Kaiser Permanente Southern California
Hand Therapy Program

Kaiser Permanente, Southern California Region, is proud to offer a comprehensive hand therapy fellowship program. Our fellowship program is designed to provide therapists with the advanced knowledge and skills necessary to succeed in the field of hand therapy.

Our program curriculum is designed to provide therapists with advanced training in clinical examination and treatments skills. Clinical decision making skills are emphasized throughout the program.

Our program utilizes a broad based and eclectic curriculum in a small group setting in order to meet the individual needs and learning styles of each fellow. As a result of the breath of our program, many of our past participants have found it to be a very helpful tool in the preparation for the Hand Therapy Certification Exam. Our fellowship begins in January of each year and runs for 50 consecutive weeks. Our program consists of 19 seminars including 3 splinting workshops, 2 human cadaver labs, 1 physical agents training lab and 1 taping and edema lab. In order to support our participants, the seminars and labs are presented on 12 Saturdays, and 7 Sundays.

Fellows will be employed by Kaiser Permanente for the duration of their fellowship. They will be scheduled to provide patient care at the Orange County facility. Each Fellow received 2.5 hours of direct clinical mentor time per week with an expert in the field and is paid for providing unsupervised patient care to their own hand therapy case load. Care is taken to provide an appropriate and challenging patient load for each fellow.

Please call to inquire about program fee and current scheduled classes!

CURRICULUM OUTLINE

Guidelines for Clinical Practice Hours, Clinical Supervision (Mentoring) Hours in Specialty Practice Observation Hours

Requirements:

• 850 hours of clinical practice 
• 115.7 hours of classroom/ lab instruction
• 132 hours of clinical 1:1 mentoring
• 120 hours of specialty practice/ observation
• 18 hours of fellow performance and evaluation (6 hrs of specific clinical performance with observation and questions by instructor, 3 times a year)

The three hours clinical supervision period will be configured according to the following schedule:

• Return appointment: 30 minutes.
• Return appointment: 30 minutes.
• New Patient Eval/Rx: 60 minutes.
• Return appointment: 30 minutes.
• Review: 30 minutes
  

Typical options for attainment of the Clinical Practice hour requirements:

The fellow provides a minimum of 17 hours of unsupervised patient care per week for 50 weeks. This averages out over the year to approximately 32 scheduled, unsupervised hours of patient care. This equates to a full-time fellow with benefits, if desired. The fellow has the option to choose benefits or a higher rate of pay if they have their own benefits that will sustain them throughout the program.

Typical option for attainment of the Medical and Surgical hour requirement:

The fellow is responsible for scheduling 6 clinical days with affiliating physicians and 6 surgical days for a total of 96 specialty practice hours

The contents of the classroom, lab and clinical training in this fellowship encompass the following areas:

• Anatomy of the Upper Quarter and Anatomy Lab
• Fundamental Evaluation, Radiologic Interpretation, and Treatment Skills
• Fundamental Immobilization Splinting Techniques
• Neurological Entrapment Sites of the Upper Extremity and EMG Testing
• Management of the Tendon Injuries
• Biomechanics Exam of the Upper Quadrant
• Fundamental Mobilization Splinting Techniques
• Skeletal Injuries of the Upper Extremities
• Anatomy Lab with Surgical Demonstration
• Upper Quarter Neurological Disorders: Examination, Intervention, Outcomes
• Splinting for Nerve and Tendon Disorders Lab
• Management of Arthritis Disorders
• Ergonomics and Statistics and Soft Tissue Disorders
• Grafts, Flaps, Wounds, Mutilating Injuries and Amputations/ Prosthetics
• Taping and Edema Control, Prosthetics
• Physical Agents and Rehab and Lab
• Clinical Decision Making in Hand Rehabiliation: Test Questions, Instructor Panel, Fellow Presentation

CLINICAL FACULTY

LECTURERS

PROGRAM COORDINATOR/ DIRECTOR

PROGRAM SECRETARY

To obtain more information about this fellowship, please contact:
Rebecca Park (Program Secretary) | Rebecca.L.Park@kp.org
Physical Therapy Residency and Fellowship Programs
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Department
Voice Mail: (714) 748 - 6103