Program Location:

California State University Dominguez Hills
College of Health & Human Services, Division of Health Sciences
1000 E. Victoria Street
Carson, CA 90747

Clinical Laboratory OSSUR North America & Certificate Program :

27412 Aliso Viejo Parkway
Aliso Viejo, CA 92656

Contacts:

Scott Hornbeak, CPO, Director (310)-243-2700 Carson campus
(949)-643-5374 Aliso Viejo campus

e-mail: shornbeak@csudh.edu

web site: www.csudh.edu/oandp

or College of Health & Human Services Advising, (1-800-344-5484) - Option 1
web site: www.csudh.edu/hhs

Type of Program:

Allied Health professional training program, conducting baccalaureate level and post graduate instruction of practitioners in the field of prosthetic and orthotic rehabilitation.

Program Summary:

All clinical Prosthetics courses will move to an off campus site in Aliso Viejo, in Orange County, effective August 1, 2003. The site provides a much larger clinical laboratory with new equipment, and is located approximately 42 miles from the CSUDH campus. All clinical Orthotics courses will move to the same site in August, 2004. Initially, the Cal. State Prosthetic Orthotic Education Program will conduct formal and practical instruction in the field of prosthetics at the new laboratory. The principle objective of the program will be to produce 32 highly trained practitioners each year, who will serve the prosthetic needs of thousands of severely disabled individuals who require artificial limbs.

The program has two educational pathways:

1) a Certificate program which takes six months to complete, for students who already have a bachelor's degree, and

2) a Bachelor of Science in Health Science, Prosthetics Option, for students who seek the Health Science degree at CSUDH, and spend their last six months completing prosthetics clinical instruction at the new off campus laboratory. As demand develops, the program plans to offer an Orthotics Certificate or short term Orthotic courses, starting in late 2004.

All clinical prosthetics and orthotics courses will continue to be assigned the HEA prefix, but the clinical components will now be offered off site through the Division of Extended Education. Therefore the baccalaureate degree program will become a so called "3 + 1" program, where the student will spend the first 3 years in the pre-clinical component and registered in lower division, upper division, and core health science courses, as well as introductory and didactic orthotics and prosthetics courses. The final 28 units, which constitute the clinical component, will be intensive clinical training in the Prosthetics Option of the Health Science major, but registered through Extended Education in our new off site laboratory. A number of qualified students who have already completed a Bachelor's Degree will also be attending the same clinical classes, paying the same fees to Extended Education as the Health Science Degree students. These other students are known as Certificate students; they receive a Certificate of Completion upon graduation from the prosthetics program.)

Certificate Program:

CSUDH offers comprehensive clinical and didactic post graduate Certificate Programs in Orthotics and Prosthetics which were granted full CAAHEP accreditation in 1999. Beginning in 2003, a six month post graduate Certificate Program in Prosthetics will be offered every August and January at our new clinical laboratory at Ossur North America. The program will fulfill the need for practitioners who provide prosthetic rehabilitation of individuals requiring custom made artificial limbs. The Certificate Programs at California State University utilize experience, faculty, curriculum and teaching materials refined over an eighteen year period of successful undergraduate training in the Baccalaureate Level Program in Orthotics and Prosthetics. The program is comprised of 30 academic credits detailed on page 4.

Up to sixteen students will be admitted to each Certificate class. Prerequisites and course content for the Certificate Programs in Orthotics and Prosthetics will adhere to the Standards for an Accredited Educational Program for the Orthotist and Prosthetist established by the National Commission on Orthotic and Prosthetic Education (NCOPE) in 1993. After completion of a
Certificate Program, one year of supervised clinical experience in a NCOPE accredited residency will follow. Residency sites are available throughout the United States. The practitioner will then be eligible to stand for American Board for Certification (ABC) certification in their chosen discipline. We anticipate offering a six month Certificate Program in Orthotics once a year starting late in 2004. Certificate applications will become available January and July of each year.

Bachelors Degree Program:

Clinical training in prosthetics occurs in the last 28 units (six months clinical component) of the Bachelor's Degree in Health Science, Prosthetic Option. This practitioner level program requires two full years at CSUDH to complete, and it is designed to produce professional level graduates with a baccalaureate degree. Pre clinical course work in Health Science enhances the students' conceptual, analytic, and quantitative abilities, and develops leadership skills. Pre clinical and clinical instruction includes training in communication skills - oral and written, as well as strengthening behavioral and social attributes, emphasizing ethical standards of integrity and compassion for others. The Program is a "3+1" baccalaureate degree, where undergraduate students attend their first 3 years of pre clinical college in general education, prerequisite, and selected didactic (lecture) courses, and complete their final 28 units immersed in clinical training in prosthetics at the off-site facility at Ossur. Graduates of this program will be qualified to enter into an one year NCOPE accredited Residency, and then may take the American Board for Certification (ABC) test leading to the credential Certified Prosthetist (C.P.) If a graduate wishes to pursue education in Orthotics they may apply for the Orthotics Certificate, offered in CSUDH Extended Education or elsewhere in the country.