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The «Verein zur Förderung der Wissenschaft in den Gesundheitsberufen VFWG» (Association for the Promotion of Science in the Health Professions) has been publishing the International Journal of Health Professions IJHP for ten years. The IJHP enables young researchers to publish in a peer-reviewed journal without having to pay a publication fee. It also publishes articles on the development of the health professions that would otherwise be difficult to place in a journal.
After ten years, the promotion of science in the healthcare professions is still a necessity in German-speaking countries. Switzerland is best placed where therapy professions, nursing, and midwifery are established at universities of applied sciences with Bachelor’s and Master’s degree programs. There are cooperation agreements with Swiss universities for PhDs. In Austria, Bachelor’s degrees are a prerequisite for professional qualification. However, there are just a few Master’s degree programs for health professions (<a ref-type="bibr" href="#j_ijhp-2023-0016_ref_001">Bucher, 2021</a>; <a ref-type="bibr" href="#j_ijhp-2023-0016_ref_003">Mériaux-Kratochvila, 2021</a>; <a ref-type="bibr" href="#j_ijhp-2023-0016_ref_004">Sottas, 2021</a>). Germany has introduced the Bachelor’s system for the healthcare professions only on a trial basis with model courses and is thus lagging far behind educational policy developments in Europe (<a ref-type="bibr" href="#j_ijhp-2023-0016_ref_002">Gerber-Grote et al., 2023</a>). This is why the VFWG is also politically active with open letters and statements on education policy issues in Germany (see <ext-link xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="https://vfwg.info/en/">https://vfwg.info/en/</ext-link>).
However, the focus of the VFWG will remain on science in the narrower sense. To this end, the VFWG also organizes conferences, symposia and congresses. Every other year, a member university of the VFWG organizes the so called «Dreiländertagung» (Congress for the three German-speaking Countries). The Fachhochschule Gesundheitsberufe Oberösterreich organizes the next edition in Linz (Austria) on September 26–27 2024. The title of the congress is «Vernetzt versorgen» (to care in networks). We hope to meet you there.
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Last year, the VFWG announced a competition for the best review article to be published in the IJHP. The review had to answer an interprofessional / interdisciplinary question from the research field of healthcare professions. Twelve outlines took part in the first step of the competition. Of these, six met the criteria for the submission. Five manuscripts made it to the final round and will be evaluated by a jury in January 2024. The IJHP concludes Volume 10 with these five review articles:
<disp-quote>
Digital Education in the Therapeutic Healthcare Professions: Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, and Speech and Language Therapy: a Scoping Review
<attrib>(Giesselbach et al.)</attrib>
</disp-quote>
<disp-quote>
Identification of barriers and facilitators of successful interprofessional education (IPE) – a scoping umbrella review
<attrib>(Handgraaf et al)</attrib>
</disp-quote>
<disp-quote>
Health service user participation in interprofessional collaborative learning — a systematic reviewon the use of digital solutions
<attrib>(Kidritsch et al.)</attrib>
</disp-quote>
<disp-quote>
The taxonomy of «digital health interventions» and their subgroups in the therapeutic rehabilitation of stroke patients – A scoping review
<attrib>(Stangenberg-Gliss et al.)</attrib>
</disp-quote>
<disp-quote>
Health literacy and the role of therapeutic professionals: A scoping review
<attrib>(Schwendemann &amp; Tieme)</attrib>
</disp-quote>
They show the broad scope of topics in the healthcare professions, for which the IJHP will continue to offer a publication opportunity. We would like to thank the VFWG for this support and hope for many more volumes. The winners of this competition will be announced on the website of the VFWG and the IJHP.
With best wishes for 2024
Thomas Bucher, Co-editor-in-chief IJHP
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Editorial: Ten Years International Journal of Health Professions

International Journal of Health Professions

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Editorial: Ten Years International Journal of Health Professions

Published Online: Dec 28, 2023

Page range: 103 - 104

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ijhp-2023-0016

© 2023 Thomas Bucher, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.