Upper Extremity Athlete Fellowship Program

The Jackson Clinics Upper Extremity Athlete Fellowship Program is one of only six in the country and is accredited by the American Physical Therapy Association as a post professional fellowship program for physical therapists in Northern Virginia.

Mission

The mission of the Upper Extremity Athlete Fellowship Program is to help improve the standard of clinical practice within our company and our region for better delivery of consistent, high quality physical therapy care to our community.  We seek to graduate advanced practitioners who can lead our company and our profession in advancement of our clinical care, research and education related to the upper extremity athlete and complex shoulder.

Facts

As a young orthopedic practice, The Jackson Clinics (TJC) has prioritized Clinical Care and Education as our highest priorities for our staff.   As a result, we developed a clinical career path that covers a spectrum of education from clinical internships through our APTA Credentialed Orthopedic Residency Program.  With 5 years of residency alumni in our company, we needed to create a “next step” in the clinical progression.  An APTA credentialed Fellowship Program is what we decided to do.

We chose the Upper Extremity Athlete Fellowship based on a needs assessment of the region we practice in.  Physicians gave us feedback that they do not know of expert physical therapists in their referral region who have explicit knowledge of extremely complex shoulder and elbow conditions.  They reached out to TJC and asked if we could train some of our staff members to fulfill the need.  We saw the Upper Extremity Athlete Fellowship as an opportunity to meet their need, while advancing our clinical career path at the same time.

The program curriculum we have designed is intended to meet and exceed the criteria laid out in the DSSP for the Upper Extremity Athlete Fellowship.  We have chosen to significantly bolster the physician mentorship and collaboration component, as we feel it is critical to understand the decision making, progression criteria, and risk management that our referral sources expect when they trust us with their complex patients.

Our fellows will have extensive didactic training using multiple learning models and information resources.  Additionally, we will provide opportunities for them to attend both medical and physical therapy specialty conferences on the shoulder and elbow at no cost to them. We feel strongly that our fellows will learn best by integrating the information they learn into clinical practice.  Simply stated, the more shoulder and elbow patients they see, the better they will get.

Our fellows will be teachers and mentors both during and after the program.  Our residency program offers multiple avenues for high level mentorship, lecture, and practical skill building teaching opportunities, and we will expect our fellows to participate in all three.  Again, we feel that learning happens while teaching and we want our fellows to spread their knowledge to others in TJC. We feel strongly that the fellows will complete the program and stay within the organization as mentors and facutly. We currently have a graduation rate of 80% from the program.

We have a goal to retain our fellowship graduates for at least 5 years after completing the program and have structured their salary progression to incentivize that.  Additionally, there will be a “tuition forgiveness” structure with tapering balances throughout the 5 years, and $0 owed to TJC if the fellow remains with the company for 5 years.  The end result, we hope, will be a win-win.

Curriculum Outline Summary

  • 1000 hours minimum time in program
  • Physician Shadowing
  • 100 hours of mentorship (75 one on one with PT expert)
  • Athletic venue coverage
  • Mentoring
  • Classroom Instruction
  • Exams
  • Lab Instruction
  • Teaching
  • Clinical Practice
  • Richard Jackson, PT, OCS
  • Ben Keeton, PT, DPT, OCS
  • Michael Kecman, PT, DPT, OCS
  • Daniel Alcorn, PT, DPT, OCS, CSCS
  • Michael Glindmeyer, PT, DPT, SCS, ATC
  • Sara Kirkland, PT, DPT, OCS

All applications must be submitted through ABPTRFE at the following link:
https://rfptcas.liaisoncas.com/applicant-ux/#/login

Below are guidelines outlining requirements for application.

Cover Letter:

In your cover letter, provide responses to the following inquiries:

  1. a) What do you wish to gain though participation in this clinical fellowship? b) What areas of expertise you possess that you feel would contribute to the growth in clinical skills of the other participants in this fellowship? c) What are your future plans in the area of orthopedic physical therapy?

Curriculum Vitae:

Please include the following information in this portion of the document:

  1. Personal data (e.g., name, email address, mailing address, phone number)
  2. Academic education (e.g., undergraduate, professional, and post professional education)
  3. Clinical education (e.g., clinical residency, continuing professional education)
  4. Description of clinical experiences. Please include the following information, if pertinent, for each organization in which you have performed direct patient care: Name, address and phone number of the facility, name of your clinical supervisor (if any) or supervisor, type of facility, job description, date employed (or dates of residency), description of patient load, description of any clinical supervision or mentoring, time period (in hours) involved in direct patient care. The total number of hours at a particular facility can by calculated by using the following formula: Total hours = (number of hours per week) x (number of weeks per year) x (number of full time years).
  5. Other relevant information such as research, teaching and/or community service experiences.

Two Letters of Recommendation Applications will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

  1. Academic education
  2. Clinical education and mentoring experiences
  3. Clinical experience in orthopedic physical therapy
  4. Research experience
  5. Community Service

The Jackson Clinics is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, creed, color, gender, age, national or ethnic origin, sexual orientation, and disability or health status. Minimal eligibility requirements for acceptance into the program include:

  1. Licensure as a Physical Therapist by the Physical Therapy Board Virginia
  2. OCS or SCS certification
  3. Comply with all Jackson Clinics employment requirements

Course Schedule [TBD]

Modules are as follows:

  1. Shoulder Instability – Traumatic/Atraumatic
  2. Rotator Cuff Injuries
  3. Frozen Shoulder
  4. Shoulder Arthritis
  5. Scapular Dyskinesia
  6. Athletic Injuries – of the shoulder and elbow
  7. Elbow trauma
  8. Elbow stiffness
  9. Lateral/medial epicondylalgia
  10. Elbow instability
  11. Upper Extremity Nerve Injuries
  12. Return to sports progressions