COURSE CURRICULUM

The MScPT curriculum at Queen’s University is designed to integrate academic knowledge, clinical reasoning, and professional competencies across a progressive series of courses and placements totaling multiple credit units. Foundational courses in professionalism, collaboration, leadership, and management are delivered in three sequential blocks (PT 811, 812, 813), developing skills in ethical practice, interprofessional teamwork, shared leadership, practice management, humanism, and cultural humility. Evidence-based practice and clinical reasoning are introduced and expanded through PT 831, 832, and 833, enabling students to critically appraise and apply evidence in client-centred assessment and management, including complex individual, community, and population health scenarios. Applied clinical competencies courses (PT 871, 872, 873) provide hands-on learning through lab simulations and scenarios that integrate physiotherapy expertise, communication, and clinical reasoning. Students gain practical experience through six sequential clinical placements (PT 881–886), beginning with guided supervision and progressing to independent practice in diverse settings, addressing simple to complex client needs, and integrating knowledge of legal, administrative, and business aspects of practice. Finally, the PT 898 Critical Enquiry Project allows students to apply inquiry skills to a clinical investigation, linking research to practice. Together, these courses ensure that graduates achieve comprehensive clinical competence, evidence-based decision-making, professional behaviours, and readiness for independent physiotherapy practice in a variety of health care environments.