NCA and BOR Consider New Credentialing Agency

Extract

The National Credentialing Agency for Laboratory Personnel, Inc. (NCA) and the Board of Registry (BOR) of the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) may unite to form a new credentialing agency. Patricia Ellinger, MSEd, Chair of the BOR Board of Governors, and Kathryn Doig, PhD, President of the NCA Board of Directors jointly announced the effort at the ASCLS Clinical Laboratory Educators' Conference, March 2, 2006 in San Antonio. By invitation, E. Blair Holladay, PhD, BOR Executive Director, addressed the NCA board at its regular meeting, November 4, 2005, leading to the development of a letter of intent signed December 12 at BOR headquarters by Drs Doig and Holladay and Ms Ellinger and by BOR Vice-chair Cynthia Johns and NCA Executive Director Sheila O'Neal. The non-binding letter opens the opportunity for consideration of a new agency.

NCA was chartered in 1978 as a peer-review credentialing agency in response to concerns for pathologists' control of the clinical laboratory science (CLS) profession and has functioned as an independent agency sponsored by the American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science (ASCLS) and the Association of Genetic Technologists. Generalist certifications through NCA lead to the Clinical Laboratory Scientist [CLS (NCA)] and Clinical Laboratory Technician [CLT (NCA)] credentials. The BOR is an agency of ASCP and BOR generalist certifications are Medical Technologist [MT (ASCP)] and Medical Laboratory Technician [MLT (ASCP)]. There were 976 BOR MT examinees in the first half of 2005; NCA examined 521 CLS candidates in all of 2005.

Conference attendees voiced enthusiastic approval.