A Celebration of Accomplishments

Q: When you look back on your career, what stands out the most?

A: I had wanted to be a nurse since a young child, and I have never regretted that decision. I think I am very idealistic about the kind of work nurses do and I love nursing. As an educator, I love to learn—and when you are at a medical center, you are constantly learning new things.

I also like to feel that I have had an impact on students, imparting my love of nursing and my respect of the profession and our contributions to patient care, how we can improve outcomes through patient care and teaching the patients. I feel that way about all the individual patients that I have had contact with who have rheumatic disease; hopefully, my teaching and my interventions for their care have helped them as well.

Q: Why have you dedicated so much of your time to ARHP committee work, and how has such work benefited your career as an educator?

A: It’s a two-way street. I think my teaching has helped my involvement, and I think my involvement has helped my teaching. One thing I like about the ARHP is that it is multidisciplinary. To see other disciplines and their contributions to the care of persons with arthritis, such as psychologists, physical therapists, dietitians, pharmacologists, just the whole gamut of people … I’ve really learned to appreciate their contributions. I have to say that the ARHP is my favorite organization.

Q: You’ve been involved in the ARHP’s development of the Fundamentals of Rheumatology continuing education online program for nurses and health professionals. What are the goals of the program?

A: We have already developed an advanced course online for people who work in rheumatology and want to learn more in depth about various rheumatic diseases. This course is more for people who are new to rheumatology or have been in it for a while but maybe haven’t studied some of the theory behind the diseases and the new drugs. I think it will find an audience of nurses and other health professionals who work in the clinic. It’s for those who want to know more.

ARHP Master Clinician Award

Victoria Gall, PT, MEd
Physical Therapist, Boston

Background: Not all clinicians spend all their time in the office, according to Victoria Gall. This year’s winner of the ARHP Master Clinician Award is glad to be recognized for her clinical skills, which she has applied across a broad spectrum of healthcare settings. Born in Connecticut, Gall graduated from Boston University in 1973. Her plan was to stay and work in Boston through the Bicentennial, but she loved Boston so much that she never left. She received a certificate in hydrotherapy from the Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases in Bath, England, and in 1983, she earned a master’s degree in education from Boston University. Her first job was at Robert Breck Brigham Hospital in Boston, where she developed a hydrotherapy program and worked with medical and surgical patients with many forms of arthritis.