Ronna Whitman (left) and Valerie Huskey. Juggling a full-time job and caring for small children, Gaffney residents Ronna Whitman and Valerie Huskey found time over the past year to earn their doctorate degrees in physical therapy.

Whitman and Huskey graduated May 16 with Doctor of Physical Therapy degrees from the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) in Charleston. They were members of the first graduating class to receive this degree online through the school's laptop computer program.

CDs on pharmacology and radiology joined online discussion groups in replacing regular trips to Charleston for classroom lectures. The physical therapists would spend a full day at Interim Healthcare doing home visits with patients before heading home to their families and an evening with the computer.

"There were times when I would be working on the computer and my kids would ask, 'Mommy, are you doing school or work?'" Whitman recalled. "A lot of times it was both. There were a lot of late nights. I couldn't have done this without the support of my parents, family and people at work. They were tremendous."

Whitman and Huskey graduated in 2000 from a 3-year master's degree program at MUSC. Last spring, the medical school offered to allow the students to complete their doctorate degree in a year.

Huskey convinced Whitman to join her back in school in the spring of 2007. They completed their doctorate degrees in May.

"I figured if I had to suffer... all of us should suffer. If it had not been for our family, friends and work, we would not have survived," said Huskey, pointing to Whitman. "When we were working on our master's degree program, MUSC informed us that they were only going to offer a doctorate in physical therapy to future students. They made a one-time offer for us to go back to school and earn a doctorate degree in one year."

Whitman was motivated by the desire to become better educated and have additional opportunities to further a career in physical therapy. A doctorate degree will allow her to get into teaching and research in the future.

Both are perfectly happy in their current roles doing therapy in home health settings. They conduct an average of six visits each day to help patients recover from a variety of ailments to knees, spinal cords, and hips and even major trauma causes involving broken limbs.

"We have a limited amount of time to work with a patient and take them back to a functional level so they can receive outpatient therapy in the community," Huskey said. "Home health is very challenging. It's a lot of fun. You never know what you are going into."