Katherine F Shepard

“At the end of this day and all the other days of your life, I hope you too will learn to swim steadily on, smile, and wave at your good fortune to be in this profession.”

Anthony Delitto

“Our profession needs to develop strategies designed to stop digging trenches between our practice and research communities.”

“I believe that if we are to make the claim to be evidence-based practitioners, then adhering to best practice standards should not be a nice thing to do but rather a necessary thing to do.”

Stanley V Paris

“As a profession, we are the specialists in movement and its restoration and enhancement. We are nothing if we are not the movement scientists of today and, most especially, of tomorrow.”

“When a public figure such as Bill Clinton receives therapy for a knee fracture, or when movement returns to the limbs of a “Superman,” or when a gassed mine worker takes his first steps following the accident, physical therapy needs to be making that information public and not waiting for a television station to interview a physician who makes only passing reference to “therapy.”

Rebecca L Craik

“You have to love what you are doing, be curious, believe that everyone has something to teach you, be willing to change your course when new information is presented, and have a burning passion to make things better.”

“I believe that we must articulate clearly the principles that underlie our practice.”

“Embrace new knowledge and technology to improve your expertise, and we will all be among those who survive in the next transformation of health care and academic settings.”

Jama Pursar

“I am learning more every day that it is how far we reach that determines how much we hold. When we hold on too tightly or when we are afraid or too undertrained to reach out, we severely restrict the range of the things that we can accomplish.”

Pamela W Duncan

“Physical therapists often fail to deliver the most effective programs. We do not use available evidence to design and implement the most effective interventions or services.”

“It is also imperative that we encourage our students and young therapists to develop social networks.”

Simply ask yourself, “Have I reached as far as I can? Have I served as many individuals as I could? Have I given as much as I have received? And have I done it with purpose, passion, and perseverance?”

Marilyn Moffat

“Although we have in our armamentarium of skills many tools that enable us to provide services for our patients and clients, there are none more important than exercise.”

“Therapeutic exercise provided by physical therapists is the intervention that will enable our increasingly elderly populations to keep themselves fit and avoid the heartaches of prolonged institutional care.”

“How many of us can do an aerobic capacity/endurance test for individuals without impairments using treadmill, ergometer, steps, and walk/run protocols, and how many can do a test with a 12-lead electrocardiograph?”

“I would venture to say that our education programs have often lost sight of what is necessary to truly make us exercise experts.”

“The development of practitioners who have minimal levels of skill in physical therapist examinations and interventions is not the aim of professional education; the aim is to develop experts.”

            “We physical therapists are so very capable of imagining new solutions, creating new hope for our patients and clients, and, more than braving them, conquering our new worlds.”

Steven L Wolf

      "One can logically ask the question: “Do our patients improve because of the physical interventions we provide, thus affecting their state of well being, or do our caring and interaction favorably affect patient behaviors, which subsequently motivates them to improve physically?” One can easily argue that we do not know the answer to that question."

      "To embrace the unknown, devoid of fear, for the noble intent of helping to better mankind should be the clarion that shapes our destiny."

       "Our road has been determined, and it is our duty to clear the path. The difference between our future and our destiny will be measured in our commitment."

Jules M Rothstein

      I said that working on motion alone, without considering the patient’s real needs, was a form of “professional masturbation.”

     "We should welcome the opportunity for growth and development and realize the collective power we can exert if we respect each other and place the good of others before our own self-interests."

    " I also believe a common trait of all good therapists is a belief system that is hopeful and not fearful and a faith that leads one to think of the possibilities, and not the limitations."

     "Those who provide substandard care create an image that could, in the end, destroy our profession. If we allow them to define who we are, then our critics are right when they say we are overeducated, overpaid technicians claiming to be professionals."

    "Publication is the traditional means to determine whether faculty remain competent and knowledgeable, and chair persons should be setting an example."

    "Too often, ill-equipped faculty without publication records oversee required student research in what I consider to be a voyeuristic approach to scholarship."

     "Unless we choose to base practice on evidence and the most credible data available, we mock those who have sacrificed to make our profession possible."

    "If we listen to life’s rhythms and we act on our good intentions, we can do anything. We can journey through life making liars of the cynics and visionaries of the hopeful. We can journey to the horizon and look to a new world."

Suzann K Campbell

“A key skill of an effective mentor is connecting protégé’s into the larger network of individuals who can aid their further development and challenge their skills.”

Shirley A Sahrmann

       “I believe consideration of the interactive roles of the muscular, neurological, cardiopulmonary, and metabolic systems in movement-related syndromes is consistent with physical therapy moving precisely along the path toward the level of professional identity needed for the next century.”

   “We must not take the path of least resistance by:

• ·         Teaching basic science without noting ways in which the basic sciences can be used to explain clinical conditions and clinical methods.
•  
• ·         Failing to provide the current pathophysiological information about the impairments of the movement system.
•  
• ·         Teaching clinical techniques without critical analysis of their effect on the impairments for which the patient is being treated.
•  
• ·         Expecting each student to apply information obtained in basic science to clinical practice without faculty or clinicians demonstrating the use of clinical science information.”

     “Today, more emphasis seems to be placed on learning techniques from continuing education courses than on trying to understand underlying mechanisms.”

     “One of my strongest beliefs is that a system of diagnostic categories designed to direct physical therapy treatment could provide a precise focus for education, as well as practice.”

“We must follow the example of medical practitioners by developing diagnostic categories, standardized examinations, and guidelines for interventions.” 

“To move precisely, we must:

Promote the development and use of diagnostic Categories that direct physical therapy.

Develop and utilize standard examinations and terminology.

Emphasize treatment that is based on a thorough knowledge of basic anatomy and kinesiology.

Pursue knowledge of underlying science with as much commitment as we pursue the latest treatment methods.

Recognize our responsibility to protect patients’ frorn treatment fads that have a highly questionable scientific basis.

Maintain adequate standards of practice by demanding adequate time for examination, development of a diagnosis, and treatment.”

“What I would like to stress in regard to practice is the importance of having a  strong foundation knowledge of anatomy and kinesiology, and knowing how to apply this knowledge to practice.”

“Keep in mind that, traditionally, orthopedic residents have not been expected to learn kinesiology. They are not the movement experts-we are. Do not ask them what we should do about movement dysfunction.”

“To be respected for our expertise, the concepts upon which we base our examinations and treatments must be justified on the basis of scientific rationale and, whenever possible, by the results of clinical studies.”

“If we are basing our programs on scientific knowledge, our documentation should reflect that knowledge.”

“The world needs what we have to offer. We have so much to give to aid the physically challenged and to guide the physically able, be they young or old.”

Gary L Soderberg

               “Make a start things will happen; discover something else new. Not all of your efforts will be gratifying, but the sum total of all of our efforts will ultimately prove to be valuable.”

Bella J May

            “Dreams are like islands hovering on the horizon. To reach our dreams, we need bridges pragmatically grounded in daily life, bridges built on the pillars of effective decisions.”

Helen L Kaiser

     “Only if we provide our students with a greater understanding of the world in which we live can we hope to have our profession play a meaningful role in the future.”

       “It is by the observed practice of their teachers that students learn to integrate their role with other disciplines.”

        “Physical therapy is established as a part of every branch of medicine. Why, then, should physical therapy be under the management of any one medical specialty?”

        “Without the assurance of upward mobility, job satisfaction, and participation as a full-fledged professional in planning, it is highly unlikely that able students will continue to be attracted to our profession, much less stay with it after graduation.”

Nancy Watts

          "The most important choices we make as physical therapists are those we make about treatment for our individual patients."

Ruth Wood

        “If we are to be effective in independent practice, we must diagnose! Let us dare to say it!”

Charles Magistro

           “We physical therapists never must permit our profession to be jeopardized by failing to provide those services that justify our existence.”

Hislop

        "It is the master clinician who must reign supreme." 

               "The care of the patient is the ultimate, specific act that characterizes a clinician. It differentiates him from all others. Its obligation is transmitted as the heritage of the profession."



           “Science is the quest of physical therapy and humaneness
is our expression"

Griffin

         "Only carefully designed, well-controlled clinical research projects can provide definitive information concerning the efficacy of neurophysiological approaches to therapeutic exercise." 

Mary McMillan

         "There are times when the physiotherapist should encourage patients to work out their own salvation."

Dorothy E Voss

         "Appropriate exercise programs for today's and tomorrow's patients will be derived by looking at the whole and selecting functional combinations that make sense for each patient. And—"everything is there before you discover it."




        "To effect a change in physical therapy education, that is, to develop a new base, requires change in basic content."




        "Teachers are inclined to teach as they were taught."




           "As any medical prescription is changed according to the progress of the patient, so in physiotherapy the same rule is applicable."