Vanderbilt Bill Wilkerson’s Pi Beta Phi Rehabilitation Institute (PBPRI) in the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences is joining with the School of Physical Therapy at Belmont University to initiate a Neurological Physical Therapy Clinical Residency.
The one-year residency, the first of its kind in Tennessee, will prepare the resident to treat patients with neurological conditions using contemporary, evidenced-based treatment approaches while providing the skills and experience needed to sit for the Neurological Clinical Specialist certification exam with the American Physical Therapy Association.
“We are very excited about this new partnership,” said Mike de Riesthal, Ph.D., director of the PBPRI. “Education of new clinicians is one of our primary missions. Partnering with Belmont’s excellent program allows us to expand that mission into the field of physical therapy.”
PBPRI is an outpatient interdisciplinary neurological rehabilitation program where physical therapists work in teams with colleagues in occupational therapy, speech-language pathology and social work to promote community re-entry and vocational and/or academic transitioning.
The program’s clinical residency director is Lisa Haack, a PBPRI clinical staff member in physical therapy and a neurologic specialist.
Renee Brown, Ph.D., professor of Physical Therapy at Belmont University, will serve as the Academic Residency Director. Christina Durrough has been selected as the inaugural resident for the joint venture.
At PBPRI, Durrough will receive mentoring and instruction to evaluate and treat patients with acquired brain injury and other neurological conditions including stroke, traumatic brain injury, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, brain tumors and balance disorders.
At Belmont, Durrough will extend her clinical work to the classroom by teaching and providing lab instruction to doctoral students in the School of Physical Therapy under the guidance of Brown.
Belmont will also sponsor and coordinate Durrough’s participation with the Neurologic Physical Therapy Professional Education Consortium.
