Allied Health Education - Concepts, Organization, and Administration.

Allied Health Education-- Concepts, Organization, and Administration

This book replaces an older 1972 work, Educating Personnel for the Allied Health Professions and Services-- Administrative Considerations. Contributions from 32 individuals make up the 22 chapters which discuss the establishment and development of allied health professions educational programs and faculty-student issues.

Part One, Introduction, provides an overview of allied health education, and cites present and future challenges including: the potential to coalesce the many disciplines into a more unified allied health movement, to provide a data base regarding supply and demand, to acknowledge the impact of women in our changing society, an awareness of escalation of qualifications for practice, and increasing demands for allied health research. Further challenges are presented by the aging of the population, slow viruses especially HIV, competition for recruits, and healthcare financing.

Part Two, Establishing Allied Health Professions Education, is concerned with financing, such as formula funding, practice plans, research funding, and with cost containment and environmental scanning.

The challenge given is both to manage and to lead in an ever-changing environment.

Developing the Educational Program is the subject of Part Three. Included are chapters regarding hospital-based education and training, associate degree education and training, baccalaureate and graduate degree programs, core concept programs, multi-competent professionals, clinical resources, accreditation, and continuing professional education. These chapters encourage strong use of clinical experiences, master's and doctoral programs to strengthen scientific bases, promulgation of the philosophy of oneness and cooperation, an integrated model of education using cognitive, affective, and psychomotor components for didactic, clinical and laboratory instruction, creative roles for various accreditation bodies, and continuing education and continuing competence.

In Part Four, Student and Faculty Matters, student and faculty recruitment, selection, retention, promotion, and evaluation, interpersonal and counseling perspectives and faculty development are discussed. Sample forms and a variety of tables and checklists are included. This set of chapters should be helpful to educators, education planners and administrators.

The final section has chapters on special topics such as personal computers, the needs of special student populations, the aging, health promotion and disease prevention in allied health, the role of professional associations, international allied health education, and AIDS. The chapter on health promotion and disease prevention seems particularly relevant in delineating the role of allied health in today's medical schools and in society.

The varied authors of this edited book bring a wealth of expertise to their topics. Deans and department chairmen should find the ideas in the book thought provoking and forward looking. The book is more generic than specific to any discipline, thus the reader will find certain chapters more relevant to their needs than other chapters. That was true for this reviewer, yet each chapter contained some new information to stimulate divergent thinking or to give new insights. The book is not intended for one specific discipline or program in allied health. As the editors point out, a 1983 study identified 85 distinct and different fields as being within the meaning of the allied health term. Any educator in allied health who is concerned about present-day issues in allied health will find this book of interest.

Marlys Mitchell, Ph.D., OTR, Professor, Occupational Therapy Division, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.