Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/1451559
Tiered Licensure: Pros A tiered licensure program would provide a clearly designated credential above the entry-level license. This distinction would make it easier for stakeholders (like an insurance company or physician) to identify individuals who have completed additional training for working in the health-care model. A separate license designation might make acceptance by other health-care providers and external stakeholders more likely. A tiered licensure program might help create better portability of advanced training credentials between states. However, this would only be likely if there were standardized agreements among states for the curriculum of an upper-level license. Tiered Licensure: Cons It has been difficult to get states to agree on consistent licensure requirements at the entry level. Trying to get them to agree on requirements for an advanced level of training is likely to be even more complicated. There is likely to be confusion and significant debate about what kind of massage requires what kind of license. This debate could end up being very divisive for the profession. Individual state boards establish guidelines for state licensure. There may be a big enough pool of practitioners to staff a state board for entry-level training. However, there may not be enough practitioners with advanced skills and knowledge to help create separate advanced licensure in each state. Additional licensure levels may pressure schools to train students for both potential career tracks. This pressure could further inflate required hours in training programs, significantly increasing their cost. States are unlikely to take on more significant expenses for further regulating the massage profession, mainly because one level of public protection already exists. Currently, the Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards provides a national exam (Massage & Bodywork Licensing Examination) used by most states for entry-level licensure. Creating a new advanced national licensing exam would be a monumental task. Convincing the public and legislators there is a need for a second type of licensure will be a massive public relations effort, and it's not clear who would fund that effort. COLLEGE DEGREES One of the most common discussions around credentialing in our field is whether massage should eventually become a degree-required profession. In one model, massage could stay as a vocational field for those operating as a personal-care service. The current state licensure would remain for basic massage practice. Those who wanted to work as health- care practitioners would complete a specific degree program. These degrees might start as an associate's degree and eventually go to a full bachelor's degree program. A program like this could begin with voluntary degree programs with no specific statewide requirement for degrees. Still, employers, clients, and other stakeholders could ask for practitioners who have completed the degree program. There are currently a few associate degrees in massage, some offering more advanced training. College Degree: Pros A college degree is a recognized credential. Other health professions have college degree requirements; these degrees would put the massage profession in line with the development tracks of other professions. A college degree may increase the perceived credibility of the massage profession and lead to greater interest from researchers and others in the clinical science communities. Degree programs do not put additional financial burdens on states to create and manage statewide credentialing programs as tiered licensure would. If degree programs L i s te n to T h e A B M P Po d c a s t a t a b m p.co m /p o d c a s t s o r w h e reve r yo u a cce s s yo u r favo r i te p o d c a s t s 53 become a requirement, massage education could become more academically oriented. Advanced training through a degree program might be more accessible to some students through financial aid programs offered by the colleges. College Degree: Cons The return on investment (ROI) for college degrees is becoming a serious issue in our country. The cost of a college degree has significantly outpaced inflation and has risen nearly 25 percent in the last 10 years alone. 1 Students may question whether the cost of a full degree program could be recouped by a career in the massage profession, especially with the high attrition rate in the first few years of practice. Colleges are facing financial and business-model pressures right now. 2 While the high-ticket schools like Harvard, Yale, and Stanford will likely weather this storm, other lower-tier schools are more susceptible. It seems unlikely that many of these schools would want to start degree programs in a field like massage therapy where there is a high attrition rate, declining enrollments, and the potential earning for graduates is not that high. A degree program may be more about adding general studies to the curriculum and not more about advanced massage therapy applications. If so, is a degree program the preferred means of advanced credentialing? These additional areas of study may help round out an individual's education, but there isn't clear evidence they better prepare a massage therapist to be a health-care provider. It is likely to cost students more on coursework that may not be as helpful for their career goals. Many people enter the massage profession after careers in other professions. They often already have degrees in other fields. If there is a requirement for a degree in massage therapy to work in the health- care arena, would they have to go back to school to get a specific degree in massage therapy? TRAVELNOW OR CRYL ATER/UNSPL ASH