Physical Therapist Assistant

Future Enrollment

The Physical Therapist Assistant program's anticipated start date is Winter of 2009*, and prerequisite courses are being offered now. Interested students should contact the advising department to get further details.

About the Program

Physical Therapist Assistants (PTAs), under the supervision of licensed physical therapists (PTs), provide skilled direct patient care in a variety of settings, including hospitals, rehabilitation centers, sub-acute care facilities, long-term care facilities, sports medicine clinics and home health care agencies. They use therapeutic exercise, soft tissue techniques, and physical agents such as heat, cold, water and electricity in the treatment of patients with physical disease and disability. In addition to strong, academic skills, strong interpersonal skills are needed to keep up patient morale and counsel patients’ facilities. Additionally, excellent written and verbal communication skills are necessary to facilitate communication in the health care environment.

All programs at LWTC aim to provide students with workplace skills that include Communication, Critical Thinking, Global and Cultural Awareness, Teamwork, and Technical and Information Literacy. Each program will include coursework used to assess student performance in these global outcomes.

Any developmental coursework a student may be required to complete may increase the program length.

Degrees and Certificates	Length of Program	Admission Dates
Physical Therapist Assistant AAS	90 credits 6 quarters	Fall quarter

*Lake Washington Technical College is seeking accreditation by the Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education of the American Physical Therapy Association (1111 North Fairfax Street, Alexandria, VA 22314; phone; 703-706-3245; accreditation@apta.org). The program will be submitting an Application for Candidacy, which is the formal application required in the pre-accreditation stage. Submission of this document does not assure that the program will be granted Candidate for Accreditation status nor does it assure that the program will be granted accreditation.