certified or licensed
Glen Waldner Co
Description
Collection
Title:
certified or licensed
Creator:
Glen Waldner Co
Text:
In regards to the debate of ABC and BOC, both are certification boards. In
states with licensure, certification is not relevant to the ability to practice.
As an example, is the physician that you take your family to licensed or
certified to practice medicine? I would dare to say that the majority are only
licensed. Only those in very specialized fields are certified, and they became
certified AFTER they were licensed not before. The same is true of
therapists, nurses and everyone else in the medical field.
Why then do we in the field of orthotics and prosthetics deem it so vital to
become certified especially when we do not have specialty fields to be
certified in?
With all of that said, I believe the underlying tide of both certifying
boards is to PREVENT state licensure. After all, with state licensure ABC and BOC
are back to being an insignificant club. I would like to know from practioners
in states that have licensure, to what extent did ABC or BOC actually help to
get state licensure passed. Did they actually help with the process or did
they just give arms length advice.
It is time for practioners in states without licensure to get up and do
something about it. If O&P practitioners don't do something to police themselves
and get licensed in every state someone will do it for them.
Most of the complaints I have heard are to keep physical therapists from
practicing O&P. Being married to a PT, having an O.T. assistant as a
sister-in-law, and another sister-in-law as a respiratory therapist, I can tell you most
of them don't want our jobs. They became therapist because that is what they
like to do for their vocation. If they had wanted to be orthotists or
prosthetists they would have followed that path. The problem is there is a whole
scope of practice out there called orthotics and prosthetics that is unclaimed.
If the people working and trained in the field don't claim this scope of
practice, someone else will.
By the way, to become licensed in the state of Florida you do not have to
reside here. However you must still have the education, training, residency,
etc. that ABC purports to should be the standard to become licensed. Just
follow the link below to find out how. (by the way, it costs more than $75 and one
form)
<URL Redacted>
Glen Waldner, LPO
states with licensure, certification is not relevant to the ability to practice.
As an example, is the physician that you take your family to licensed or
certified to practice medicine? I would dare to say that the majority are only
licensed. Only those in very specialized fields are certified, and they became
certified AFTER they were licensed not before. The same is true of
therapists, nurses and everyone else in the medical field.
Why then do we in the field of orthotics and prosthetics deem it so vital to
become certified especially when we do not have specialty fields to be
certified in?
With all of that said, I believe the underlying tide of both certifying
boards is to PREVENT state licensure. After all, with state licensure ABC and BOC
are back to being an insignificant club. I would like to know from practioners
in states that have licensure, to what extent did ABC or BOC actually help to
get state licensure passed. Did they actually help with the process or did
they just give arms length advice.
It is time for practioners in states without licensure to get up and do
something about it. If O&P practitioners don't do something to police themselves
and get licensed in every state someone will do it for them.
Most of the complaints I have heard are to keep physical therapists from
practicing O&P. Being married to a PT, having an O.T. assistant as a
sister-in-law, and another sister-in-law as a respiratory therapist, I can tell you most
of them don't want our jobs. They became therapist because that is what they
like to do for their vocation. If they had wanted to be orthotists or
prosthetists they would have followed that path. The problem is there is a whole
scope of practice out there called orthotics and prosthetics that is unclaimed.
If the people working and trained in the field don't claim this scope of
practice, someone else will.
By the way, to become licensed in the state of Florida you do not have to
reside here. However you must still have the education, training, residency,
etc. that ABC purports to should be the standard to become licensed. Just
follow the link below to find out how. (by the way, it costs more than $75 and one
form)
<URL Redacted>
Glen Waldner, LPO
Citation
Glen Waldner Co, “certified or licensed,” Digital Resource Foundation for Orthotics and Prosthetics, accessed November 6, 2024, https://library.drfop.org/items/show/222648.
