Ready to deepen your PTA knowledge and skills, and be nationally recognized for your career development? APTA's PTA Advanced Proficiency Pathways program can help you do just that.

APTA’s Advanced Proficiency Pathways program is open through Feb. 28 for the next quarterly enrollment period. It's a unique opportunity for PTAs from across the country to grow their understanding in a specific area of care through a combination of in-person or online coursework, mentored clinical experiences, and clinical work hours. The program, which launched in 2017, has been completed by 167 PTAs, with 385 currently enrolled.

Advanced Proficiency Pathways offers education and support in eight areas: acute care, cardiovascular/pulmonary, geriatrics, neurology, oncology, orthopedics, pediatrics, and wound management. And the pathway itself is highly interactive — you'll select a supervising physical therapist as well as a clinical mentor to provide instruction and feedback along the way. The clinical mentor and supervising physical therapist can be the same person, providing that the supervising physical therapist has the required skills to serve as a clinical mentor.

Enrollment deadline is Feb. 28. But don't wait to get started — to qualify for enrollment, you'll need to complete three prerequisite online courses, which vary in length between two and three hours.

Enrollees have up to five years to complete the program, which requires 60 contact hours of online or in-person continuing education coursework, completion of mentored clinical experiences and related assessments, and documentation of 2,000 clinical hours of work experience in the selected content area. Graduates of the program are honored at the annual APTA Specialty and Proficiency Recognition ceremony, and the Advanced Proficiency Pathways recognition itself is good for 10 years.