Human resources in physical therapy: opportunities for service in a rapidly changing health system.

This article illuminates major considerations having an impact on the utilization of human resources in physical therapy. The current and potential impacts of health system forces and trends and health care reform, in general, and scope of practice, team care, supply and demand, and managed care, in particular, are cited and discussed. The manner in which physical therapists perceive and respond to health care needs and access issues and in turn the manner in which the public and policymakers acknowledge physical therapy's growing role in this defining of health and health care are both likely to create new opportunities for service.

Clinical research in allied health.

Allied health professionals in nutrition and medical dietetics, occupational therapy, physical therapy, and speech-language pathology and audiology play both unique and key cross-cutting roles in the furtherance of clinical research. Clinical research in nutrition and medical dietetics uniquely focuses on food nutrient intake and the metabolic utilization of nutrients. Clinical research in occupational therapy has a special focus on the relationship of impairment to disability, the adaptation to disability and the maximization of function. Physical therapy clinical research uniquely targets movement dysfunction and its evaluation and treatment within the context of quality and effective care. Clinical research in speech-language pathology and audiology is singular in its focus on deafness and hearing disorders, voice, speech, language and related disorders, and intersections among these and other neurological and physical conditions. Thus, all of these disciplines are making unique contributions to clinical research. Clinical research in these allied health professions is much more than the above specific foci. Inasmuch as these disciplines are rooted in practice, their contributions to research are inherently clinical. Many, if not most, of these contributions represent further validations of clinical practice or its underlying knowledge base. This means that, at a macro level, clinical research in allied health is very much "applied" research. Within allied health clinical research, this emphasis is redoubled at the "person," or individual level, where considerable attention is given to concepts of function and effectiveness. Clinical research in allied health has played a key cross-cutting role through its emphasis on collaboration. Possibly due to their professional maturation within multidisciplinary academic units, allied health professionals have demonstrated a level of comfort with multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary collaborations unique within many academic health science centers. While the above contributions are considerable, much more could be accomplished if identified barriers to career progression could be addressed. Principal barriers to the development of clinical research careers in allied health lie in the areas of training, mentoring, and funding. The lack of financial support for clinical research training is the major impediment. Progress in these areas, although valuable in itself, could also lead to more dedicated release time in clinical and academic settings, improved predoctoral and postdoctoral research training mechanisms, and better alignment of institutional and system reward structures with the clinical research mission. Within the existing constraints, allied health professionals have performed remarkably well in tapping into funding streams created for other disciplines and in establishing research traditions within relatively young health professions.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Scholarly productivity: a regional study of physical therapy faculty in schools of allied health.

A study of the scholarly activities of physical therapy faculty members in selected schools of allied health was conducted through a mailed questionnaire survey. The analysis of the data provided by the respondents (N = 127; 97.6%) revealed the following: 1) the respondents' primary scholarly activity was authorship of referred journal articles; 2) a majority of the respondents presented a paper at a professional meeting during the past three years; 3) only a small percentage of the respondents had directed extramurally funded projects; 4) the majority of the respondents indicated that their own academic preparation was the primary factor that encouraged their scholarly pursuits and that heavy teaching and administrative responsibilities were the primary discouraging factors; and 5) the respondents indicated that faculty scholarly activities are, and will continue to be, important considerations in academic promotion decisions. Comparison of the data provided by these respondents with data from the 1983 American Physical Therapy Association physical therapy faculty survey suggests modest gains in scholarly productivity. The implications of these findings are that faculty development programs are warranted and physical therapy administrators and faculty should join forces in finding more effective ways to involve faculty in research activities.

An aging society: implications for health care needs and impacts on allied health practice.

The first report of the National Task Force on Gerontology and Geriatric Care Education, excerpted herein, raises many more questions than it answers. Through its broad-brush articulation of the health care needs of older people, the report sets the environment for gauging the impact of these needs on allied health practice. Responses to a number of the implications for health care needs are now underway, yet much remains undone. In the coming year the task force will develop an action plan that addresses directly the many implications for allied health.

Locus of decision making and job satisfaction of department chairpersons in schools of allied health.

In an era of ample resources in higher education, an estimated 80% of all administrative decisions occurred at the departmental level rather than at higher levels in the administrative hierarchy. As financial resources have become limited, it appears that the locus of decision making has begun to change in the university setting. This study explored the relationship between allied health department chairpersons' perceptions of the locus of decision making in their universities and their job satisfaction. Chairpersons who perceived the level of decision making to reside at the faculty level were shown to be less satisfied with their jobs than chairpersons whose perceived locus of decision making was at the chair level. In addition, as the locus of decision making moved away from the chairperson, either to the faculty or to more central levels of the administration, satisfaction with both the administrative and academic aspects of the chair appeared to diminish. From this study, allied health chairpersons appear to be more comfortable with clear decision-making powers than general academic chairs. This finding has implications for the structuring of the allied health chairperson's role and for the advancement and development of the allied health fields within educational institutions. Future limitations in financial resources may bring about closer alignment in the role and job satisfaction of general academic and allied health chairs.

Women in leadership positions: a study of allied health chairpersons.

The National Commission on Allied Health Education identified as one of its primary recommendations the need for increased numbers of women and minorities in leadership positions in allied health. The majority of allied health practitioners and students entering the allied health fields today are female. In these professions women tend to remain in direct line practice positions, while men typically occupy the managerial and executive positions. Much research and writing has appeared addressing how the traditional socialization process affects women's career patterns. The personal, interpersonal, and structural barriers that impede women's advancement into managerial positions have been reasonably well delineated. Much less attention has been directed toward how women who overcome these barriers function in managerial roles. Little work has been done on the functioning of males and females in administrative and managerial positions in academic settings. The research reported here involved a study of the perceived goal emphasis and time spent on the academic, administrative, and leadership functions by male and female allied health chairpersons. In this study male and female chairpersons were found to be remarkably similar in terms of emphasis and time spent on key departmental functions. The significance of these results is discussed relative to the traditional male/female socialization process. Recommendations are made about appropriate curricular modifications and professional/career development activities needed to encourage women to more readily accept leadership responsibilities in allied health during the 80s.

Collective bargaining: bargaining unit placement of the allied health department chair.

Since the presence of collective bargaining is assured, more specific focus on the impact and implications of this presence for allied health education is increasingly meaningful. The departmental chair stands to be influenced more than other administrative positions by the appearance of collective bargaining. Indeed, resolution of the question of whether the allied health chair is appropriately included in or excluded from bargaining units predominantly made up of faculty members may have profound implications for faculty and central administration. The allied health chair itself may undergo substantive shaping prior or subsequent to the advent of collective bargaining at the university. This article selectively explores not only the impact of collective bargaining and unit determination in higher education but also bargaining unit placement criteria operative in private and public academic sectors. State and federal legislative and judicial action relative to the bargaining unit placement of department chairs is also addressed. The gravity of the issue of bargaining unit placement of allied health department chairs means that all concerned should broaden their awareness of the relevant factors in this process.

The managerial role of the department chairperson in schools of allied health: present and future.

The environment in which schools of allied health must exist is extremely turbulent and chaotic. The key to survival in such an environment lies in the creativity and effectiveness of those involved in the management of educational programs at all levels. In particular, it is the department chairperson who may critically influence the growth or decline of individual programs. This paper utilizes a simple conceptual management model to examine the role of the chairperson in a school of allied health. Goal setting, organizational structure, reward systems, resource utilization and interpersonal relationships are discussed and interrelated with respect to the department, school, university, health care system, state and federal government. The model as applied here reduces the idea of contingency management to a few simple operational steps and allows the chairperson to systematically deal with the changing environment, internal and external. As a consequence, departmental goals may be pursued in a logical, but flexible, fashion.

Methods of measurement in Soviet gait analysis research, 1963-1974.

A description of several of the methods of measurement used by gait researchers in the Soviet Union from 1963 to 1974 is provided. The discussion encompasses seven major categories of measurement: 1) methods of measuring the rotatory position or angular displacements of the joints of the lower extremities, 2) the phase durations and their temporal relations, 3) support reactions, 4) the rotatory position of the pelvis and vertebral column, 5) step length, stride length, and other linear displacements of components of gait phase activity, 6) muscular activity, and 7) miscellaneous types of analysis. The incorporation of Soviet findings and methods of gait analysis into the design and operation of future investigations of human walking is recommended.