Master’s Class in Clinical Reasoning for Orthopedic Manual Therapy
– with Dr. Joe Muscolino
In this series the student will use the orthopedic assessment and palpation skills acquired in the COMT Series Level 1 to begin to develop critical thinking skills for integrating the material into a comprehensive full-body assessment and treatment protocol for addressing postural and movement pattern distortions. Treatment skills acquired in the COMT Series Level 1 will then be used to address the assessment findings. These classes will be interactive as a class and will also involve workshopping hands-on assessment and treatment skills in smaller groups. The goal of these Master Level classes is to not only learn to process critical thinking skills for creative application of hands-on assessment and treatment techniques, but to actually workshop the hands-on skills and interact with both the entire class as well as the smaller workshop groups.
Prerequisite: Student must have taken at least one Level 1 COMT workshop.
NECK & UPPER EXTREMITY WORKSHOP (16 CE hours)
Day 1 – Neck
Day 2 – Upper Extremity
THORACIC SPINE & RIB CAGE – AND – SHOULDER GIRDLE WORKSHOP (Upper Crossed Syndrome) (16 CE hours)
Day 1 – Thoracic Spine and Rib Cage
Day 2 – Shoulder Girdle
LOW BACK & PELVIS WORKSHOP (Lower Crossed Syndrome) (16 CE hours)
Day 1 – Sacroiliac Joint
Day 2 – Lumbar Spine
LOWER EXTREMITY & GAIT ANALYSIS WORKSHOP (16 CE hours)
Day 1 – Hip Joint
Day 2 – Gait Analysis & the Lower Extremity
Course Outline
Each workshop day will have the following course outline:
1. Grand Rounds – Class works collectively as a whole interactively with guidance from the instructor to review assessment skills using an actual patient or student and explore comprehensive assessment and treatment strategies. Students will work with the instructor to create an assessment protocol flow chart for developing a critical thinking model for practical application in their manual and movement therapy practice.
2. Small Group Assessment Strategy Development – Class divides into smaller work session groups to practice/workshop the assessment skills for developing treatment strategies.
3. Group Presentation of Assessment Strategies – Groups come together to present their assessment findings to the entire class for interactive discussion with the instructor for critical evaluation for the development of treatment strategies going forward.
4. Small Group Treatment Strategy Development – Class divides back into their smaller work session groups to develop treatment strategies for their respective cases.
5. Group Presentation of Treatment Strategies – Groups come together to present their proposed treatment findings to the entire class for interactive discussion with the instructor for critical evaluation of their treatment strategies.
6. Small Group Treatment Workshopping – Class divides back into their smaller work session groups to implement/workshop their treatment strategies for their respective cases.
7. Group Presentation – Class meets as a whole to discuss the flow of assessment and treatment strategies.
