|
|
Article: What Is the Essence of Physical Therapy? A Grand Theory Is Needed For a Future.
- Article from:
- Physical Therapy
- Article date:
- July 1, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 American Physical Therapy Association, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
To the Editor:
Twenty-five years ago, while giving the 10th annual Mary McMillan Lecture, Helen Hislop articulated a passionate vision for the successful future of physical therapy.[1] In this lecture, she emphasized the need for clinical research, clinical specialist certification, doctoral programs, and, above all, the need for the profession to have a "sense of its elemental identity."[1(p1070)] I propose that progress has been made in all but the last area. Physical therapy still has the same identity crisis that it did in 1975, and a viable future hinges on its resolution. Before the profession moves on to deal with the myriad of challenges it will face in ...