Program Overview

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Introduction to the Masters of Prosthetics & Orthotics Program

The Northwestern University Prosthetics-Orthotics Center's (NUPOC) Masters of Prosthetics and Orthotics (MPO) is a competitive, 21-month postgraduate degree offering clinically focused education in a research-rich environment within the Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation. The curriculum prepares students to become proficient, compassionate P&O clinicians, serve persons with physical impairments, apply state-of-the-art research to clinical practice, and contribute significantly to the P&O profession.

Blended Learning Format

The MPO is built on a blended learning format where students complete their first two quarters (six months) online. After demonstrating proficiency in fundamental concepts, students attend class at NUPOC's Chicago campus for four focused quarters (12 months) of hands-on, supervised clinical education. Benefiting from a 1:8 instructor-student ratio during the on-campus practicum, students learn hands-on clinical skills with people who actually use prostheses or orthoses. MPO students apply their knowledge and develop skills in assessment, design, fitting, and evaluation of prostheses and orthoses for educational models who have physical impairments, including amputations.

Courses

Clinical Sciences

This online course provides an introduction to health and medical conditions commonly encountered in P&O practice, including information about pathologies, impairments, medical and therapeutic interventions, diagnostics, and collegial collaboration.

Materials Science

This course provides an introduction to relevant chemical, physical, and structural properties of materials used to design, engineer, and apply P&O devices as interventions that facilitate human function.

Human Movement Science

This course integrates clinically relevant aspects of human anatomy, physiology, neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, kinesiology, and biomechanics.

Principles of Prosthetics-Orthotics Practice

This course highlights the fundamental principles of P&O practice and the relationship of the foundational sciences to the theoretical constructs that guide P&O practice.

Professional Issues

This course has online and onsite segments covering the exploration and evaluation of sociocultural perspectives of health and disability; rehabilitation science and P&O practice perspectives; professional behavior; relationships with other healthcare professionals, peers, industry, and government entities; legal, healthcare, and payment systems; and the implications of professional issues on P&O practice and clinical decision-making.

Behavioral Sciences

The online and onsite segments of this course include fundamentals of personality development, self-awareness as a clinical caregiver, personal values and ethics, concepts of self-care and self-health, psychosocial aspects of health and disability, and its meaning in the lives of people with disability.

Technologies in P&O

This course focuses on the theories and hypotheses of contemporary and emerging technologies used in P&O practice.

Supervised Clinical Experience

Guided and reflective professional clinical experiences illustrate the relevance of foundational educational concepts and demonstrate how they are integrated and applied in actual practice.

Research

The online and onsite segments of this course provide the entry-level clinician with the knowledge and skills necessary to conduct critical evaluation of published research and to identify the clinical implications for patient care.

Clinical Evaluation

This onsite laboratory course integrates concepts of human movement, physiology, pathology, and function with principles of measurement to begin identification of abnormal findings and formulation of potential P&O solutions.

Prosthetics/Orthotics Practice

These hands-on, core courses provide a series of supervised clinical experiences and learning exercises that integrate concepts from earlier coursework into clinical practice.

Special Topics

The Special Topics course provides an opportunity for concentrated learning about an area of special interest within the practice domain of P&O.

Practice Management

This course provides the second-year master's student with an overview of business issues, such as reimbursement, financial and legal documentation, cost accounting, personnel, management, quality assurance, and facility accreditation.

Goals & Learning Domains

The goal of the program is "to prepare competent entry-level prosthetists-orthotists in the cognitive, psychomotor, and affective learning domains," as outlined by the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP) and NCOPE.

Cognitive Domain

• Apply knowledge of anatomy, pathophysiology, injury process, and impairments in relationship to P&O treatment plans.
• Formulate comprehensive treatment plans that integrate knowledge of biomechanics, kinesiology, normal and pathological gait, and material and component selection to improve function and meet patient/client needs.

Psychomotor Domain

• Perform comprehensive assessments of the patient using standardized assessment tools and skills.
• Demonstrate proficiency in impression and measurement acquisition.
• Demonstrate the ability to use appropriate procedures and fabrication processes in the provision of P&O services.

Affective Domain

• Demonstrate sound ethical and professional judgment in clinical patient/client management.
• Communicate effectively and in a professional manner, both verbally and in writing, with patients, caregivers, and other healthcare personnel.

Technical Standards

The following list specifies the technical standards that the faculty deems necessary for a student to matriculate, remain in good standing, and ultimately to achieve all the competencies necessary for graduation with the MPO degree.

Perception

Students must be able to observe and interpret custom fabrication demonstrations in the manufacturing laboratory.

Communication

Students must be able to communicate effectively and efficiently with patients, families, and colleagues to elicit information in both verbal and non-verbal forms.

Motor Skills

A student must be able to demonstrate the required motor movements to safely perform basic P&O fabrication tasks and conduct physical examinations.

Intellectual, Conceptual, Integrative & Quantitative Abilities

Students must be able to calculate, measure, reason, analyze, and synthesize.

Behavioral & Social Attributes

Students must possess the stable emotional health required for the exercise of good judgment, the timely completion of responsibilities related to the evaluation and care of patients, and the development of mature, sensitive, and effective relationships with patients and colleagues.