Physical Therapist sitting with patient

Grow and develop skills as an advanced hand therapist.

The Upper Extremity Rehabilitation Fellowship is one year in length, beginning in January. Within that year, fellows receive a combination of weekly didactic curriculum, lab and interprofessional rotations, 180 hours of direct 1:1 mentorship, and 1700 hours of clinical practice in specialty area of hand therapy to progress fellows towards becoming an advanced provider in the specialty area of Hand Therapy.

What makes this program unique?

  • 1 year program starting in January performed synchronously with Virtual Hand to Shoulder Fellowship (VHSF)
  • Didactic study courses via VHSF online platform
  • 36 hours of patient care per week, including 150 hours of direct 1:1 mentoring during patient care hours throughout the year
  • Full time program accruing at least 1650 hours of patient care. All hand and upper extremity patient care hours can be used toward the 4000 hours required to take the Hand Therapy Certification Commission’s Hand Therapy Certification Examination
  • Diverse and accessible expert faculty with various training backgrounds
  • Integrated interprofessional learning opportunities including rotations with expert physical therapists, occupational therapists, and hand surgeons
  • Weekly labs and patient care opportunities throughout the year including orthosis fabrication
  • Plenty of case studies, skill competencies, and critical article appraisal 
Apply now

Sample fellow weekly schedule

The information below provides an illustrative example of the weekly schedule. Please note that specifics are subject to change as updates and enhancements to program are continually made to improve the fellow learning experience.

Time Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
AM Patient Care Mentoring with
Patient Care		 Class or Experiential
Learning		 Patient Care Patient Care
PM Patient Care Patient Care Patient Care Patient Care Patient Care

Overview Length
Program length 12 months
Access to study materials 18 months
Patient care 1,728 hours

Topic Hours
On-site conferences: skills labs*
(includes joint mobilization, diagnostic tests, manual therapy, DDX)		 26
Group mentoring: case studies (onsite) 26
1:1 in-person mentoring 150
Orthosis fabrication (in-person) 32
Research 50
CHT Rotations 24
Orthopedic Surgery Rotation 16
Teaching assistant 2
Weekly assigned readings 82
Recorded weekly lectures 72
Weekly quizzes 24
Exams 10
CHT Practice Exam 4
Total Hours 518

Experiential Learning

Experiential learning consists of diverse observational and interactive learning experiences throughout the St. Luke’s University Health Network. You will observe and interact with many different physical therapists, occupational therapists, and hand surgeons.

Physical Therapist helping patient workout

How to Apply

Submit your application to be considered for the St. Luke’s Upper Extremity Rehabilitation Fellowship Program.

Apply now