As a physical therapist (PT) or physical therapy assistant (PTA), you are required to maintain your level of continued education units (CEUs) every year to keep your professional licensing effective.

Attending conferences, and events can provide great networking opportunities. But, the Internet provides many online PT and PTA continuing education courses that make it far more convenient.

How Many CEUs for Physical Therapists and Physical Therapy Assistants?

keep-learning-continued-education Physical Therapy Continuing Education Courses OnlineAccording to the Office of the Professions, New York licensing requires that you maintain a minimum of 36 contact hours of approved continuing education in each three-year renewal period.

What this equates to is 3.6 CEUs over 3 years, with 0.1 CEU equal to one competence/ certification hour. Since many continuing education courses are 0.1 CEUs, this equals roughly 12 hours per year. Though you can also find courses worth much more.

You also need to ensure the subjects contribute to your professional and clinical skills. This can include a variety of areas such as hands-on clinical skills, evidence-based models of practice and evaluation, patient communications, record keeping, supervision, business practices, or matters relating to healthcare that relate to professional practice as a PT or PTA.

FREE Physical Therapy Continuing Education Courses Online

Associations such as the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) often hold free seminars or webinars for members, which do provide CEUs.

For example, the APTA elearning center has a range of free courses available to association members.

Flex Therapist CEUs provides one free course on regional pain syndrome worth 1 contact hour.

FreeCMe4Me.com provides an index of various free courses. Browsing through you can find some good ones such as ‘Fall-Related Brain Injury in Older Adults: Focus on Prevention.’

PAID Physical Therapy Continuing Education Courses Online

If your options seem limited on the free front. They certainly aren’t if you’re prepared to pay.

The good news is you don’t necessarily have to pay a lot. Online courses from various outlets range from $15 upwards.

PTcourses.com has a wide selection of continuing education materials for PTs and PTAs – assistive technology, clinical medicine, documentation and government regulation, ethics, geriatrics, home health, orthopedics, pediatrics, neuro rehab, pharmacology and wound care.

PTcourses allows you to take the courses online, via email, via ebook, and even by mail in most cases. When you select a course such as ‘Understanding, Evaluating, & Treating Distal Radius Fractures’ you can check state licensure on the courses. Though, All their courses are approved in New York.

For a variety of other paid physical therapy continuing education courses, check out the list below. All of these Internet locations provide a range of certified online education courses.

Please be advised that laws, regulations, and policies may change at any time, so always check with your state for the most up-to-date information.

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