Introduction. Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) faculty members are expected to participate in scholarly endeavors that contribute to the knowledge of our profession. There is currently limited evidence describing the level of productivity among DPT faculty throughout the country or how it is influenced by various factors. The purpose of this project is to describe the scholarly productivity of DPT faculty members within the United States and how it is influenced by the highest earned degree, academic rank, and institutional Carnegie classification. Methods. The authors extracted the faculty information from the web sites of all accredited DPT programs in the United States. A systematic search query was performed, using Google Scholar, on each identified faculty member. Bibliometric values related to scholarly productivity were collected including the number of papers and citations along with the h-index, g-index, and e-index for each author. Data were analyzed through nonparametric methods to identify how highest earned degree, academic rank, and institutional classification affected scholarly productivity. Results. A total of 2,961 faculty members were identified, although only 2,468 (83.4%) were used for the analysis. Median bibliometric values included publications = 7, citations = 42, h-index = 2, g-index = 5, and e-index = 5.4. Overall scholarly productivity varied with the highest earned degree and academic rank with moderate effect size, and institutional classification with low to moderate effect size. Discussion and Conclusion. This is the first national study of DPT educators describing the bibliometrics of the DPT professoriate. Individual and institutional factors appear to influence scholarly productivity of individual faculty members. The data yielded by this study can aide faculty members along with internal and external stakeholders in developing meaningful targets for scholarly productivity.

Introduction. Physical therapists are in short supply in rural communities, in spite of significant need for their services. To address shortages, health care education programs are advised to design rural-centric curricula to better prepare providers to practice in these settings. However, only a few published research articles have addressed curricular elements designed to prepare student physical therapists (SPTs) for practice in rural settings. This study investigates the impact of participation in a rural, agricultural mobile clinic for migrant agricultural workers on SPTs' understanding of rural communities and rural health care practice. Methods. Student physical therapists in 2015 (Y1), 2016 (Y2), and 2017 (Y3) cohorts completed a survey via Qualtrics (Provo, UT) soliciting their reflections on participation in the mobile clinic. Surveys consisted of 8 open-ended questions developed from current service-learning literature. Responses were coded using a thematic analysis approach by 2 authors (C.N. and F.T.), while a third author (S.S.) determined categorization if disagreement occurred. Frequency (%) of responses was calculated by determining number of individual theme responses compared to total number of coded items. Results. Authors identified a total of 198 coded items over all survey responses (Y1–Y3). Six themes emerged: Diversity of Rural Communities (7.76%), Nature of Agricultural Labor (9.60%), Professional Role and Responsibility (17.68%), Extent of Need (19.70%), Communication (21.21%), and Nature of Rural Practice (24.24%). Notably, even SPTs who reported rural upbringing noted changes in perception of rural communities after participation in the clinic. Conclusions. Student physical therapists showed increased understanding of the nature of rural health care practice, among other topics, after participation in the mobile clinic. Curricular elements that address language barrier; appreciation versus impact; and which offer experiential learning may increase the impact of rural-focused lessons in physical therapy education.