During the recent 2023 APTA Acute Care Lecture Award presentation, “Ongoing Lessons from the Global Pandemic, Telehealth, DEI, and Pursuit of Excellence,” a charge to action was made. The presenter, Alan Lee, PT, PhD, DPT, spoke about the importance of mentorship and support, as it related to careers in physical therapy. During this Combined Sections Meeting (CSM) presentation, Dr Lee alluded to the Academy's new strategic plan, and he challenged all of us to become engaged, to mentor, to pursue excellence, and utilize evidence-based resources in our practice.

How will our Academy rise to that charge? Does our strategic plan align with those objectives? Admittedly, my biased response is yes. The APTA Acute Care aspiration statement projects that “on January 1, 2026, APTA Acute Care is an innovative, engaged, and diverse community that has elevated acute care practice and advanced early career PTs and PTAs. APTA Acute Care is known as the leader and go-to resource for acute care practice.”1 To get there we will need to focus our efforts in 3 pillars: sustainable profession, member value, and quality of care. See the information below for the definitions of each pillar and follow this link to the APTA Acute Care Strategic Framework (https://www.aptaacutecare.org/page/strategicplan):

Sustainable profession. Develop a compelling value proposition and supporting offerings for students and early career professions to join the association and profession. Member value. Deliver meaningful opportunities to belong, engage, and contribute. Quality of care. Elevate acute care practice to improve health outcomes for populations, communities, and individuals.

As part of our commitment to a sustainable profession, we must grow our base of students and early professionals. Physical therapists and physical therapist assistants need to fall in love with acute care, early in their career. Many of us have had experiences with students who began their acute care clinical rotations determined to seek careers in outpatient, only to have an epiphany and realize that acute care physical therapy was the skilled area of practice they wanted to work in. How can we create those moments of excitement and deeper understanding of acute care physical therapy practice on a larger scale? One strategy is to offer free membership to students of physical therapist assistant or physical therapist programs the opportunity to experience the academy, to use the available resources during their clinicals, to create opportunities for them to engage with other members, to provide opportunities to serve on committees, and to contribute to the work of the Academy. The Academy currently has highly engaged students involved in authoring post-CSM Critical Edgemail submissions, serving on communication subcommittees, contributing to podcasts, and serving as academy representatives on the APTA student council. We anticipate that a new student taskforce may also provide additional insight on how to engage, support, and mentor this group.

As a national organization, how can the Academy stay connected and support our members? As part of our commitment to deliver member value, the Academy will soon launch an acute care state advocate program. It is anticipated that this program will provide a meaningful way for more members to belong, engage, and contribute with other committed acute care therapists in their state.

For quality of care, the Academy is planning several exciting initiatives. Innovative work is being developed by the Research Committee including ongoing CSM research connection events. There will be additional clinical practice guideline projects. The Practice Committee continues to create valuable resources and has plans for a clinician toolkit. Furthermore, members will note several knowledge translation initiatives that will complement the Academy's efforts toward the pillar to elevate quality of care.

The bottom line, in order for the Academy's strategic plan to be successful, and for us as clinicians to answer Dr Lee's charge, we need you. We need for all of our members to engage and contribute to the work of the Academy. For those who have hesitated to volunteer for Academy service, I ask you to step forward. I believe in a quote by Malcolm Forbes, “Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are.”2 I guarantee that our Academy will benefit from your contributions.

There are many ways you can support the Academy and the acute care profession. Your contributions could include posting on the listserv, serving on committees or taskforces, attendance at educational sessions, Bridge the Gap and CSMs, becoming involved in professional advocacy, participation in surveys, polls, and elections, conducting research, submissions to the Journal of Acute Care Physical Therapy, participation in knowledge translation activities, including journal clubs, as well as being involved in mentorship of acute care students, residents, and colleagues.3 Yogi Berra once stated, “Little things make a big difference.”4 I look forward to partner with you, as we pursue the Academy's strategic plan to support our members and pursue excellence.

Respectfully,

Traci L. Norris, PT, DPT
President

1. Academy of Acute Care Physical Therapy. APTA Acute Care Strategic Plan 2023-2025. https://www.aptaacutecare.org/page/strategicplan. Accessed May 1, 2023. 2. BrainyQuote.com. Malcolm Forbes Quotes. BrainyMedia Inc; 2023. https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/malcolm_forbes_105931. Accessed May 1, 2023. 3. Hayward LM, Black LL, Mostrom E, Jensen GM, Ritzline PD, Perkins J. The first two years of practice: a longitudinal perspective on the learning and professional development of promising novice physical therapists. Phys Ther. 2013;93(3):369–383. 4. Berra Y, Caplan D. What Time Is It? You Mean Now? Advice for Life From the Zennest Master of Them All. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster; 2010:70.