CTRS Specialty Certification

Purpose of Specialty Certification

As healthcare evolves, both the technical knowledge and the skills required to successfully practice in a complex service environment significantly increase. Although in practice there remains a need to possess a broad range of professional skills, there is an increasing expectation to develop focused and specialized knowledge and skills that are distinctive to a specific population and service sector. Health and human service professionals who acquire a higher level of knowledge and more advanced skill provide the consumer with a greater depth of service compared to individuals who practice at a less advanced level. Specialization is well recognized within professional practice and has become the norm within the health and human service delivery system today.

 

Establishing a method to distinguish professionals who practice at an advanced level is essential to ensure quality of care and risk management. The attainment of advanced knowledge and skill is acquired via several methods including education programs, conferences focused upon specific skills or diagnostic populations, and the successful acquisition of expert skills that have been mastered over a substantial period of practice. The primary purpose of NCTRC specialty certification is to acknowledge the CTRS whose practice has reached an advanced professional level, and to provide formal recognition of competence beyond the CTRS credential. NCTRC specialty certification provides an additional level of assurance to patients, consumers, and employers regarding the delivery of quality recreation therapy and therapeutic recreation services.

 

NCTRC Specialty Certification Professional Areas of Recognition

•  Physical Medicine/Rehabilitation

•  Geriatrics

•  Developmental Disabilities

•  Behavioral Health

•  Community Inclusion Services

 

NCTRC Specialty Certification Summary of Requirements (Brochure)

Specialty Certification Standards

Specialty Certification Path A application

  1. CTRS active status;
  2. Completion of five (5) years of full-time professional therapeutic recreation experience within a designated specialty area;
  3. Completion of 75 continuing education hours that include a minimum of three (3) professional certificate trainings within the designated specialty area. Each professional certificate training must be a minimum of six (6) CE hours. The CE hours must be completed during the five year period prior to application; and
  4. Submission of two professional references: one from a peer professional and one from a recent employment supervisor.

 

Specialty Certification Path B application

  1. CTRS active status;
  2. Graduate Degree in TR/RT;
  3. Completion of nine (9) graduate-level credit hours within the designated specialty area;
  4. Completion of one (1) year of full-time professional therapeutic recreation experience within the designated specialty area; and
  5. Submission of two professional references: one from a peer professional and one from a recent employment supervisor.

 

The specialty certification designation is valid for a period of up to five years if awarded at the beginning of the five-year Recertification cycle. If the specialty certification designation is awarded at a point after Recertification, then the specialty certification validation period will be for the remainder of the certification cycle. Recertification of both the CTRS credential and the specialty certification designation would then occur at the same time at the next scheduled due date. All documented Continuing Education (CE) hours used during the specialty certification application process can be utilized for CTRS recertification as long as the documented CE hours were earned within the five-year recertification period.