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On "47th Mary McMillan Lecture: Our future selves: unprecedented opportunities." Lewis CB. Phys Ther. 2016;96:1493-1502.
Most sincere congratulations to Dr Carole Lewis on being selected to deliver the prestigious 47th Mary McMillan Lecture, as published in the October 2016 issue of Physical Therapy. 1 A founding member of the Section on Geriatrics (now the Academy of Geriatric Physical Therapy, or AGPT) of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA), Lewis has long been an exemplar of enthusiasm, advocacy, and state-of-the-art clinical practice to provide high-quality physical therapy for older adults.
A major theme of Lewis' lecture is that the physical therapy profession is not adequately prepared through entry-level professional education and postprofessional continuing education to work with the older adults who will comprise the majority of the patients/ clients in our clinical practice. We are writing to alert physical therapist and physical therapist assistant colleagues about some key resources you may find valuable when seeking ways to implement Lewis' call for action in preparing students and practitioners to effectively serve our aging population.
In 2008, the Institute of Medicine's Retooling for an Aging America: Building the Health Care Workforce2 warned of a looming crisis-the inadequate number and preparation across the spectrum of health care workers providing services for older adults. There was immediate reaction to this report by health professions groups, including the Partnership for Health in Aging (PHA), which included APTA. The PHA developed and published its Multidisciplinary Competencies in the Care of Older Adults at the Completion of the Entry-level Health Professional Degree3 in 2010. This document is now endorsed by 30 professional societies and organizations.
In keeping with the intent of the PHA, the AGPT subsequently used PHA's multidisciplinary competencies document as the framework for the development and publication of the physical therapist-specific Essential Competencies in the Care of Older Adults at the Completion of...