Collaborators on the new Erlanger Acute Care Physical Therapy Residency with UTC include Erlanger PT team lead and UTC alum Alexis Bennett, left, and Dr. Stephanie Eton, assistant professor of practice in the UTC Department of Physical Therapy and director of residency education. Photo by Angela Foster.
For the first time, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Department of Physical Therapy includes a post-doctoral residency.
The newly created Erlanger Acute Care Physical Therapy Residency involves licensed physical therapist residents serving as clinical instructors for UTC physical therapy students during clinical rotations and assisting with teaching didactic coursework in the University’s Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) program—with an emphasis on acute care. The residency curriculum, developed collaboratively by Erlanger clinicians and UTC faculty, includes both live patient care and didactic instruction.
Developed in accordance with the American Physical Therapy Association’s Core Competencies for Physical Therapist Residents, the UTC/Erlanger partnership represents a comprehensive educational initiative designed to elevate expertise in treating acutely ill patients. With candidacy status granted by the American Board of Physical Therapy Residency and Fellowship Education, the program is expected to enroll its first resident in January 2025.
This collaboration marks a significant step forward for the UTC DPT program, enhancing training opportunities and advancing the quality of patient care in the Chattanooga area—with future additional residency opportunities on the horizon.
“This is the first step in building and strengthening our partnership with Erlanger. We hope this will be the first of a number of projects that we can collaborate on,” said Dr. Valerie Rutledge, dean of the UTC College of Health, Education and Professional Studies.
“We’re really excited about where this partnership is headed,” said Dr. Nancy Fell, UC Foundation professor and head of the UTC Department of Physical Therapy. “It’s not only about educating the next generation of physical therapists but also about giving back to the community and raising the bar for health care in the Chattanooga area.”
The residency program came to life through a combination of strategic planning at UTC and Erlanger leadership. The spark for the collaboration was lit when Gina Rahn, the physical therapy manager at Erlanger, reached out to the University with a proposal.
“I was attending a community event when Gina approached me and asked, ‘What do you think about starting a residency program?’ It was perfect timing because, coincidentally, we had just started talking about exploring residency options within our strategic plan,” Fell recalled. “Gina is an alumna of our program, so the connection was already there. The stars really aligned.”
Rahn started at Erlanger as a physical therapy technician in 1993 before entering the UTC PT program, earning a bachelor’s degree in 1996. She returned to Erlanger’s physical therapy staff “about 10 years ago.”
“For me personally, this partnership is kind of cathartic—having the institution where I started my career work alongside the institution where I plan on ending my career. It’s a cool thing to do, having the two come together in such a great way,” Rahn said.
“With Erlanger being a Level 1 trauma center, this hospital has quite a bit more to offer than any other in the region as far as different areas of acute care practice, so we thought we would have a lot to offer to a postgraduate therapist who could come in here and see a huge variety of diagnoses—to give them the experience they need to have all those tricks in their toolbox. With a resident, you’re not only pushing a person to do better; they also push a department and the people around them to do better.”
With the support of Dr. Stephanie Eton, assistant professor of practice in the UTC Department of Physical Therapy and director of residency education, the pieces began to fall into place, Fell said.
Eton, who joined the UTC faculty in 2020, is a board-certified geriatric physical therapist and LSVT BIG certified clinician—and a graduate of a residency program herself at Nova Southeastern University in Florida. She took on the lead role from the UTC side.
“Stephanie stepped up to the plate, raised her hand, and said, ‘I’ll help make this happen,’” Fell said. “She took it upon herself to be a champion from the University perspective.
“What do residencies bring to someone who’s a physical therapist and already has their license? Stephanie’s a perfect example of that. It made her shine when she interviewed here. She was better prepared to be a faculty member because she had that additional training. We’re lucky to have her.”
The creation of the new program at Erlanger reflects the broader goals of physical therapy residency programs, which are still relatively new in the profession.
“Residency education in physical therapy was first credentialed in 2000, so it’s still a developing field,” Eton explained. “Most people don’t even realize that physical therapists can pursue post-professional training like this, much like physicians.
“Part of a physical therapist’s requirement is they go through three years of training to get their doctorate and then they have a post-professional option of doing residency education.”
The acute care residency is designed to provide advanced training in treating critically ill patients in settings such as intensive care units. Throughout the 12-month program, residents will rotate through different areas of acute care—including neurology, cardiopulmonary, oncology and trauma—gaining experience in managing a variety of complex cases.
The goal, Eton said, is to “cram the experience of a four-to-five-year post-graduation physical therapist into one year,” producing highly skilled practitioners ready to lead in acute care environments. Residents will also serve as clinical instructors for UTC DPT students completing clinical rotations, further solidifying their teaching skills.
By integrating both clinical and academic responsibilities, she said, the residency aims “to produce well-rounded physical therapists who are not only adept at patient care but also capable of contributing to the future of physical therapy education.”
Erlanger PT team lead Alexis Bennett has worked there since 2017 after earning a DPT from UTC in 2016. She has also been an adjunct faculty member at the University since 2020, teaching an acute care course.
“A lot of my focus has been on mentorship and getting our current staff ready to be mentors and to teach what they do to someone who’s eager to learn,” Bennett said. “I enjoy both UTC’s and Erlanger’s dedication to the community, and I think this residency is going to serve the members of our community very well.
“It’s exciting that Erlanger and UTC have such a great relationship because—coming from both places—it’s a nice melting pot to have so many different faculty members and clinicians that I can use as my own mentors. I love that people enjoy their jobs at both places and that I get to learn alongside my old professors and teach alongside them as well.”
While the partnership between UTC and Erlanger is not new, Fell said, the launch of the residency strengthens the collaboration. UTC DPT students conducting their acute care coursework at Erlanger gain valuable observational experience in patient care.
“Our students are well-prepared before they even enter the clinic thanks to the experience they gain at Erlanger. This residency will only enhance that preparation,” Fell said. “We’ll now have residents working alongside our students and faculty—which elevates everyone’s learning experience.”
As the program progresses, Eton said the aim is to build a pipeline of skilled practitioners who are not only clinical experts but also leaders in their field. Recruitment efforts for the first resident are already underway.
“We’re just getting started, but the impact we’re going to have—on our students, on our residents and on our community—is going to be tremendous,” Eton said. “We’re trying to reinforce evidence-based practice across the board, which is important not only for individual patient outcomes but also for addressing broader issues like health equity.
“If we can train physical therapists to provide the same standard of care nationwide, then we’re doing a service to the profession and to the communities we serve.”
Learn more
UTC Physical Therapy and Doctor of Physical Therapy
Erlanger/UTC Acute Care Physical Therapy Residency
