On Saturday, April 19, a group of pre-physical therapy students from the University of West Florida (UWF) traveled by bus to spend a day visiting the USF Health Tampa campus and attended an Open House at the School of Physical Therapy & Rehabilitation Sciences.

A collaborative educational partnership program between USF and UWF will expand access for UWF students interested in pursuing a Doctor of Physical Therapy degree and will help meet a state-identified need for more physical therapists in the largely rural panhandle region of the state.

The legislatively funded partnership allows USF Health SPTRS to expand enrollment in its nationally-ranked, three-year DPT degree program by as many as 12 additional students a year, beginning with the admittance of the DPT 2017 class in July. Selected UWF graduates will spend their first year of physical therapy studies at the USF Health Tampa campus, followed by the final two years of classrooms studies at UWF’s Pensacola campus, with clinical internships conducted at hospitals and outpatient sites in Pensacola and across the state’s panhandle.