On the Second Edition of the Guide

We begin the year with something different from the Journal's usual content—the second edition of the Guide to Physical Therapist Practice . This document was developed by APTA to encourage a uniform approach to physical therapist practice and to explain to the world the nature of that practice. This document has been in development for almost a decade. (See box on page 8 for an outline of the process used to develop the Guide; further description is given in the Guide's Introduction.) As the document itself emphasizes, the Guide is not a set of clinical guidelines, nor is it a set of protocols or a listing of approved tests or interventions. The Guide forms a framework for describing and implementing practice. The patient/client management model put forth by the Guide appears to be widely used and has provided physical therapists with a common conceptual approach to patient care, and in this way the Guide has proven that it could be an invaluable adjunct to our literature. The second edition contains expanded sections on such topics as diagnosis by physical therapists and the disablement model. As with the first edition, much of what appears in the second edition will be helpful to physical therapists in all areas of practice. And, as with the first edition, for both practical and philosophical reasons, preferred practice patterns are supplied for a limited number of conditions. If the Guide is to continue playing a salutary role in our profession, physical therapists need to understand what this new edition is—and what it is not. As indicated in the Guide's Introduction, the Guide initially was developed in response to requests from legislative bodies. Given the nature of that impetus, a process was developed and used to generate the Guide. …