Physicourses Online Courses

Assessment of the Dizzy Patient in the Acute Care Setting

Kara Rawlings PT, DPT, NCS

Dizziness accounts for up to 11% of emergency department visits each year in the United States. Approximately 40% of these patients have peripheral vestibular dysfunction. Physical and occupational therapists can play an important role in the acute care setting by helping to identify the presence of a peripheral vestibular disorder, thus potentially saving money on unnecessary testing and lengthy hospital stays. This course will outline evidence- based bedside assessment strategies, that the therapist is uniquely trained to perform, to help in the evaluation and management of patients presenting with vertigo and dizziness. The therapist will also learn basic treatment interventions for vestibular hypofunction and BPPV and when to refer their patients for continued treatment.HighlightsEvidence-based bedside assessments to help identify central and peripheral sources of vertigoImmediately improve your patients symptoms with evidence-based treatment interventions aimed at resolving BPPV

Online Course

Includes all course content in digital format

2 hours - Provided by Summit Professional Education

Nutrition Management for Dementia Patients

Jennifer Darby, PT, DPT, GCS, CCN, CPAHA, CEEAA

Worldwide, 50 million individuals have dementia, with 10 million new cases each year. In the older adult population, dementia is a major cause of dependence and disability. Roughly 50% of caregivers in the United States who care for older adults are providing for individuals with dementia. Nutrition is not what typically comes to mind when people think about dementia. However, nutrition is central to caring for those with dementia. A nutrition program for dementia that considers health, independence, and quality of life can profoundly enhance the lives of those living with dementia. This course will explore nutritional considerations for patients with dementia and other cognitive challenges and present the practitioner ideas that they will be able to incorporate into a comprehensive treatment program.HighlightsConfidently address nutrition and general nutritional recommendations set forth by the FDAEnhance your patient's treatment and recovery by adding a nutritional component to your overall plan of care

Online Course

Includes all course content in digital format

2 hours - Provided by Summit Professional Education

Managing the Complex Presentations of Parkinson's Disease

Meredith Roberts Lo, PT, DPT

Close to 1 million people have Parkinson's in the U.S. This results in over $52 billion spent on health care and lost wages according to the Parkinson's Foundation's recent study. As therapists we are seeing more and more individuals not only with typical Parkinson's but more complex movement disorders. Are your treatment strategies effective enough or are you throwing darts at the wall? Our interventions must be specific and intense to reduce the risk of falls and return patients to their ADLs effectively and quickly. With the right understanding of complex motor control impairments and treatment tools you can optimize your outcomes and continue to be reimbursed for therapy. Avoid banging your head against the wall and get the treatment techniques you need to help optimize your patients' outcomes in Parkinson's. Go beyond the basics.This workshop will enhance your basic understanding of Parkinson's disease and allow you to optimize your patient outcomes in this complex movement disorder. No two patients are alike, and atypical Parkinson's disease often shows up in our patient presentations along with difficult to manage motor and non-motor impairments. These symptoms can often limit the effectiveness of our interventions.Throughout this course we will examine key components of complex movement disorders to understand them more fully. Through case and video examples we will apply treatment strategies that are effective, and evidence based. At the end of this course, you will ...

Online Course

Includes all course content in digital format

2 hours - Provided by Summit Professional Education

Effective Strategies for Integrating Visual & Motor Learning

Jacqueline Schafer-Clay, OTD, OTR/L, C-SIPT

In today's practice more and more clients are being referred for visual, motor, sensory processing, and coordination deficits related to poor self-regulation, motor, visual processing, apraxia/discoordination, and fine motor abilities. Many of these underlying deficits go undetected and thus children are slow to progress and master visual & motor goals.This course will teach you how to recognize and help clients overcome these weaknesses, which can be difficult to address due to the complexity of the underlying limits. This workshop will improve your confidence and abilities in observation, analysis, treatment planning, and interventions to improve visual motor outcomes. Upon completion, you will understand the hidden but essential link between treatment of underlying deficits and improving visual and motor outcomes.HighlightsInnovative techniques to improve your clients functional visual motor integration and outcomesSensory integration feedback process and how it impacts motor output and coordination

Online Course

Includes all course content in digital format

2 hours - Provided by Summit Professional Education

Impact of Visual Deficits on Motor and Cognitive Development In Infants and Toddlers

Subah Gupta MHS, OTR/L, SCLV, CBIS

Visual deficits often get masked as cognitive deficits where lack of engagement is blamed on lack of motivation and attention. It is a known fact that sub-optimal visuo-sensory abilities affect performance of non-verbal tasks. This course will teach healthcare professionals how to improve infant and toddler engagement in the appropriate developmental activity using practical treatment techniques that lead with vision. The attendee will receive tools to identify visual deficits and improve their ability in analyzing and planning interventions towards treatment outcomes. Addressing vision is the missing piece of the puzzle which when addressed with sensory, motor and cognitive deficits allows healthcare professionals to provide comprehensive care.HighlightsClinical observations, standardized tests and practical interventions for functional deficits, underlying conditions, and co-morbidities you can use the next day through case examples and videosIdentify treatment resources and strategies to improve visual perceptual and visuo-motor skills in infants and toddlers

Online Course

Includes all course content in digital format

2 hours - Provided by Summit Professional Education

Utilizing Sensory Integration Strategies

Jacqueline Schafer-Clay, OTD, OTR/L, C-SIPT

Self-regulation is the conscious and unconscious processes that affect the ability of one to control responses. Research indicates a rise in challenging behaviors of children during early development and the negative outcomes associated with the inability to self-regulate. It is common for infants and toddlers to display some disruptive behaviors, but severe or persistent behaviors are associated with poor academic, family, social, and mental health outcomes. Development of using sensory integration strategies and regulation skills is fundamentally important to a childs ability to achieve quality sleep, school success, happiness, coping skills and mastery of foundational sensory functions. Healthy self-regulation is impacted by a variety of factors in the postnatal environment including emotional, language, and cognitive development factors, as well as caregiver bonds and interactions. Research shows challenging behavior and poor self-regulation can improve by using sensory strategies, positive parenting, caregiver-child bonding and attachments, and child-centered play activities.This workshop will teach proven sensory integration strategies to therapists so they are able to utilize and demonstrate them during sessions; as well as educate parents to improve child-caregiver bonds and self-regulation. This will support decreased behavior during sessions and improved home program compliance secondary to improved caregiver-child bonds.HighlightsTechniques to foster self-regulatio...

Online Course

Includes all course content in digital format

2 hours - Provided by Summit Professional Education

Integration of Persistent Reflexes

Robyn Otty, OTD, OTR/L, BCPR, FAOTA

Reflexes play an important role in a childs ability to establish effective motor patterns and integrate sensory information. In one study, 60% of neuro-typical children were found to have a persistent reflex (Gieysztor, Choinska, and Paprocka-Borowicz, 2018). The prevalence of non-integrated reflexes can have longstanding effects on a childs ability to learn and develop appropriate motor responses.This course will provide a more distinct way to evaluate reflexes and provide evidence supported therapeutic activities to address persistent reflexes. With such systematic attention on effectively assessing the existence of reflexes, clinicians will be better equipped to establish documentation to support their practice. Through the review and application of such reflex assessment strategies and therapeutic activities, clinicians will be more equipped to address reflexes that are often associated with children with ADHD, learning disabilities, or sensory processing disorders.HighlightsImmediately address persistent reflexes and how they influence developmentObservation-based reflex assessment strategies and solutions to address reflex integrationPractical assessment and re-assessment strategies for underlying reflexesEffective, evidence-based interventions for integration of reflexesIntegrate into PT/OT/SLP practice through case examples

Online Course

Includes all course content in digital format

2 hours - Provided by Summit Professional Education

Effective Treatment for Sensory, Motor and Cognitive Challenges

Lisa Irvine, MS, OTR/L

Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Intellectual Disabilities (ID) present with problem behaviors at high rates. Problem behaviors such as self-injury, aggression, pica, disruption, and elopement result in a diminished quality- of-life for the individual and family. Recent evidence indicates yoga and mindfulness is an effective intervention in improving behaviors and gaining engagement with this unique population.In this course, participants will examine the benefits of using yoga and mindfulness as a modality for individuals with autism spectrum disorder, ADHD, sensory processing disorders and other neurodevelopmental disorders and how to properly integrate it into any setting. Participants will gain techniques to improve strength, self-awareness, focus, and regulation while promoting well-being. Participants will be able to utilize yoga as a therapeutic tool for intervention when they return to their clinic, school, or practice setting.HighlightsEffective yoga and mindfulness strategies for individuals with autism spectrum disorder, ADHD, sensory processing disorders and other neurodevelopmental disordersYoga, breath, and mindfulness techniques that individuals will enjoy and that will improve strength, reduce anxiety, improve focus, and body awareness

Online Course

Includes all course content in digital format

2 hours - Provided by Summit Professional Education

Therapeutic Kinesiology Taping for Children With Neurological Impairments

Chrys Kub, PT, MSPT, C-NDT

Children with neurological impairments benefit from improved sensory perceptive information coming into their nervous system. Therapeutic kinesiology taping can facilitate muscle activity, inhibit abnormal muscle activity, assist to reposition joints, support postural alignment, and improve proprioception for better functional outcomes. some of the benefits of therapeutic kinesiology taping include providing stability of joints while allowing full range of motion, unloading tissue via decompression for improved sliding of myofascial layers and providing enhanced motor control through a novel stimulus during movement for improved body awareness. Evidence-based research suggests that clinicians who incorporate kinesiology taping into their treatment plan note improvement in the postural control and functional activities with both, upper and lower limbs, and increase in functional independency.Participants of this course will learn to implement kinesiology taping for the most common problems in the pediatric patient with neuromotor disorders such as: truncal hypotonia, shoulder girdle instability, and extremity dysfunction. Participants will leave with practical and effective kinesiology taping skills they can integrate into their toolbox the next day to improve therapeutic outcomes.HighlightsTherapeutic kinesiology taping interventions for common dysfunctions in the neurological pediatric patient, such as truncal hypotonia, shoulder girdle instability, and extremity dysfunction...

Online Course

Includes all course content in digital format

2 hours - Provided by Summit Professional Education

Sensory-Based Feeding Strategies

Victoria Wood, OTR/L

Just about everyone has treated a problem feeder/picky eater or has been asked to help "fix" a picky eater during their career. During the past decade children have become more sensitive in general. There has been an increased incidence of allergies, sensory sensitivities, and spectrum disorders. Along with these sensitivities, food preferences and aversions have skyrocketed. Because eating is one of the basic human needs, if a person is not eating well it plays a large role in all other areas of development.This course will provide information on the role food plays in the hierarchy of needs, signs and symptoms of picky eating/problem feeding, effective treatment methods, and caregiver education. Feeding is more than just hand to mouth. This course will show therapists how to support feeding through adequate seating, posture, motor control, core strength, and breath control.The content of this program is germane to children, students and clients ages 0- 18.HighlightsReview the latest evidence, trends, and why there has been a surge in picky eating during the past 5 yearsEquip yourself with skills to assess and interpret common problems encountered during feedingImprove your treatment, intervention, caregiver education, and differential diagnosis of a range of feeding barriers

Online Course

Includes all course content in digital format

2 hours - Provided by Summit Professional Education

Physicourses Neurology

Kara Rawlings PT, DPT, NCS

Jennifer Darby, PT, DPT, GCS, CCN, CPAHA, CEEAA

Meredith Roberts Lo, PT, DPT

Jacqueline Schafer-Clay, OTD, OTR/L, C-SIPT

Subah Gupta MHS, OTR/L, SCLV, CBIS

Jacqueline Schafer-Clay, OTD, OTR/L, C-SIPT

Robyn Otty, OTD, OTR/L, BCPR, FAOTA

Lisa Irvine, MS, OTR/L

Chrys Kub, PT, MSPT, C-NDT

Victoria Wood, OTR/L