Opening International Perspectives

THE JOURNAL IS BECOMING more international. Because of our arrangement with Ingenta, we now are reaching a larger geographic audience than in previous years. As I've mentioned before, in the past 2 to 3 years, almost 20% of our submissions have come from outside the United States, mostly from Canada and Australia. During the last year, we have made a concerted effort to encourage European allied health professionals to consider the Journal as a place to publish their Many of the issues faced by allied health professionals are similar among countries throughout the world. A broader sharing of approaches and solutions to these issues should benefit everyone. As a result, we have been engaged in discussions with some of the European allied health groups to solicit manuscripts from that community. Thanks to the work of Laurie Sherwen, who has worked with Dr. Graham of the University of Bournemouth, we have made a first step. In this issue, Dr. Iain Graham presents an introductory article on the National Health Service in Great Britain. This is the first submission to a special feature in each issue, entitled International Perspectives, that is designed specifically for peer-reviewed articles submitted by our colleagues in Europe. When this feature is established, we plan to appoint peer-reviewers from the European community, as we have in the past in countries from which we receive a significant number of manuscripts, and then integrate these submissions in the usual peer-review process. In this issue, we present an array of articles dealing with a variety of topics, many of which involve the rehabilitation professions. There are increasing calls for health professions to engage in evidence-based practice, which is defined by Sackett (1996) as integrating individual clinical expertise with the best available external clinical evidence from systematic research. There is limited information, however, about the extent to which allied health professionals use research in making clinical decisions. Kerrie Pain and her research team investigated the perceived use of research results and knowledge sources in the practice of Canadian occupational therapists, physical therapists, and speech-language pathologists. They found that differences exist among the professions and within practice situations and work environments. They indicate that despite the widespread acceptance of the importance of research, barriers exist to using research in practice and that current training does not make therapists confident users of Conflict among professional groups, particularly regarding such things as the perception of clinical competence of others, can have a detrimental effect on the delivery of patient care. Cavallo and Richter studied the level of respect and potential for conflict between physical therapists and physical therapy assistants (PTAs). In their multimethod study, the authors assessed the attitudes of physical therapy students toward PTAs before and after a clinical internship. They found that, overall, the physical therapy students had a positive attitude about the skills and abilities of PTAs, chiefly regarding the implementation of established plans of care. They did not have as much confidence, however, that the PTAs would perform as well in situations that were unpredictable. Discovering how students learn always is an important issue for educators. Williams and Wessel conducted a qualitative study designed to understand selected learning outcomes of physical therapy students in a problem-based learning course. The researchers used a reflective journal assignment in which students discussed various learning events and then reflected on their experiences and the meanings associated with these experiences. From the analyses of the student journals, the investigators were able to identify five themes that seemed to describe changes students go through to better understand various dimensions of practice. …

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