning future opportunities for students to work together beyond the lab, including events where they can review case studies and explore what collaborative patient care looks like in practice. 

“We are working on a virtual event for our first-year students. Ideally, as part of their first PALs,” shared Dr. McMullen. “I think having an earlier touch point with them and just creating some case studies would be a good opening for them. And then we’ll definitely want to repeat this lab.”