How to Submit a Course for Home Health Education Committee Review

APTA Home Health's Education Committee considers course proposals for purposes of course sponsorship by APTA Home Health. The Education Committee ascertains whether or not the course meets APTA Home Health's criteria for appropriate education for physical therapists and physical therapist assistants in the home health setting. Acceptance of the course is not a guarantee that APTA Home Health will sponsor a presentation of the course, but you will be provided with confirmation that the course meets our criteria.

This submission process should not be used for course submission to Combined Sections Meeting (CSM). See APTA’s website for information related to CSM submission: http://www.apta.org/CSM/

If your course does not meet APTA Home Health's criteria, you will be provided with feedback with regard to why it doesn’t. We encourage you to review the course criteria on the following pages prior to submitting an application with your course information.

Submit here

In addition to names, titles, and contact information, the application requires the following. We recommend you prepare these items in advance for easy uploading in PDF format:

  • Presenter names, contacting information, and email addresses
  • Title or proposed title of the presentation
  • Proposed format of presentation
  • Education Level: Basic, Intermediate, Advanced
  • Relevant Objectives*
  • References*
  • Detailed Course Outline [upload]
  • Speaker(s) Biography [upload]

*If you prefer to include these in the uploaded course outline document, feel free to do so and just indicate in these fields that you included it with the upload.

What you can expect

  1. After you submit your completed online application, you will be redirected to a thank you page that provides you with a submission number. We recommend that you print and save this page or write the submission number down for future reference.
  2. Within 15 days, someone from APTA Home Health's Education Committee will contact you to let you know whether or not your application was complete. If the application was not complete, you’ll be notified of the process for completing it.
  3. Within 45 days, applicants who have submitted complete applications will be notified of the application’s status (accepted, rejected, or requires revision).

Course Submission Criteria

 All educational material submitted for consideration by the Education Committee needs to meet the following criteria:

Is the course relevant to the practice of physical therapy in the home health setting?

  • Relevant to the professional practice of physical therapy in the home health setting?
  • Relevant to patient/client management including examination, evaluation, diagnosis and prognosis, plan of care, implementation, education, and discharge
  • Relevant to administrative and regulatory practices in home health

Are the learning objectives for the course included and are they relevant to the practice of physical therapy in the home?

  • Program objectives are clearly written, and identify the knowledge and skills the course participants should acquire during the course?
  • Program content must be easily recognizable as pertinent to the physical therapy profession in the areas of clinical application, clinical management, clinical research, professional ethics and practice management [including federal and state law, risk management, documentation and reimbursement.]

Program does not promote products, or services during the presentation

The program content and instructional methods are based on the specified learning objectives and should result in achieving the desired learning outcomes

The references provide sufficient evidence to support the course content:

  • Current citations [ at least 5 within the last 5 years]
  • Peer‐reviewed articles
  • Not only text book citations
  • Not only handouts from other courses
  • Not only web sites
  • Clearly labels personal experiences or hypotheses vs. referenced scientific evidence

The course information presented to potential participants includes an accurate description including:

  • Course outline specifying amount of time designate to each content area.
  • Type of instruction method (web based, lecture, lecture/lab, lecture demonstration)
  • A list of course presenters
  • Number of contact hours or continuing education units .
  • The target audience and instructional level.
  • Requirements for successful completion of the course.
  • What is the maximum number of attendees if in person course?

If a hands-on technique or lab component

  • Is the student faculty ratio 16:1 or less?
  • If greater than 16:1 what is the justification for a higher ratio?
  • If the lab is observational only, the 16:1 ratio is not applicable.
  • Will clients or patients be seen as part of the course?
  • Does the instructor have the appropriate PT license in the state being presented to permit hands on intervention with the patient?
  • Is there a clear, concise, easy to understand consent form for patient participation?
  • Is there professional liability of the person participating?

Is there a course evaluation form included with the course application? Does the evaluation form include the following?

  • Were the course objectives met?
  • Was evidence provided to substantiate material presented?
  • Was anecdotal evidence the primary source of information?
  • Was a commercial product promoted?

 Is there a certificate of completion which includes the following?

  • Date of course
  • Name of course
  • Number of contact hour or CEUs
  • Name of course sponsor

Is the speaker qualified to present the program? Does the presenter holds a combination of academic degrees, licenses, certifications, clinical experience, teaching experience or other experiences, which qualifies them to present the material in the course.

To evaluate each presenter’s qualifications, look for experience, which suggests the speaker has developed an established expertise on the course topic. Look for such things as the following that are related to the course topic:

  • Practice history
  • Continuing education
  • Specialized certifications
  • Past teaching experiences on this course topic
  • Peer reviewed publications

Are the credentials for each teaching assistant included and adequate to qualify them to assist in this particular course and setting? Although they may not have level of expertise of presenter, do they have an adequate level of developing expertise related to the course topic: i.e.

  • Practice history
  • Continuing education
  • Specialized certifications
  • Past teaching experience on course topic
  • Publications