If you don’t have access to the ASET Newsletter and have not
gone to the ABRET website recently, I am going to share this important update
with you, and provide some explanation.
An article in the Fall 2017 ASET Newsletter announced a
change in the rules for recertificaton of ABRET credentials. If you were awarded the R. EEG T. or R EP T. credential between 1964 and 2001, this was
considered a “lifetime credential”.
However, ABRET has announced that ALL R. EEG Ts, and R. EP T’s will need
to recertify in the future by obtaining 30 CEUs every 5 years moving forward.
There is a six-year span for the phasing-in of this new
rule. Technologists who had a lifetime
credential may acquire CEUs starting August 1, 2017 through December 31,
2023. The CEUs must be submitted to ABRET before the
2023 deadline, and instructions for how to complete the process can be found on
the ABRET website, at the “For Certificants” tab. At this tab you will also find information on
“Acceptable Continuing Education”.
Basically, the CEUs you submit must be on topics related to your
credential. There is a “Recertification
Handbook” on the ABRET website, and if you have additional questions, you are
encouraged to contact them directly via the ABRET website, www.ABRET.org.
If you plan to retire, and are not planning to seek CEUs and
go through the first recertification process, you can request ABRET to give you
“Emeritus” status. However, your
registry will eventually expire and if you go back to working as a technologist
after retirement, you will be listed as “credential expired” in the ABRET
database.
Now that I have shared the news with you, I would like to
share my insight into this ruling, since I am sure a few of my contemporaries
who passed the EEG Registry Exam “in the old days” will perhaps find this
difficult to accept. Of course, as
Director of Education for ASET, I have been an advocate of education on all
levels for technologists! I am a firm
believer in “Life Long Learning”, whether it be work-related skills, or
learning a new sport or hobby! We learn
so much over a lifetime! A quote from Issac Asimov: "The day you stop learning is the day you begin decaying"
The thing is, that for health care professionals, passing a
credentialing exam is a declaration that you have met a minimum standard of
skills and knowledge to do your job.
This indicates to your patients that you are competent to care for them
and provide the necessary services required aid in the diagnosis and treatment
of their medical conditions. In
virtually all other areas of allied health, when it comes to exams, continuing
education is required ( respiratory therapy, radiology, physical therapy, and
of course nursing.) We sell ourselves and
our credentials short and reduce credibility for the NDT credentials by separating
out a group of individuals who do not have to seek CEUs.
We can all agree that advances in medicine and health care
technology occur at an amazingly rapid rate these days. Without a doubt, some of these changes affect
the way we interact with patients and perform tests and monitoring. Did you know about the updates to the
International Classification of Seizures?
Did you know about the recent changes in the ACNS guidelines for
performing various NDT modalities?
I think it is a good thing to be held responsible for
maintaining current knowledge which will help us all provide the best patient
care possible. We at ASET will do our
best to offer you interesting and meaningful continuing education that is
affordable. Investing in our future and
the safety and well-being of our patients is a good thing!
The primary factor which influenced ABRET’s decision to
phase out lifetime credentials has to do with their goal to have all of their
credentialing exams certified by a third party organization which provides a
comprehensive assessment and review of professional examinations. ABRET credentials will gain recognition and
credibility if outside certification is obtained. Exams that award a lifetime credential and do
not require CEUs cannot obtain approval for the exam process. So, in order to comply with industry
standards, ABRET had to update their rules.
Let’s all get on board with this, since we do very important
and detailed work and deserve respect and recognition as health care
professionals! I will close this blog
entry with a link to the Wikipedia definition of “Health Care Professionals”. Scroll down to the last section on “Regulation
and Registration” and think about it… Wikipedia
