Results from Educators' Meeting?

I don't know why, but today I woke up wondering what would result from the Educators' Conference to be held this summer at Oklahoma State University. I guess I have to admit that I have been concerned about the outcome for some time and today's thoughts were just a continuation of that.

The ATRA Curriculum Conference held in the mid-1990s resulted in an ATRA publication listing the competencies needed for RTs. A revision of this publication was put out by ATRA last year. I sure hope that something tangible results from this summer's conference.

It seems to me that RT educators have not taken the lead when it comes to establishing solid national curriculum requirements. As a result, two things have happened. One is that NCTRC has been the organization that has established curriculum standards. The second is that any number of weak university RT professional preparation programs have continued to exist.

I certainly would encourage RT educators and practitioners to use the conference to produce some much needed changes in RT curricula. Without such a result the conference will produce nothing but wasted effort!