At the hospital at which I work, the wellness committee recently launched a challenge to each employee to increase his/her daily physical activity levels. At the "kickoff" event, the chair of the committee showed a video of her daughter-in-law running up the 72 steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum to the "Rocky" song titled "Gonna Fly Now."1 At the top of the steps, she turned around and displayed a poster with the words "Bridgton Hospital, Are Your Ready For A Challenge?" It was a motivating event. I eagerly picked up one of the activity diaries and so far I have entered my daily data. Of course, with the snow removal that I have had to do this year in Maine, my increased daily activity level is not entirely voluntary.
Because I cannot include a video of mine running up the museum steps, you will have to just imagine me doing that (without laughing at that image). The poster I would present would say [horizontal ellipsis] "Members of the Section on Women's Health, Are You Ready for the Challenges?" The challenges I offer include the following.
1. Are you ready for the challenge of being able to confidently state that all the interventions you choose for your patients are evidence-based?
2. Are you ready for the challenge to present published research from reputable journals to the medical practitioners who refer patients to you that will provide evidence for the effectiveness of the plans of care that you will provide their patients?
3. Are you ready for the challenge each day to evaluate each patient using objective measurements that have proven validity and reliability?
4. Are you ready for the challenge to demand that those who teach continuing education courses are able to provide evidence from well-designed research regarding the effectiveness of their techniques. Note: this should be done before you spend your (or your facilities) hard earned money.
5. Are you ready for the challenge to put aside interventions that have no well-designed research that documents the potential effectiveness of the techniques?
6. Are you ready for the challenge to be a lifelong reader of the research literature that will guide you in providing the interventions that have the best chance at alleviating the problems for which your patients seek your professional expertise?
7. Are you ready for the challenge of contributing to the body of knowledge for women's health physical therapists. This can be accomplished by completing research yourself or as a member of a team. As I have stated before, if you have valid and reliable measurement tools, and well-designed protocols, you can write a case report. If you are a clinician without research time or expertise, you can team-up with a member of academia who has research experience.
In this issue of the journal, you will read about the research challenges undertaken by members of the Section on Women's Health. From Dr Mary Dockter you will read about beliefs regarding the place of women's health content in a physical therapy entry-level curriculum and the barriers to students receiving mentoring in clinical education. From the article written by Dr Elaine Trudelle-Jackson you will learn about the age-related strength decrease in women and the magnitude of the decrease in various muscles.
From the platform and poster abstracts of the research presented at CSM 2011, you will be introduced to new information from research completed in a wide variety of topics that are encompassed by the discipline of Women's Health. I am hoping that the authors will submit their manuscripts to the Journal of Women's Health Physical Therapy for review and potential inclusion in a future issue.
I have as my image now, each member of the Section on Women's Health running up the 72 steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and shouting "I am ready for each challenge outlined in the spring issue of the JWHPT." I realize that is a long statement and a bit of marketing of the journal as well, but[horizontal ellipsis] it is a grand image!!
Nancy C. Donovan, PT, PhD
Editor-in-Chief
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