NEW CEU PROCESS

The education committee of URTA would like to announce the change of responsibility for the awarding of continuing education units (CEUs) to the Utah Recreation Therapy Association (URTA). This notion was recently passed unanimously by the URTA board.

Rationale: In the past, URTA has gone through a third party vendor. By eliminating a third party vendor and taking responsibility for awarding CEU credit, URTA will be able to (1) increase CEU processing efficiency and CEU availability, and (2) maintain professional CEUs that meet criteria for NCTRC standards.

1. By taking responsibility for awarding CEUs, URTA will be able to process CEU awards prior, during, or immediately after continuing education events (presentations, workshops, conference sessions, etc.). By keeping CEU credits "in-house", CEU processing may be faster, require less hassle of working with a third party vendor, and increase availability of CEUs to URTA members sooner.
2. Through both e-mail and telephone conversations, it has been verified by NCTRC Credentialing Specialists that NCTRC is impartial to the involvement of an outside educational facility in giving CEU credit. NCTRC awards CEU credit for educational contact hours. They are more concerned with URTA providing appropriately documented contact hours that represent content areas that meet NCTRC CEU credit requirements.

The cost of the CEUs will remain the same. We are always looking for opportunities to increase the education of our professionals. If you are interested in presenting or doing a workshop for CEU credit, please contact the URTA Education Committee to set it up. Otherwise, we can help your agency meet the necessary requirements to offer your own CEU credit. If you do your workshops through URTA, URTA will keep records of CEU credit for five years.

As there will be a need for some management of awarding educational contact hours for CEU credit, the Education Committee is asking for members to join the committee. The hours of service would be minimal. It would be a great way to get involved and enhance your profession!

If you have any questions or are interested in joining the committee, please contact Kristin Warren, Education Chair, at kristinw@newhavenrtc.com. We look forward to this new opportunity!

*Special thanks to Brian Malcarne, TRS, CTRS for all his hard work in initiating this change!