The year 2023 is a license renewal year for all Athletic Trainers and many Physical Therapists, including myself. If you’re also facing license renewal in 2023, keep reading for 3 of my favorite continuing ed courses I’ve taken this year.
My Favorite Online Continuing Ed Courses
Whether you’re an AT or PT, license renewal usually requires some form of continuing education (CE) credit. The most popular way to earn CE credit is to take online continuing ed courses—but not all online CEUs are worth your time.
For the past 5 years, I’ve completed my CE credit through MedBridge Education, an online provider of continuing education. And five years in, I still can’t believe the value-for-dollar this platform brings.
First, there’s the variety of courses. On MedBridge you can search through hundreds of continuing ed courses based on your accreditation and state. These videos and webinars cover the gamut of CE topics, from ethics and business practice to clinical techniques and patient care.
And then there’s the caliber of instructors, which include leading physical therapists, rehab specialists, and professional trainers across the industry. What’s more, each course comes in an engaging format with an intuitive, easy-to-use interface you can view on practically any device.
An annual subscription gives you access to these courses and an unlimited amount of CEUs. Use the promo code PTProgress, and you’ll knock $150 off—for a total of $225 annually.
I realize MedBridge isn’t the cheapest CEU provider available. But any extra money you spend on MedBridge will really pay off. Once you consider the prestigious instructors, the high-quality content and presentation, and the first-class learning format, those other cheap or free CEU courses just won’t compare.
You can read my full MedBridge review here. Below are three courses—out of many!—that demonstrate the value of a MedBridge education.
3 Continuing Ed Courses to Check Out This Year
“What Every Clinician Should Know About ACL Injury and Treatment” by Terry Malone, PT, EdD, AT-Ret
About the professor: Terry Malone is one of the nation’s top sports physical therapists, having served as chairman in sports specialization for APTA as well as dean of the Krannert School of PT at the University of Indiana. Currently he teaches full-time for the University of Kentucky DPT program, as well as through several courses on MedBridge.
About the course: This brief, one-hour course lends valuable insight into the historical and evidential basis for ACL injury management, from diagnosing and treating an ACL injury to determining when patients can safely return to sport.
Dr. Malone’s course covers:
- A history of the last 50 years of ACL injury management
- How that treatment has evolved and will continue to evolve
- The challenges in choosing the best approach to rehabilitate ACL
Course time: 69 minutes; learning assessment time: 45 minutes.
In most states, this course counts for 1.75 hours of CEU credit, but be sure to check the accreditation for your state and specialty.
What I liked: What I found interesting about this particular course was Malone’s presentation—how he seamlessly wove the history of ACL injury management into a discussion on evidence-based decision-making. Plus, there are some fun facts sprinkled throughout the course. For example, did you know that the first ACL reconstruction surgery was reported in 1900? Or that the vast majority of ACL injuries occur in the last 30 degrees of extension, or that a whopping 70% of ACL injuries are considered non-contact?
Clearly, you’re going to learn a ton in this one-hour course. Regardless of your experience with ACL injuries, Dr. Malone offers some really valuable information that you can immediately use in your practice as a PT or an athletic trainer.
“Clinical Practice Guidelines for Diagnosis and Treatment of Concussion” by Caralyn Baxter, DPT.
About the professor: Physical Therapist Caralyn Baxter owns UT Motion Physical Therapy Clinic in Park City, Utah. After an extensive career working with professional athletes, Baxter is an expert on concussion management and is currently on faculty with Concussion Corner Academy.
About the course: It may be short and sweet, but this 42-minute lecture covers all the basics of managing a concussion in the clinic, from diagnosis and evaluation to treatment.
Dr. Baxter’s course covers:
- Diagnosing a concussion post-impact
- Evaluating a concussion across the domains of cervicogenic, vestibular/oculomotor, physiologic, and motor function
- Choosing the right treatment interventions to optimize recovery
Course time: 42 minutes; learning assessment time: 31 minutes.
This course counts for 1.25 hours of CE credit in most states, but not all. Always check the accreditation for your state and specialty first.
What I liked: I really couldn’t believe how much information was packed into such a short lecture. Baxter’s thorough presentation covers the latest research and includes helpful examples of examinations and treatments. With this course, you’ll learn—in a nutshell!—concussion management techniques you can absolutely start integrating into your practice.
All told, if you want to learn about concussion management from someone who has worked with top athletes in the NHL, NFL, Major League Baseball, US Figure skating, and the US Olympic Ski and Snowboard team—then this course is for you.
“The Movement System: Syndromes of the Neck” by Jared Vagy, DPT, OCS, CSCS
About the Professor: Bestselling author Jared Vagy is an assistant professor of PT at the University of Southern California, with specialties in orthopedics and strength and conditioning. His clinical experience includes rehabilitating several world champions, Olympians, and international weight-lifters.
About the Course: At just over an hour long, this brief course is one of a series by Vagy on MedBridge called The Movement System. Each course begins by identifying movement impairment using techniques developed by Shirley Sahrmann and associates in her illustrative textbook, Diagnosis and Treatment of Movement Impairment Syndromes. For this particular course, Dr. Vagy focuses on neck pain, using three separate case studies to demonstrate proper diagnosis and treatment.
Dr. Vagy’s course covers:
- Analyzing patients to identify the source of neck pain
- Classifying patients with faulty cervical spine movement
- Restoring optimal motion with corrective exercise
Course time: 68 minutes; learning assessment time: 39 minutes.
Most states credit 1.75 hours of continuing ed for this course. Don’t forget to confirm that your state is one of them.
What I liked: I’ve enjoyed a couple of Dr. Vagy’s courses in the past, and this course did not disappoint. Vagy presents an excellent interpretation of the Movement System Impairment school of thought. For context, I’ve taken courses on the same topic from the original author, Shirley Sahrmann, who is brilliant and hilarious in her lectures. Her technique was developed along with her associates at Washington University in St. Louis, my alma mater.
But most of all, I really appreciate how Vagy structured his lectures. Each one is easy to follow, and his demonstrations and treatment examples helped me fully understand the material he presents.
If you also like his lecture style, you’re in luck, because he has over a dozen different lectures on MedBridge. With an annual subscription, you can take them all for $225—as long as you use the promo code PTProgress for $150 off.
Summary
Don’t let your continuing education be just another box you tick on the way to license renewal. As clinical practitioners, we have an opportunity every renewal cycle to deepen our knowledge, improve our skills, and learn something new along the way. These three courses can help you do all that in the span of an afternoon, while the hundreds more like them on MedBridge can feed you stimulating clinical content for the rest of the year.
Remember to use the promo code PTProgress to land the lowest price on MedBridge this year!
