ARRT STATEMENT ON CHANGES TO CONTINUING EDUCATION REQUIREMENTS

Earlier this year, ARRT proposed changes to our policies for earning continuing education (CE) credit.

We published the proposals for public comment in June 2020—and we received a great deal of feedback expressing support, neutrality, and opposition from the professional community for the proposed changes.

As a result, our Board of Trustees decided:

• ARRT will stop accepting CE credits for preparing and delivering presentations effective Jan. 1, 2022
• ARRT will stop accepting CE credits for authorship with exception of peer-reviewed journal articles published in refereed journals effective Jan. 1, 2022 
• The Board will review CE policies for writing and publishing peer-reviewed journal articles, then determine further action and the effective date for any changes.

Several reasons account for the changes above that become effective in 2022.

• While many R.T.s author articles and prepare and present presentations, very few R.T.s ever undertake the process to apply that work toward ARRT’s CE requirements. The quantity and variety of CE opportunities available to R.T.s has increased significantly since ARRT first required CE of R.T.s, and ARRT works to ensure sufficient CE opportunities are available to R.T.s to meet their educational requirements.
• Relatively few CE approvers will evaluate and award CE credits for authorship and the development and delivery of presentations. The organizations that serve as CE approvers that do evaluate and award CE credits for authorship and presentations may provide this as a benefit for their members only. Consequently, some individuals, who aren’t members of the organizations that serve as CE approvers, don’t meet criteria to earn CE for authorship or presentations they’ve completed. 
• The same presentation approved multiple times can result in an R.T. obtaining and reporting CE credits for the same content. This goes against ARRT’s requirement that an R.T.’s CE activity can only count once in a biennium. It also prohibits the diversity of learning required to maintain certification and registration in a continually changing profession.

ARRT recognizes that preparing and delivering presentations and authoring materials that are not articles in peer-reviewed journals have value to the individual and to the profession and serve a valuable purpose. ARRT’s decision was based upon alignment of activities with the purpose of ARRT’s CE Requirements and is not intended to suggest that Registered Technologists discontinue the activities even though they are not recognized for CE Credit.   

We’ll announce any changes regarding writing and publishing peer-reviewed journal articles when they’re available.