Foundations for the Primary Care PT: A Hands-On Workshop

Foundations for the Primary Care PT: A Hands-On Workshop 

8 am – Noon; 2 – 5 pm 

Instructors: Katie O'Bright, PT, DPT, OCS, and Alyssa Torn, PT, DPT, OCS 

7 Contact Hours 

Competency Level: Open to All Levels 

Course Description: Foundations for the Primary Care PT: A Hands-On Workshop is a 7-hr course designed for physical therapists interested in enhancing their skills in comprehensive medical screening and initial management of adults seen in primary care settings. In this course, participants will learn various models of PT primary care, current best practice for medical screening and referral, psychomotor examination skills related to medical screening, and foundations of musculoskeletal imaging. Instructors will cover how to properly identify signs and symptoms that may be outside the scope of physical therapist management, including cardiovascular and pulmonary, gastrointestinal, urogenital, neurologic, traumatic orthopedic, and psychiatric conditions. Participants will learn how to triage various clinical presentations into Critical Medical, Non-Critical Medical and Conservative PT management schemes. They will also learn how to screen for and treat impairments related to non-communicable diseases. By the end of this course, physical therapists should feel confident and competent serving in primary care roles. 

Instructor Bios: 

Dr. Katie O'Bright is a physical therapist and educator who has spent the majority of her career in multidisciplinary primary care settings. She started her career as an active duty Army PT where she worked in a Solider Centered Medical Home, co-located with primary care physicians, psychologists and other valued support staff. Since then, she has worked in multidisciplinary care settings in academic health systems and private practices. Dr. O'Bright founded a company with the mission of getting more physical therapists into multidisciplinary care settings, starting with primary care. She currently lives in Chicago with her husband and two sons.

Dr. Alyssa Torn is a physical therapist practicing in outpatient orthopedics and women’s health/pelvic floor with Bellin Health in Green Bay, WI. She graduated from Carroll University with her DPT in 2011, completed her OCS in 2018, and is currently a Fellow in Training with Bellin College in partnership with Evidence in Motion and anticipates graduating from the program in April 2022. She has been involved in Bellin’s PT in primary care program for the last four years.