In February 2009, I started the “Exercise Physiologists: The 21st Century Healthcare Profession” wordpress.com blog. My first blog was “Exercise as Medicine”, and the first paragraph is the following: “Take comfort in the fact that there is the profession of exercise physiology. Members of the profession are academically prepared to teach others how to benefit from regular exercise. Here, ‘benefit’ also means engaging in exercise safely. Board Certified Exercise Physiologists have the quantitative skills to assess and apply the physiology of decades of science to their clients and patients.” While I have published in a previous blog that goes back many years, the transitions from one location to another and the challenges of life caused them to disappear on the Internet. I still have the older content on paper in my office upstairs.
In February 2011, I posted my thoughts about the “Exercise Physiologist’s Practice” to which I said: “One might point out that the exercise physiology practice, such as the scientific application of ‘exercise as medicine’ to the multitude of mind and body problems, represent the Board Certified Exercise Physiologist’s way of life. Such thinking is based on the resources and work of the ASEP leaders towards the professionalization of exercise physiology.”
In the same blog, last paragraph, I said: “Lastly, let me point out the importance of discerning the will of the students through a better educational curriculum. The way of the ASEP accreditation highlights the centrality of professionalism and the practice of exercise physiology. This point is fundamental to the change process as it makes the EPC distinction explicitly different from the non-exercise physiology certifications. This infusion of new thinking and this new ASEP 21st century perspective represents the practices that will overcome the inertia of past thinking. Thus, in the end, the work of the ASEP leadership isn’t just about the intellectual illumination of the profession of exercise physiology. Instead, I believe it points precisely to core of a new healthcare profession; one that will enrich our understanding of the importance of exercise beyond athletics and competition.”
Did I ever say I came up with the original idea that exercise is medicine? No, but I did coin (I would like to think) instead the Exercise Medicine phrase. Why is this important? The answer is simple. You do find yourself saying, Physical is Therapy. You do know there is a Physical Therapy profession! I believe it is possible that the title Exercise Physiology will become Exercise Medicine, that is, for all the non-doctorate prepared exercise physiologists. But, I will write my thoughts on this point in a later blog.
In April 2018, I wrote that “The ASEP leadership believes that exercise physiology is a healthcare profession. They wrote the first-ever Exercise Physiology Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Practice for Board Certified Exercise Physiologists. After all, acting with integrity and being responsible in communicating healthcare information with a client are critical to upholding the integrity of the profession. They developed the first-ever Accreditation Guidelines for the college degree in exercise physiology. Yet, strange as it might sound, the academic exercise physiologists are slow to support the work of ASEP to achieve a set of standards. It fact, it is strange after ASEP’s 20-year existence that so many college professors recognize the professional ideology, principle, and commitment of physical therapists living up to professionalism, while there is little to no priority to helping ASEP bring attention to professional healthcare services of exercise physiologists.
I believe it is both logical and expected that the students of exercise physiology, who are thought of as future healthcare professionals must graduate from an accredited exercise physiology program. Also, the icing on the cake (according to the American Society of Exercise Physiologists) is that the graduates are expected to sit for the ASEP Board Certification exam (the Certified Exercise Physiologist, CEP). Upon passing the CEP exam, they are expected to refer themselves as a Board Certified Exercise Physiologists. Then, it is believed that the ASEP exercise physiologists have demonstrated their knowledge, expectation, and social responsibility of becoming a healthcare professional.”
In August of 2018, I posted “Have you done everything that you were told to do and then realized none of it made sense. Well, I understand exactly where you are coming from. I was there for decades. It wasn’t until I decided to think for myself that life started to make sense. Trust me, if you think what I just said is senseless, you will come to understand my point in due time. In fact, ask yourself this question: As an exercise physiologist, what is your vision of work and life? Are you living it? Is it presently everything you had hoped it would be? Is there enough joy and pleasure in your life to keep going?”
My point of sharing several key paragraphs previously published in my blog is simply this. You know as well as I do that building a profession from a discipline isn’t easy. It is a long journey of constant work, agreement and disagreement, and transitions. It can be fund, but it can also be dangerous. More often than not, there are disagreements and constant stress about how the new organization should advance, if at all. What I have learned is that there are very few colleagues with the backbone to stay the course. It is much easier to ride the winds of status quo. The reluctance to assume a leadership role in an organization that “appears” to run counter to what is commonly practice is scary for many people. They are fearful of getting into trouble, so they avoid attempting things that are believed necessary by the leadership that sees the shortcomings of yesterday’s thinking.
Of course, there is more to this story than what meets the eye in this October 2018 blog. Much of the work that goes into promoting ASEP is learned by trial and error. One fact is for sure: If key individuals of other organizations can keep their members in the dark regarding the simple fact that a generic organization cannot be a profession-specific organization. As long as the members are kept in the darkness about this point, they are less likely to think about the need for ASEP as “the” professional organization of exercise physiologists. Look around you and listen to what your colleagues are saying about the alternative to “this is the way we have always done it” and you will come to understand the dark side of status quo leadership. Guess what? There isn’t an alternative. That’s right. They don’t understand servant leadership or that you should be allowed to self-direct and integrate personal goals with professional expectations of others. The status quo leaders aren’t concern about “others”. Instead, the truth is they are concerned about what is good for them. They simply fail to get that the issue before them is not about their dogma, but what is in the best interest of (for example) exercise physiology and the students.
The ASEP organization was founded by Dr. Robert A. Robergs and I in 1997. At that time he was a professor at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque and I was a professor and department chair at the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, MN. He also understood the standard “stupid” remarks to put a person in his/her place (e.g., “That’s impossible.” “It’s against our policy to do it that way.” “How dare you suggest an idea that runs counter to us.”), and as such, was the reason for his question: “Why has it taken so long for exercise physiologists to become a profession?” In this regards, you should find several of his “selected” comments interesting (http://www.unm.edu/~ rrobergs/philosophy.htm).
| “Despite ACSM referring to itself as a sports medicine and exercise science organization, it cannot be both. ACSM has members from a diverse number of disciplines and professions, which was the intention of the founders of this organization. By the very fact that exercise scientists, or even exercise physiologists, do not comprise the total membership, ACSM cannot be a professional organization to exercise physiologists or any other of the exercise sciences. The issue is as simple as that. While these comments (facts!) do not mean that I am against the existence of ACSM, the power figures within ACSM are stubbornly resilient in hindering the needs of exercise physiology and the process for all exercise physiologists to become professionals. I find this attitude to be unprofessional, unethical, and undeserving of my support at this time. ACSM is a great organization that is being run with tremendous disrespect to exercise physiologists. The problem is not the organization, but the administration of the organization!” |
As I sat aside time to think about academic institutions, the faculty and administrators, and the students and their parents, the future is coming. It is tomorrow and then tomorrow it is the next day. Exercise physiologists at all levels must recognize that they are responsible for planning for the future. Why not find the best time in your schedule to think about the future of exercise physiology as a healthcare profession that has the best interests of the students of exercise physiology at heart? Why not upgrade the undergraduate exercise physiology requirements to meet the expectations of the ASEP Board of Accreditation? Why not start thinking differently about the generic certifications versus the profession-specific ASEP Board Certification for Exercise Physiologists? Why not become an integral part in shaping the ASEP vision and securing ASEP as the professional organization for all exercise physiologists? Why not help set the standards of excellence in exercise physiology as healthcare professionals by speaking out for change to encourage commitment to the exercise medicine unique opportunity for the exercise physiology graduates to start their own Exercise Medicine Clinics?
As Richard Beckhard and Wendy Pritchard said in Changing the Essence, “A vision is a picture of a future state for the organization, a description of what it would like to be a number of years from now. It is a dynamic picture of the organization in the future, as seen by its leadership. It is more than a dream or set of hopes, because top management is demonstrably committed to its realization: it is a commitment.”
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