Academy, St. Petersburg College Partner for New O&P School

A magnificent partnership has come together to establish a new orthotics and prosthetics school, along with an Academy Learning Center, at St. Petersburg College, St. Petersburg, Florida. The new O&P school will offer a baccalaureate program, postgraduate certificate programs, and an associate degree program for technicians. Online and video conferencing courses are also in the plans. The new school--which fills a void in O&P educational opportunities in Florida and the rest of the Southeast region--is the culmination of a vision shared by the American Academy of Orthotists and Prosthetists (AAOP), the Florida Chapter of the AAOP, The Florida Association of Orthotists and Prosthetists (FAOP), and St. Petersburg College. The Academy intends to help the new school by locating current educators to partner with St. Petersburg in curriculum development and to help recruit a qualified O&P professional to serve as dean of the new school. Faculty members also will be needed. The school will follow the guidelines of the National Commission on Prosthetic & Orthotic Education (NCOPE). "The Academy is working with NAPOE (National Association of Prosthetic & Orthotic Educators) and NCOPE in helping to develop curriculum," according to Don Katz, CO, FAAOP, Academy president. Solid Financing Sound financing is backing the new school: the college is contributing toward creation of space both for the new O&P program and for the Academy Learning Center. The contribution includes a $1 million donation of land, a federal grant of $1 million, funding of startup costs, including hiring a dean and staff assistant to develop the program, and up to $500,000 in matching funds. Close to $4 million has been committed to theprogram. Another $750,000 must still be raised to fund the development of a new building to house the facilities, and a professional fundraiser has been hired to help accomplish this goal. The new school will enable students east of the Mississippi to be able to obtain O&P education more easily and at less cost, said Chester Littlefield, CPO, president of the Florida chapter of the Academy. "With plans for courses available online, a facility owner who has an employee who wants to obtain the education necessary for ABC [American Board for Certification in Orthotics & Prosthetics] certification won't lose his employee for two years, and the employee won't have to spend as much time and money." "We want a program at St. Pete that is dynamic, accessible, and financially viable," said Ron Gingras, CPO, FAOP education committee chairman. "We need to learn from the other O&P programs' successes and failures and try to think outside of the educational models that now exist," he continued. "Distance learning reduces the costs to the college, maximizes valuable laboratory space and utilization of supply resources, and increases the potential for recruitment, while providing the college with additional revenue. It also can benefit students, since they can get much of their learning done in preparation for admission to the program and prior to relocation or additional travel to the school's campus." Stepping up to the plate to help raise the $750,000 needed for the O&P program's physical facility, the FAOP and the Florida chapter of the Academy are putting up matching funds of $25,000 each. "The FAOP will match each $1 donated, which turns a $1 donation into $2; the Florida chapter will also match each $1 donation, which turns it into $3; the St. Petersburg College Foundation will then match each $3 in donations; turning every original $1 donated into $6," Littlefield explained. "The cohesiveness, teamwork, and shared vision of the FAOP and the Florida chapter of the Academy have helped the dream become a reality here in Florida," said Gingras. "However, it doesn't end with the development of a program in Florida. "We as practitioners are in a fight nationally for our profession," Gingras stressed. "Practitioners need to get involved and work with the Academy to embrace and support the profession's greatest resource--our college programs. In recent years our profession has been under attack and in decline, great programs like NYU and UCLA are now gone, and other schools are struggling. The future existence of the remaining programs depends largely on the ingenuity of the colleges to adapt to a changing marketplace and the support of practitioners in the profession. We as a profession need to partner with colleges to provide them with the financial and mentoring supports necessary to become financially viable." While a declining enrollment has been affecting other O&P schools, Gingras feels this won't happen to St. Petersburg. Beside the zealous support of the college's president and solid commitments in financing, Gingras points to the school's extensive experience and background in allied health education. The college has 75 years of experience in allied health education and currently offers 11 allied health programs to more than 1,500 students yearly. The school also has bachelors degree programs in nursing and dental hygiene, with more baccalaureate programs being developed. The college is a leader in distance learning and boasts a multimillion-dollar infrastructure of equipment for Internet, video, and satellite conferencing. Many medical professionals are already associated with the college, which is also noted for its partnering with other universities and institutions around the country. With the college's allied health associate degree programs, many students can enter a four-year O&P program with their prerequisite courses already out of the way. The Academy's Vision and Goals The Academy's vision for the Learning Center includes a physical location to increase the Academy's didactic and laboratory-based education and also for distance learning opportunities through workshops, seminars, and conferences, said Katz. "St. Pete's significant infrastructure for distance learning and its commitment and involvement with distance learning are very much in keeping with the Academy's interest," he continued. "For several years, the Academy has been planning and working on expanding continuing education, the body of orthotic and prosthetic knowledge and research, and having an actual brick-and-mortar structure as a learning center for both didactic and hands-on education." The facility also can serve as a venue for the Academy's Clinical Standards of Practice (CSOP) consensus conferences, it was noted. Other plans include the development of an O&P library and museum with the assistance of the museum studies department of St. Petersburg College. An exciting but more distant goal is the development of an "Academy of the Americas" to provide O&P education for Central and South America, said Katz. The Academy is partnering with a task force committee chaired by noted orthopedist Miguel Gomez, MD, to develop learning opportunities for colleagues and students in Latin America. "The success shared by the organizations involved in making the dream of an O&P school in the Southeast a reality represents a tremendous grassroots commitment from practitioners who recognized that we must take responsibility for the future of our profession by supporting our educational programs," said Paul E. Prusakowski, CPO, FAOP president and Academy vice president. "The future also depends upon raising an awareness of this profession as an option for college-age students looking for a rewarding career," Prusakowski continued. "Now we all need to help get more students into these O&P programs--participating in the Academy's O&P Awareness Campaign [www.opcareers.org] is a great way that we can all help guarantee the future of our profession." To donate funds or for more information, contact: Chester Littlefield, CPO, Florida Chapter AAOP, president, 813.975.7139; fcaaop@aol.com ; or Dr. Janice Buchanan, campaign director, O&P Program, St. Petersburg College Foundation Inc., 727.341.3319; buchananj@spcollege.edu

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Academy, St. Petersburg College Partner for New O&P School

A magnificent partnership has come together to establish a new orthotics and prosthetics school, along with an Academy Learning Center, at St. Petersburg College, St. Petersburg, Florida.

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RECENT NEWS

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