What's In a
Title?
Tommy Boone, PhD, MPH, FASEP
Professor and Chair
Department of Exercise Physiology
Director of Exercise Physiology
Laboratories
The College of St. Scholastica
1200 Kenwood Office
Duluth, MN 55811
Everything!
Title is important. I am an exercise physiologist. I am not
an exercise scientist. The academic area I work in is exercise physiology.
It is not exercise science. The name of the department is exercise physiology.
It is not the Department of Exercise Science. My students get either an
undergraduate or a graduate degree in exercise physiology. My students
graduate as exercise physiologists!
In the same building I teach,
there are academic programs for nursing, physical therapy, occupational
therapy, and so forth. At the completion of their course work, the students
from these programs graduate into their respective professions. The nursing
student, as an example, is a nurse. The physical therapy graduate is a
physical therapist. Rightfully so, the academic specificity of each program
sets the stage for both professional work and title.
What is in a title? Everything!
I can't imagine my students would want to graduate from college with an
academic major in exercise physiology to be told that they can not refer
themselves as exercise physiologists, but rather exercise scientists (or
worst yet, exercise specialists). Would you?
I suppose it is possible
to totally miss the point of an academic major. Most people wouldn't think
that would ever happen. Yet, I have had one such experience in recent months
in which a graduate from my department was led to believe that h/she could
not be an exercise physiologist without a doctorate degree. Many people
who tend to believe such nonsense have PhDs! They worked hard for the degree
and, therefore, unless everyone else walks the same walk, they can not
be one of them.
When I look back at the courses
I took at the PhD level, I can appreciate that undergraduates who are in
an academic exercise physiology major are taking courses very similar to
my graduate work. This point is especially true if the exercise physiology
professors are doing their job. Therefore, in short, one could understand
that certain undergraduate students have the right to refer to themselves
as exercise physiologists (even if they have not published one article).
Why? Because publishing per se, while important, does not make an exercise
physiologist. Moreover, there are many exercise physiologists who do not
publish!
Bear in mind that I understand
the difference between an undergraduate degree and a graduate degree. Clearly,
there are differences between the two which isn't the issue in this paper.
The point is my students are required to take the following core courses:
kinesiology, biomechanics, physiological assessment, cardiac rehabilitation,
exercise prescription, ECG/stress testing, advanced exercise physiology,
sports nutrition, psychophysiology and so forth. Depending upon their specialization
in the exercise physiology major (athletic training, sports psychology,
research, sports management), they are required to take additional courses.
They are also required to do an internship in three of the four options.
In addition to taking a significant
number of exercise physiology courses, the students are responsible for
paying college tuition in the amount of $60,000 or $70,000. Naturally,
after graduation, the students are required to start paying for the loans,
which is even higher than the amount indicated because of additional college
expenses and loans!
What is in a title? Everything
from money to pride. It defines the person and, in many cases, it is the
person. For example, I have been an exercise physiologist since I completed
the PhD from Florida State under the mentorship of Dr. Ron Byrd (an exercise
physiologist). I stopped being a physical educator years ago. It is amazing
to me that I'm still explaining this point to other educators. I can still
remember a colleague at a previous university who was determined to convince
me that I was a physical educator. Why? Well, because my undergraduate
and master's degrees were in health and physical education.
I can only imagine how the
reader may view such an idea. It doesn't make sense to me. Rather, as a
person gets more or different degrees, that person has a right to the new
academics titles. In fact, although I haven't worked in public health since
earning the Master of Public Health (MPH) degree, I have the right to refer
to myself as a public health professional. By the same token, when I finish
the Master of Arts degree in Management, I have the academic right to the
professional title and all that it defines (an so it is with my students
who graduate as exercie physiologists).
Titles are important! They
define who we are and what we do. The problem with exercise physiology
as a career field is that unfortunately there isn't an academic history
to examine and study (i.e., outside of contemporary version of the closure
of the Harvard Fatigue Laboratory). Surely, someone other than I has figured
out that we, as exercise physiologists, are (and have been) more than the
idea of two decades of outstanding productivity from the "fatigue lab."
Exercise physiology has without
question been influenced by the great men and women of the past. Their
contributions to the scientific discovery of facts about human performance
are tremendous. We owe them plenty because they created a window of opportunity
where it did not exist. That doesn't mean, however, that it would not have
been created at some point along the way. Physical educators have, for
example, accomplished much of what physiologists and/or medical doctors
set out to do decades ago. Our heritage is rightfully more in the hands
of educators than doctors. It is more aligned with academic course work
than laboratory experiences, although the latter is changing.
With the right course work
and hands-on experiences (both practical and research), students can be
academically prepared to be exercise physiologists. They should be academically
prepared by exercise physiologists and not by medical, physiological, or
biological science departments. The acquisition of knowledge and its organization
for dissemination in college classrooms by exercise physiologists prepares
the students for service in the profession of exercise physiology.
But, of course, not all academic
programs are equal and, for the most part, there are significantly more
"exercise science" programs than "exercise physiology." Not only are there
problems with lack of consistency from one college program to the next,
there are disagreements as to which courses should be included in such
programs. To be sure, since there is a difference in what constitutes an
academic degree versus an academic emphasis, programs that offer a degree
in exercise physiology are (potentially) better than programs with an emphasis.
Generally, therefore, students from academic programs with a major in kinesiology
or human performance and an emphasis in exercise science (or even exercise
physiology) are not as well prepared as students from departments with
a degree in exercise physiology.
Even a degree in exercise
science is not without problems because one doesn't know (without analyzing
the course work) if the major (by title) is a new program of study or simply
a change in the department name in which the old course work still remains
in place. All one has to do is look up several colleges on the internet
to verify this point.
The problem is multi-dimensional,
but it shouldn't take from what has already evolved as a natural state
of academic and professional development. Consequently, only academic exercise
physiology programs graduate exercise physiologists. Programs by the name
of exercise science can not graduate exercise physiologists no more so
than an academic major in science can graduate a biologist.
The problem lies not with
the academic exercise physiology programs, but instead with programs that
do not offer a major in exercise physiology. Such programs should be updated
with an adequate listing of course work. In some cases, many of the college
instructors may require better academic training. This is not a new thought
or criticism. The issue of quality instructors dates back for decades.
Part of the problem is the lack of a professional organization to guide
the development of the professional and, in particular, the development
of the instructional courses in exercise physiology.
Not surprisingly, it is difficult
to emphasize the importance of title without discussing the importance
of qualified faculty to oversee rigorous requirements for exercise physiology
students. In fact, it is now time more than ever before to address both
issues at the undergraduate level and not just at the doctorate level.
Exercise physiology is now more than only an in-depth academic preparation
at the doctorate level. Graduate programs are important but now undergraduate
programs that offer exercise physiology course work are important too.
Hence, the era has ended
when only PhDs can be called exercise physiologists. With the ending of
one era and the beginning of another era, there is justification in acknowledging
an exercise physiologist by title. This approach is consistent with the
earlier examples of being a nurse after earning an undergraduate degree
in nursing.
Since physiology societies
and sports medicine organizations have not worked to promote the identification
and/or upgrade of the content of what constitutes an exercise physiology
curriculum, it the responsibility of the exercise physiologists who teach
in the academic settings to do so. However, college professors have been
very slow in addressing this point. Exercise physiologists have joined
the college ranks as professors, and have ended up teaching essentially
the same three or four exercise physiology courses year after year. The
professors have not addressed the issue of curriculum revision from an
exercise physiologist's point of view. Essentially no one has addressed
which courses should be taught, how they should taught, how much hands-on
experiences or laboratory opportunities are required and so forth. Not
until the organization of the American Society of Exercise Physiologists
(ASEP) has there been an emphasis on academic development and consistency
from one college to the next.
Given the lack of significant
in-roads into communicating "what is what" -- exercise physiologists have
thus done their work without considering the pitfalls of continuing without
serious thought given to professionalism, program prerequisites, and cognate
course requirements at all levels of the students' education. As a result,
there is the notion that certification by sports medicine groups will legitimize
the field. Surely, everyone realizes that any certification process that
doesn't require a specific educational foundation (as in a college degree)
is essentially useless. It is truly a bandage that will not work. It can
not correct the problem of lack of attention paid to professionalism.
Because ASEP is the professional
organization committed to the unity of exercise physiologists and the professionalization
of exercise physiology, it will attract the attention of national and international
thinkers. Many of these thinkers will embrace the move towards more academic
programs (majors) in exercise physiology and less in exercise science.
Specialization will gradually fall by the wayside as professionalization
through better and more comprehensive course content and hands-on laboratory
and internship opportunities become commonplace. The academic structure
will be degree specific with professional expectations and outcomes. The
Society will empower exercise physiologists thus enabling them to advance
in the job market. It will embrace all aspects of exercise physiology,
particularly the title of the profession.
What is in a title? Everything!
Exercise physiology defines who we are and what we do. Today, we are a
mix of exercise scientists and exercise physiologists. In the near future,
more of us will be exercise physiologists and less exercise scientists.
There is a difference. Interestingly, Charles Tipton used the title "exercise
physiology (ogists)" nearly 80 times in his paper entitled, "Contemporary
Exercise Physiology: Fifty Years...." I believe the title "exercise science"
was used one time in the 24 page paper. Also important and of major significance
is the title of the piece. Think about it.
Our power lies in our title
as exercise physiologist!
Note: This article was previously
published in the ASEPNewsletter. However,
it is such an important topic of discussion that some members felt it should
be published again in the PEPonline
journal.
