PES Announces Six Recipients of 1998 Grant Awards Program

New York, NY, December 1998 - Professional Examination Service (PES) is pleased to announce six recipients of the 1998 Grant Awards Program. Established in 1994, the program makes available a total of $15,000 annually to support credentialing stakeholders in educational or scientific activities that contribute significantly to the development, use, evaluation, and enhancement of professional credentials.

The program funds activities in three main categories: educational meetings that bring together a variety of credentialing stakeholders; non-commercial publications on credentialing policy, intended for a broad spectrum of credentialing stakeholders; and research studies that explore the meaning and value of professional credentials to key stakeholder groups.

The six grants awarded for 1998 are as follows:

• American Nurses Credentialing Center -- to support an educational conference entitled "Quality Assurance Through Credentialing: Toward the Best That We Can Be."  The conference will provide a forum for health care regulators, professional nursing organizations, health care organizations, and consumers to discuss nursing credentialing in a changing health care environment.

• Commission on Dietetic Registration -- to aid in the development of a published guide for use by continuing education providers in creating self-assessment instruments to identify the learning needs of dietetic professionals. A general version of the guide for use by other professional groups is also planned.

• Federation of Chiropractic Licensing Boards -- for an educational conference entitled "Understanding Chiropractic: Credentialing Tools for Health Plan Organizations."  The conference will bring together managed care organizations and their credentials verification subcontractors to learn more about the regulatory process.

• National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy, Inc. -- for the organization's sixth annual state regulatory workshop, entitled "Addressing Regulatory Challenges for the Next Millennium."  The workshop will enable members of the regulatory community to discuss and learn about emerging regulatory and policy issues.

• National Commission on Continued Competency in Occupational Therapy -- to support the publication and dissemination of a report exploring issues of continuing competency. The report will seek input from a broad range of stakeholders and is expected to be of interest to other professional groups as well as the occupational therapy community.

• Pharmacy Technician Certification Board -- to support an Employers' Forum that will bring together key stakeholder groups to learn more about the value of pharmacy technician certification in improving patient care, and to discuss emerging trends and issues in the training and regulation of technicians.

Applications for the 1998 Grant Awards Program were reviewed by: Sunny Andrews, LCSW, Dr. P.H., Professor and Director of the School of Social Work at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, and recipient of the 1998 Lillian D. Terris Award for Distinguished Board Service; Barbara Bloom Kreml, M.S.I.R., member of the PES Board of Directors; and J. David Seay, J.D., Treasurer of the PES Board of Directors.

Professional Examination Service is a not-for-profit testing organization whose mission is to promote the understanding and use of sound credentialing practices. PES achieves its mission by providing comprehensive services and making contributions to credentialing stakeholders in the areas of assessment practice, educational activities, scientific research, and policy development.

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