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Doug: Thank you for clarifying your statement. Also you might want to clarify that the total time of clinical rotation is 6 months, not the final clinical rotation. The final rotation should be around 6 months though, but there are problems here too (see below). I agree that we should raise the bar, I'm just not sure that a title of "doctor" is needed. I do understand that the next level in the heirarchy of education is the doctorate though. I hope I'm not coming across as "sour grapes." I have seen so m I think we should even set up specific specialities, GP, Peds, Neuro, Ortho, etc.. for the entry level. Not that they would have to earn a specialty certification but perhaps title themselves as a General Practice PT, Pediatric PT, Neuro PT, Orthopedic PT, etc.. My reasoning for doing this is that it would allow the student to train and become more of an expert if so desired and this could produce a better product. All in all though progress is going forward on many fronts and that is great! Progress is slow as should be expected. I would just like to see it thought out well for our future. Sincerely, Patrick Zerr www.apluspt.com - for physiotherapists in education and practice <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Allow me to clarify my earlier posting. I did not mean to imply most PT programs offer the DPT. What I was saying was of those that offer the DPT most are at entry level. Currently, according to CAPTE, ~45-50% of US PT programs are offering the DPT or converting to the DPT. Many of those programs are offering a tDPT (transitional.) Similar to when all other professions transitioned to a "doctor" there is a period when you have to bring the rest of the profession up to the same credential. In 10-15 years I think most of the public will not be aware that PTs were not DPTs for a long time. Clinical education is not standardized yet. Most of the programs I am familiar with have a minimum of 6 months clinical education. Comparing clinical education to MDs is a little apples and oranges. There are many "doctors" and many types of practical educational experiences. Collegially yours, Douglas M. White, PT, OCS Dave Riddell asked how many hours are required for clinical rotations. I am not an expert on school accreditation but, I know that most require a final rotation of 16 weeks, 40 hours per week. Often though, these rotations are divided into 2 or 3 different settings. Now if you want to compare this to a physicians clinical rotation it is much different. So, that's why I'mnot sure why we are really wanting to call ourselves "doctors" which conotates the same training as physicians. Also, Douglas White mentioned that most US PT programs are DPT's. I don't think that is the case although several are converting. Then that raises the issue in the public's eye of what is the difference between a Doctor of Physical Therapy and a Physical Therapist. Atleast when we converted from BS to MS degrees for PT's we didn't have this problem. Sincerely, Patrick Zerr www.apluspt.com