RESNA green lights specialty certification
By HME News Staff
Updated Tue March 31, 2009
ARLINGTON, Va.--RESNA has moved forward with plans to develop a specialty certification in seating and mobility.
A RESNA work group has developed a list of what it believes to be the tasks and knowledge needed to provide seating and mobility equipment, and in February, it sent out a survey to more than 2,500 professionals to identify “the most critical areas.”
“That will form the blueprint of the exam,” said Laura Cohen, chairwoman of RESNA's Professional Standards Board.
Because RESNA's assistive technology practitioner (ATP) certification represents only basic knowledge, some have long argued that there's a need for a specialty credential that differentiates professionals who work in seating and mobility from those who work in, say, augmentative communications.
The specialty credential in seating and mobility won't be a requirement, at least not initially.
“The ATS and ATP certifications didn't start out as requirements, either - they were more about professional recognition,” Cohen said. “But the hope is that, eventually, it will be recognized somehow.”
Medicare, for a year now, has required that providers have at least one ATP on staff to supply certain power wheelchairs.
RESNA expected to collect results from its survey through March.
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