• The 6th ASEP Annual National Meeting: What I Think You Should Know!

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Just recently I attended the annual national meeting for the American Society of Exercise Physiologists (ASEP) in Indianapolis, Indiana.  This was my sixth meeting, and I must state that I left the meeting feeling more optimistic about the professionalization of our field than I have in several years.  I left the meeting excited, energized, and believing ASEP just may have an opportunity to make a very significant difference.  In fact, as I traveled home, I found myself thinking that I should find at least one way to help the organization. 

Now don’t get too excited.  I have had feelings like this after attending most of the national meetings.  Each time I have returned ready to do something for my profession and, unfortunately, each time the fruits of my inspirations have failed to ripen. Like most people, after just a week of returning to the normal work week, my inspiration and motivation seem to disappear, leaving only some constructive thoughts and some new credit card debt.  But, this time I want it to be different.  I don’t want those moments of vision to pass like a warm summer rain.  This time I want to do something more lasting and hopefully permanent. 

For my essay this month, I would like to reflect upon several of the most frequent thoughts I had during and after the ASEP meeting.  I feel this format is a great opportunity to share some of my opinions with the hope of provoking some conversation.  First, I will be with the "gatekeepers" and, then, talk about the "value of a state organization".  I will finish with a few thoughts about starting an ASEP state organization in North Carolina. 

The Gatekeepers
I often refer to academic exercise physiologists as the “gatekeepers” when speaking in the context of professionalization.  I use this word since it best summarizes those individuals who control the curriculums and who serve as the filter of what students are taught.  For example, exercise physiologists in academia may choose only to teach the history of exercise physiology from the traditional perspective as an evolving science.  This approach is very common today, as it has been for several decades.  In short, the faculty choose to provide information about famous researchers, laboratories, and findings. 

In contrast, the faculty could choose to teach from a professional perspective.  If they were to do so, they would provide the stduents with information about professionalism, board certification, licensure, and related concepts. As many know, most professors are more comfortable teaching the traditional history.  They are not very comfortable with teaching exercise physiology from the ASEP persepctive.  It may be that they are not that knowledgable about the various factors go into the professional development of exercise physiology.  As a result, students graduate understanding very little regarding many of the concepts ASEP is based upon. This, in return, makes ASEP’s arguments regarding consistency, exclusion, and standardization even more difficult to talk about and to share with other exercise physiologists.  It is therefore logical to conclude that until the gatekeepers become educated to the professionalization process, they are not likely to be very good change agents on behalf of ASEP. 

Not that the ASEP leadership has tried, but one of the most significant challenges of the ASEP leadership is its lack of success in the recruitment of doctorate prepared exercise physiologists working in academia.  Part of the difficulty lies with the traditional way in which the doctorate candidate is educated.  This inertia of the system makes it difficult to change or to influence.  Also, it should come as no surprise that academia is a very conservative institution.  For some very good reasons, there is a purposeful buffer around those working in colleges and universities from those who work in corporate and clinical sectors.  This leaves the academic exercise physiologist a rather difficult target to inspire on issues of employment and financial compensation for others.  Hence, the agonies of the decline in salary, the saturated job markets, and limited scopes of practice rarely seep into the walls of the academia setting. 

Obviously, without the support of academics, the evolution of the profession will be a slow process.  The primary influence for change will have to come from outside employment sectors that will eventually force the institutions' administrators to deal with the students' issues and concerns.  Aside from the public sector influence, I am not sure how to better recruit the gatekeepers.   The presentation of salaries and descriptions of limited working environments for all exercise physiologists is a logical start.  In time, the professors might get the point since they do, generally speaking, respond to well-presented arguments. 

As a final thought in regards to the gatekeepers, as I listened to the speakers and looked at who was in attendance at the recent meeting, I saw pockets of exercise physiologists that I assumed to be clinicians.  They sat quietly and listened politely to each one of the presentations.  Rarely did they ask a question or add a comment did the question and answer follow-up.  It was my observation that many of the clinicians were very much interested in all the presentations; whereas, the doctorate prepared individuals (who had actually traveled to speak at the conference) appeared more interested in presenting their papers.  Strange as it might sound, the academic exercise physiologists were the “silent majority” of those in attendance at the meeting. 

The Value of State Organizations 
The most consistent theme I found while thinking about the recent meeting was the value of state associations in the role of developing the profession.  State associations are comprised of predominantly exercise physiologists outside of academia and, therefore, have a greater understanding of the ASEP vision and mission statements.  If you have not had time to read the ASEP vision, in particular, refer to the ASEP contact page (http://www.asep.org/).

State associations allow the ASEP organization to divide the country into more manageable regions.  The promotion of this organization from a national perspective is difficult.  The arguments presented by ASEP require often drastic changes in perception and these changes are hard to create from web sites alone.  Often, the message has to be presented in person, where the passion and value of the mission can be better portrayed.  For example, I invited a fellow exercise physiologists to attend the meeting this year.  This individual had been to the ASEP website several times but had never really bought into the idea.  After just a couple speeches by members of ASEP, this person was convinced ASEP had the correct idea.  State associations potentially encourage more of this personal communication.  Instead of a national organization attempting to convey a message to everyone working in cardiac rehabilitation, a state organization is able to pinpoint communication with those working in a specific clinic or related workplace.  As a result, the message is more personal.  Those in attendance are also more receptive to change.

Starting a State Association
In the past five years I've been a student at three different academic institutions in three different states.  Due to my mobility, it has been difficult for me to concentrate on the value of state organizations let alone start one myself.  Fortunately, I have been recently hired in my first academic position.  This position offers a consistent geographic location and the resources to begin the process of founding a state organization for exercise physiologists.  A state organization offers me a great opportunity to have ownership in one small area of the ASEP mission.  So, to take advantage of this opportunity, I just recently started the process of forming the North Carolina Association of Exercise Physiologists (NCAEP). 

I thought it might be interesting to describe the process.  First, I spent some time searching on the Internet or different Web hosts that would supply a domain name and storage space at a reasonable cost.  This was much more difficult than I thought it would be.  I had no idea they were so many companies offering the same product.  I found myself wandering from site to site reading what appeared to be the same thing over and over again.  Finally, I purchased http://www.NCAEP.com and 50MB of storage space for about $85 per year.  The service came equipped with a Web design program, a variety of basic templates, and online and over the phone customer service.  And, without much further thought, I jumped headfirst into making my first web page. 

Now, I am not sure how much experience you have with working with Web design programs.  But I must say, working with these “simple to use” programs can age a person real quick.  Within 60 minutes I found myself swearing at the computer screen wondering why my pages were not appearing on the Internet as they were in my template editor.  I found myself returning repeatedly to my Web editor to fix the page that just wasn't quite right.  Within one evening of unsuccessful uploads and incorrect font colors, my empathy for the ASEP “web master” had more than doubled.  It is now my conclusion that Web designing should be considered a high level risk factor for hypertension!  After a few hours of clenched fists, I finally made the webpage aesthetic enough to view and functional enough to navigate. 

Unfortunately, a nice color scheme, a tactful picture, and some correctly titled pages are nothing without content.  State organizations require statements of mission, vision, goals and objectives, a constitution, bylaws, contact information, membership fees, and a variety of other things that many of us would never remember.  Personally, I'm not smart enough to come up with all of these things.  That's where the gang at ASEP is well ahead of the game.  Instead of sitting down and spending days creating these wordy and often tedious statements, I spent some time browsing the web sites of other state organizations including Indiana,Idaho,Wisconsin,Minnesota, and even Ohio.  And within 45 minutes of Web surfing I had copied enough legal prose to start a small country. 

After spending some time admiring my work I soon realized I have few more steps to go.  These included registering with the state, applying for non-profit status with the IRS, and one other little detail I like to call, that's right:  "obtaining members".  Currently, NCAEP is 5’6” and 140 lbs and looking to grow.  As a result, I’ve recently started e-mailing exercise physiologists who work in North Carolina and, of course, who would be interested in helping out.  This will be a long process that will extend far beyond my time leading the organization, but it must start somewhere. 

Finally, I feel a bit nervous about the responsibility I have just accepted.  My personality temperament tends to become captivated by creating things.  As a result, I tend to be very cautious about taking on extra work.  Happiness in my life is focused around creative energy.  I only have so much.  When I’m spread too thin with different responsibilities, my quality of work significantly declines.  It will be a constant struggle to teach well, collect strong data, publish, write about the professional development of exercise physiology, and be active in the goals of ASEP.  But, that’s all just part of being a professional.  Right.

The Department of University Cardiologists at Rush University Medical Center,
seeks an Exercise Physiologist to perform and interpret stress testing under physician supervision using predefined stress protocols. Exercise physiologist will ensure the safety of each patient receiving stress testing by closely monitoring each test. 

Requires a BS or MS in Exercise Physiology, Cardiac Stress Test experience and current applicable State Professional License. ECG experience required.

We offer excellent compensation, top benefits and full tuition reimbursement for you or a family member at Rush University. To be considered, please send
curriculum vitae to: 

Tracey Colantonio
Rush University 
Medical Center
729 S. Paulina
Chicago, IL 60612
Fax: 312-942-8271
Email: tracey_colantonio@rush.edu

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