NCBTMB Announces Specifications for NCAP

The National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork has drafted specifications for their National Certification for Advanced Practice. The draft may be viewed online at their website. The specifications are being posted for review and you can post your thoughts and comments online as well.

The proposed certification is separate from the basic national certification you may already have. It is not designed to be an entry level certification that can be used for licensure, but instead is intended to reflect advanced knowledge and ability. Check it out!

NCBTMB Announces NCAP Test Specifications

The National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork has drafted specifications for their National Certification for Advanced Practice.  The draft may be viewed online at their website.  The specifications are being posted for review and you can post your thoughts and comments online as well. 

The proposed certification is separate from the basic national certification you may already have. It is not designed to be an entry level certification that can be used for licensure, but instead is intended to reflect advanced knowledge and ability.  Check it out!

What is It Coming To?????

Many of you readers have probably received the following notice from the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork. For those who haven't, I'm reprinting it below my comments. I read it with a combination of horror and resignation. I have been watching the changes in the massage education field with the same, I must say. I understand that change has to occur. It's inevitable of course. Back in the day, people learned to be massage therapists through books and apprenticeships. Then educators and state boards decided the process should be more formal and more appropriate for the profession. What I have noticed of late is the loss of many of the education providers who were in it for the love of massage therapy. I've witnessed the birth of massage education based on profit and not passion. That seems to be what we're witnessing all around us here in the United States. I do my best to support local businesses and avoid generic or mass produced items, but it's not always easy. I'd love to hear from all of y'all about the trend in products and services being driven by economies of scale. Or is it even a trend or just the way things are now?

I know it's not large, ethical corporations that are driving the incredibly unethical practices NCBTMB is addressing.  But I'm wondering if there's any correlation.  Haven't all MTs been taught about the massage school scandals that brought about the ill repute of massage therapy in the first place?  I guess I'm thinking what MT would allow anything like this to happen???  I know I'm rambling, but I'd like to get some discussion started here!

So...here's the press release from NCTBMB:

As you are undoubtedly aware, there are ever-increasing issues of illegitimate massage schools, organized prostitution and alarming occurrences of human trafficking affecting the reputation of the massage profession. In order to do our part to restrict the ability of these illicit institution’s students to become nationally certified, NCBTMB has spent the past 18 months developing and implementing a national School Compliance Program.

The School Compliance Department at NCB works to identify and investigate institutions that give the appearance of operating in an illegitimate or fraudulent manner. The department conducts in-depth research when it finds inconsistencies and abnormalities in information submitted by schools, such as transcripts and attendance records or falsification of certificates and diplomas.

The outcome of these investigations has resulted in NCB imposing sanctions which, in some cases, have prohibited a school’s graduates from sitting for the National Certification Exams. NCBTMB then shares this information with state regulatory boards and local law enforcement agencies on a monthly basis, and it is posted on our website. This ultimately helps legitimate schools by protecting their reputations and underscoring the standard of excellence they uphold.

In order to help draw attention to the disgrace of human trafficking and its effect on our profession, we have created this brochure: Human Trafficking – What You Need to Know, which is being distributed to massage schools and other stakeholders nationwide. The brochure was produced in partnership with Polaris Project, a nonprofit organization that operates the National Human Trafficking Resource Center. You can order copies of the brochure online at www.ncbtmb.org. We hope you will share them with your faculty, students and peers.

Together, let’s all work to raise awareness and help eliminate human trafficking in the massage therapy profession. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact our School Outreach Department at schooloutreach@ncbtmb.org or call us toll-free at 1-800-296-0664.

With kindest regards,

Paul R. Lindamood
Chief Executive Officer

NCBTMB News--Survey Results

from the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork...

RESULTS OF THE ADVANCED CERTIFICATION SURVEY ARE IN

The Profession Weighs in on the National Certification for Advanced Practice

Dear Massage Professional,

Thousands of practitioners responded to NCBTMB’s call for input on the Advanced Practice Job Task Analysis (JTA) survey. The survey results will be used to develop the test specifications for the profession’s first advanced certification exam, a key component in the National Certification for Advanced Practice (NCAP).

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE RESULTS

Or copy this URL to your browser – http://www.ncbtmb.org/pdf/Advanced_Practice_JTA_Survey_Results.pdf

For more information about the NCAP, visit the Advanced Certification section of NCBTMB’s website.

FSMTB to Establish New Continuing Education Program

a press release from the Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards...

(Overland Park, KS, March 29, 2011) The Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards (FSMTB) announces the launch of a project to develop a new national program for the approval of both continuing education courses and providers. Once it is established, the program will provide state regulatory agencies with a centralized quality assurance process for all courses taken by massage and bodywork therapists for the renewal of State licensure or State certification.

            As the representative for the regulatory community, FSMTB has responded to requests from its Member Boards to create a unified system to ensure that continuing education courses are taught by qualified instructors, relevant to the scope of practice, and meet the needs of the regulatory community. Continuing education is a requirement in three-quarters of the States that regulate the practice of massage therapy; it is also the method used in most professions for demonstrating continued competence.

The FSMTB continuing education approval program is intended to provide a more streamlined alternative to the existing structure, which consists of a patchwork of individual State approval processes and a provider approval process administered by a private certification organization. This approach is inconsistent, requires continuing education providers to go through multiple approvals to offer their courses around the country, and is not focused on standards for licensure renewal.  The new approval program will be developed and administered by FSMTB, giving State agencies the necessary mechanism of ownership and control required by their legislative mandates. In this way, the program will be similar to the Federation's establishment of the MBLEx, a highly successful program that provides its Member Boards with a dedicated licensure exam for State credentialing.

FSMTB has invited the Alliance for Massage Therapy Education (AFMTE) to collaborate on this project as a representative of the educational community.  And to ensure that the perspective of the learners is considered in the development process, the American Massage Therapy Association (AMTA) and Associated Bodywork and Massage Professionals (ABMP) have been invited to provide input as the two largest massage and bodywork membership associations.

Once an initial draft of the continuing education approval program is completed, it will be made available for public comment. Other stakeholder organizations, as well as continuing education providers, schools and therapists will have the opportunity to give their feedback to FSMTB on this project before it is finalized. This step will ensure that all interested parties have a voice in the process.  The ongoing status of this project will be updated on the FSMTB website: www.fsmtb.org.

Overall, the FSMTB continuing education project is consistent with the FSMTB Mission, which is to support its Member Boards in their work to ensure that the practice of massage therapy is provided to the public in a safe and effective manner. Upgrading and consolidating the process of continuing education approvals will directly serve the regulatory community and deliver a valuable service for providers and consumers of continuing education alike.