New NCTRC Certification Standards

NCTRC today put out this announcment:

NCTRC Announces New Certification Standards Changes

At a recent meeting conducted in Halifax, Nova Scotia, the NCTRC Board of Directors voted to approve the following changes pertaining to the NCTRC Certification Standards:

That the number of Therapeutic Recreation courses required for NCTRC professional eligibility be increased to five courses with each course being a minimum of three credit hours. The implementation date would be January 1, 2013.

That content specific Therapeutic Recreation coursework be required as part of the NCTRC professional eligibility requirements. The specific course content will include the following areas: a/ Assessment; b/ TR Process; and c/ Advancement of the Profession. It is recommended that each content area be addressed by a specific TR course and that, at a minimum, at least 50% of the course be devoted to the designated content material. The implementation date would be January 1, 2013.

That the NCTRC field placement requirement be increased to a minimum of 14 weeks and 560 hours. The implementation date would be January 1, 2013.

That the Academic Field Placement Supervisor be an active CTRS at the start of the field placement experience, and required to sign the final Field Placement Verification Form signifying that the candidate completed all stated components of the NCTRC field placement requirements. The implementation date would be January 1, 2013.

The above changes were recommended to the NCTRC Board by the NCTRC Job Analysis Professional Eligibility ad hoc Committee in its written report to the Board. The recommended changes, as outlined above, were based upon a thorough review of the 2007NCTRC Job Analysis study results and current practice in the field of TR/RT.