National commission meets the grass roots: concerns of program directors in allied health education

An informal, open-ended survey was conducted by the National Commission on Allied Health Education for the purpose of learning what the directors of allied health programs in colleges and universities regard as the major problems facing allied health today and the major issues for the near future. The concerns of the respondents were found to cluster in 11 major areas: (1) definition (identity), (2) credentialing, (3) funding, (4) roles of educational settings, (5) clinical affiliations, (6) curriculum, (7) continuing education, (8) students, (9) faculty and administration, (10) delivery systems and consumer needs and (11) research and information needs. Even though consensus on problems was remarkable, there was no such general agreement on solutions. This initial "idea search" proved useful to the Commission in defining topic areas for documentation studies and in underscoring the necessity of looking for solutions.