The faculty offers 4-year programs. Bachelor’s degrees of science will be conferred to the graduates of 4-year program. Students of Rehabilitation Therapy are offered with five programs to choose from, including Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, and Prosthetics & Orthotics, Respiratory Care and Hearing and Speech Rehabilitation. These three programs have been certified by World Confederation for Physical Therapy, World Federation of Occupation Therapists, and International Society for Prosthetics and Orthotics respectively. Graduates would be more competitive applying schools and pursuing professional careers worldwide.
1. Physical Therapy: Physical therapists provide services that develop, maintain and restore people’s maximum movement and functional ability. They can help people at any stage of life, when movement and function are threatened by ageing, injury, diseases, disorders, conditions or environmental factors. Physical therapists help people maximize their quality of life, looking at physical, psychological, emotional and social wellbeing. They work in the health spheres of promotion, prevention, treatment/intervention, habilitation and rehabilitation.
Core Courses of Physical Therapy
2. Occupational Therapy: Occupational therapy is a client-centered health profession concerned with promoting health and wellbeing through occupation. The primary goal of occupational therapy is to enable people to participate in the activities of everyday life. Occupational therapists achieve this outcome by working with people and communities to enhance their ability to engage in the occupations they want to, need to, or are expected to do, or by modifying the occupation or the environment to better support their occupational engagement.
Core Courses of Occupational Therapy
3. Prosthetics & Orthotics: A prosthesis is an “externally applied device used to replace wholly, or in part, an absent or deficient limb segment” and an orthosis is an “externally applied device used to modify the structural and functional characteristics of the neuromuscular and skeletal system”. Prosthetics and orthotics services enable people with limb amputations or physical impairments of their limbs or spine to achieve greater function and independence to participate in society.
Core Courses of Prosthetics & Orthotics
Introduction to Prosthetics & Orthotics
Lower Limb Orthotics
Below Knee Prosthetics
Spinal Orthotics
Above Knee Prosthetics
Upper Limb Prosthetics
Rehabilitation of Orthopaedics
Upper Limb Orthotics
Management for Prosthetics and Orthotics Profession
4. Respiratory Care
Respiratory care is a new medical profession, providing diagnosis, treatment and monitoring for the patients with impaired or abnormal cardiopulmonary function under the guide of doctor.
In 1997, with the help of the former chairman of CMB Dr. sawyer, the UAB、Loma Linda University and other specialists in respiratory care and the permission of Chinese Professor Liang Zong’an launched a five year respiratory care training program in West China School of Medicine/ West China Hospital. In 2000, the five-year program changed into four-year program. All the graduates would be granted the degree of B.S. By far, this program is still the only bachelor program of respiratory care in Mainland China.
As the division of work becoming more and more skillful and professional, cooperation between subjects are critical in the clinical settings. The cultivation goal of Respiratory Care is to foster the specialists in providing diagnosis, treatment and monitoring for patients with impaired cardiopulmonary function. The general work of respiratory therapists includes in providing mechanical ventilation and oxygen therapy for critically ill patients; transporting; the usage and monitoring of medical gas; other operations such as fiber bronchoscope, blood gas analysis, pulmonary function test and hyperbaric oxygen.
The students in the respiratory care program should take the courses about the humanity and social science, medical science, respiratory care and critical care as well as clinic skill training. All the subjects divide into public medical courses and professional courses. The former one includes but not limited to medical physics, organic chemistry, anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, medical microbiology, pathology, diagnostics, pharmacology, internal medicine, surgery and pediatrics. The later one includes in respiratory physiology and pulmonary function test, pulmonary diseases, respiratory care, intensive care medicine, pediatric respiratory care, principles and application of respiratory care equipment, respiratory care pharmacology, professional English for respiratory care and mechanical ventilation.
This program has cultivated more than 100 respiratory therapists for the whole country. All the graduates do medical service, teaching and research work in the intensive care unit, respiratory department and emergency department of the first class hospital and teaching hospital as well as relating companies.
5. Hearing and Speech Rehabilitation
1）Evolution and development
In 2015, West China School of Medicine of Sichuan University established Bachelor Degree of Hearing and Speech Rehabilitation in Faculty of Rehabilitation Therapy and started enrollment. Education of Bachelor Degree of Hearing and Speech Rehabilitation was response by the ENT-Hearing Center of West China Hospital(WCH). Hearing Center of WCH was established in 2004. It includes Audiology/Tinnitus Clinic, Clinic Hearing Tests Center, Hearing and Speech Rehabilitation Evaluation Center and Hearing and Speech Science Lab. They separately located in A1 and A3 area， 2nd floor of Outpatient Building of WCH, and 6th floor of The Teaching building of West China School of Medicine of Sichuan University. In 2008 October, Hearing Center of WCH was named for National Education Training Base for Audiology by Chinese Academy of Audiological Rehabilitation (CAAR). It is not only supplying different kinds of professional education for domestic and foreign counterparts, but promoting the applied-clinical research according to the demands from the patients and counterparts. The work of Hearing Center focus on the Academic research results converting to the clinical work and apply these results to serve the patients and counterparts. On the professional development, Hearing Center actively promote international cooperation，propelling the training course internationally. The hearing Center has built the education and research partnership with Cardiff Metropolitan University, House Ear Institute and so on. In 2015, the Hearing Center was granted as the Newborn Hearing Screening and Diagnosis Center in Sichuan Province. The purpose of the Newborn Hearing Screening and Diagnosis Center was responding the training, appraising and Patient referral work in 50 the Newborn Hearing Screening and Diagnosis Sub-Centers and 400 Newborn Hearing Screening Centers in Sichuan Province. Simultaneously, it also be the Hearing-loss patient referral Center in Sichuan even West-South China area. The Quantity of Outpatient: WCH ENT clinic:≥200，000 patients per year; Audiology/Hearing clinic:27,000 patients per year; Hearing tests evaluation: 30,000 patients per year; Hearing-aids rehabilitation evaluation :≥6,000 patients；Cochlear Implant rehabilitation evaluation: ≥1000 patients per year. ENT surgical ward，Vestibular functional examination room, other Ear Examination room and Hearing and Speech Science Lab will guarantee the students or the trainee get enough opportunities to carry out their fieldwork.
2）Training Target
Our training target was guided by the view of scientific development, the demand of medical talents in the development of medicine and the development of society and economy. To cultivate high level, high quality hearing and speech rehabilitation talents to train the international standard hearing and speech rehabilitation therapist.
3）Training Requirement
The students of this major study the basic knowledge and theory of natural science, fundamental medicine, clinical medicine, hearing and speech rehabilitation, receive basic training in hearing and speech rehabilitation skills, communication skills, and master the primary hearing and speech rehabilitation, health guidance, independent learning and lifelong learning ability. The detail requirements are:
A. Loves the motherland, is willing to serve for the modernization construction, serves the people, has the ambition and the responsibility which strives for the national prosperity, have the ability of dedication, the arduous struggle, loves the labor, the law-abiding, the unity cooperation quality；With good ideological and moral, social ethics and professional ethics
B. Have the basic theory knowledge of humanities and social sciences and Natural science, master the basic theory and principle and techniques of hearing and speech rehabilitation
C. Have the practical ability to use and manage the computer medical information system, have the skill of communication, the spirit of teamwork；have the ability to frequently read the professional books/periodical both in Chinese and English, and get the preliminary training of scientific research ability.
D. Basic ability to acquire this expertise independently, have the ability to ask，analyze and solve problems, and to engage in the professional business. Have a sound psychological and healthy physique, able to fulfill the sacred obligation to build the motherland.
4）Core Courses
Basics of Hearing and Speech Science (includes Basics of Acoustic, Anatomy and Physiology of Hearing and Speech Science)，Diagnostic Audiology, Pediatric Audiology, Hearing Devices( Hearing Aids, Implantable and non-implantable hearing devices), Speech and Language Rehabilitation, Tinnitus and Vertigo Rehabilitation, Otorhinolaryngology(Ⅱ）, Diagnostic Radiology （Ⅱ）, System Integration of clinical courses (Ⅲ)-1，System Integration of clinical courses (Ⅲ)-2.
5）Length of schooling
Four years, range from 3~6 years
6）Degree
Bachelor of Science
