Welcome to the Physical Therapist Assistant guide!
If you have questions or comments about this guide, please contact Dennis Johnson, Librarian for the School of Health Sciences or Librarians@Rasmussen.edu
For career information, please see the Physical Therapist Assistant tab on the Career Information page in this guide.
ADDITIONAL DOCUMENTATION
The following documents provide more information on the program and immunization or certification requirements.
THANK YOU to our Clinical Partners and Instructors and for offering your time and energy to help educate our PTA students!
We really appreciate all your hard work.
This Clinical Education tab hosts specific clinical information that may not be in the Program Handbook or is presented differently than in the Handbook. The PTA Program Handbook is available on the “Program Handbook” tab in this webpage. This resource intends to help orient you to some more specifics related the clinical education portion of our Program. This will never replace our regular communication with you! Should you have any questions, comments, or concerns, do not hesitate to reach out to your Clinical Education Coordinator.
The library has eBooks on a variety of physical therapy topics. Some search options include:
Clinical Decision Making for the Physical Therapist Assistant: Across the Continuum of Care by 
Clinical Exercise Pathophysiology for Physical Therapy: Examination, Testing, and Exercise Prescription for Movement-related Disorders by 
Concepts of Evidence Based Practice for the Physical Therapist Assistant by 
Documentation for Physical Therapist Practice: a Clinical Decision Making Approach by 
Documentation for the Physical Therapist Assistant by 
Downer's Physical Therapy Procedures by 
Essentials of Kinesiology for the Physical Therapist Assistant by 
Fundamental Orthopedic Management for the Physical Therapist Assistant by 
Fundamentals of the Physical Therapy Examination Patient Interview and Tests and Measures by 
Geriatric Rehabilitation by 
Guide to Evidence-Based Physical Therapist Practice by 
Integumentary Physical Therapy by 
Measurement of Joint Motion by 
Neurologic Interventions for Physical Therapy by 
Orthopaedic Physical Therapy Secrets by 
Orthopaedics for the Physical Therapist Assistant by 
Pediatrics for the Physical Therapist Assistant by 
Physical Agents in Rehabilitation: From Research to Practice by 
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation by 
Physical Rehabilitation by 
Physical Rehabilitation for the Physical Therapist Assistant by 
Physical Therapy: Theory, Practices, and Benefits by 
Physical Therapy Clinical Handbook for Ptas by 
Physical Therapy Ethics by 
Pocket Notes for the Physical Therapist Assistant by 
Procedures and Patient Care for the Physical Therapist Assistant by 
Recognizing and Reporting Red Flags for the Physical Therapist Assistant by 
The Role of the Physical Therapist Assistant by 
Saunders Q&a Review for the Physical Therapist Assistant Board Examination by 
The Student Physical Therapist Assistant Survival Guide by The Discovery All-in-One search draws results from a wide variety of databases at once, and contains journals such as:
Additional journals can be found in Health Sciences & Nursing via ProQuest, including:
The video below gives some examples of how to create a search string and refine results, but if you run into any problems you can always chat with a librarian to get help.
The National Physical Therapy Exam (NPTE) for Physical Therapist Assistants is an essential part of the licensing process. You can see more information about the NPTE at the link below:
Want some help studying for your National Physical Therapy Exam (NPTE)?
Rasmussen provides Learning Express to help you!
You can find the Learning Express Library in the A-Z Database list. Select L from the top of the screen and look for Learning Express.
From the homepage, you can explore all of the different areas of learning available to you.
In the Career Preparation area, you can learn more about a career, prepare for an entrance exam, prepare for an occupation exam like the NPTE, and more!
Click Prepare for an occupation exam, and then select the option for Physical Therapist Assistant exam.
Tutor Match allows you to schedule tutoring appointments with Rasmussen University student tutors. To find a tutor for NPTE Exam Prep support, please follow the direction below:
Click here to connect to Tutor Match within the Tutoring Platform (Brainfuse).
Request a Tutoring Session
Session Confirmation
You will see a pending confirmation page letting you know that the tutor has been notified of your request
How to Attend
Simply come back to the Tutoring Platform shortly before your session starts, hover over your name (top right on the page), and click on My Calendar and then on Enter to access the session.
How to Cancel a Tutoring Session
Flashcards are a fabulous way to test your knowledge and identify where you may need additional practice. For tips on how to create and effectively use flashcards, watch the quick 10-minute video below. For resources to create your own flashcards, click here or check out the links below the video.
Mobile Apps
Boolean Operators connect keywords or concepts logically to retrieve relevant articles, books, and other resources. There are three Boolean Operators:
Using AND
Venn diagram of the AND connector
Example: The result list will include resources that include both keywords -- "distracted driving" and "texting" -- in the same article or resource, represented in the shaded area where the circles intersect (area shaded in purple).
Using OR
Venn diagram of the OR connector
Example: The result list will include resources that include the keyword "texting" OR the keyword "cell phone" (entire area shaded in blue); either is acceptable.
Using NOT
Venn diagram of the NOT connector
Example: The result list will include all resources that include the term "car" (green area) but will exclude any resource that includes the term "motorcycle" (purple area) even though the term car may be present in the resource.
A library database searches for keywords throughout the entire resource record including the full-text of the resource, subject headings, tags, bibliographic information, etc.
Keywords:
Example: The keyword list above was developed to find resources that discuss how texting while driving results in accidents. Notice that there are synonyms (texting and "text messaging"), related terms ("cell phones" and texting), and spelling variations ("cell phone" and cellphone). Using keywords when searching full text requires consideration of various words that express an idea or concept.
Subject Headings
Example 1: In EBSCO's Academic Search Complete, clicking on the "Subject Terms" tab provides access to the entire subject heading list used in the database. It also allows a search for specific subject terms.
Example 2: A subject term can be incorporated into a keyword search by clicking on the down arrow next to "Select a Field" and selecting "Subject Terms" from the dropdown list. Also, notice how subject headings are listed below the resource title, providing another strategy for discovering subject headings used in the database.
When a search term is more than one word, enclose the phrase in quotation marks to retrieve more precise and accurate results. Using quotation marks around a term will search it as a "chunk," searching for those particular words together in that order within the text of a resource.
Examples:
"cell phone"
"distracted driving"
"car accident"
TIP: In some databases, neglecting to enclose phrases in quotation marks will insert the AND Boolean connector between each word resulting in unintended search results.
Truncation provides an option to search for a root of a keyword in order to retrieve resources that include variations of that word. This feature can be used to broaden search results, although some results may not be relevant. To truncate a keyword, type an asterisk (*) following the root of the word.
For example:
Library databases provide a variety of tools to limit and refine search results. Limiters provide the ability to limit search results to resources having specified characteristics including:
In both the EBSCO and ProQuest databases, the limiting tools are located in the left panel of the results page.
EBSCO ProQuest
The short video below provides a demonstration of how to use limiters to refine a list of search results.
Each resource in a library database is stored in a record. In addition to the full-text of the resources, searchable Fields are attached that typically include:
Incorporating Fields into your search can assist in focusing and refining search results by limiting the results to those resources that include specific information in a particular field.
In both EBSCO and ProQuest databases, selecting the Advanced Search option will allow Fields to be included in a search.
For example, in the Advanced Search option in EBSCO's Academic Search Complete database, clicking on the down arrow next to "Select a Field" provides a list of fields that can be searched within that database. Select the field and enter the information in the text box to the left to use this feature.
Stop words are short, commonly used words--articles, prepositions, and pronouns-- that are automatically dropped from a search. Typical stop words include:
In library databases, a stop word will not be searched even if it is included in a phrase enclosed in quotation marks. In some instances, a word will be substituted for the stop word to allow for the other words in the phrase to be searched in proximity to one another within the text of the resource.
For example, if you searched company of America, your result list will include these variatons:
This short video demonstrates how to create a search string -- keywords connected with Boolean operators -- to use in a library database search to retrieve relevant resources for any research assignment.