Objective – Many of us involved in the library and information sector are members associations that represent interests our profession. These often key to enabling provide evidence based practice by offering opportunities such as professional development. We invest resources membership so we must be able inform those charge about needs, expectations, level satisfaction. Governing bodies committ...

Like the nation as a whole, organized medicine in the United States carries a legacy of racial bias and segregation that should be understood and acknowledged. For more than 100 years, many state and local medical societies openly discriminated against black physicians, barring them from membership and from professional support and advancement. The American Medical Association was early and per...

Abstract Introduction The American Burn Association (ABA) Therapist Certification (BT-C) program, developed in 2018, derived from an organizational desire to promote vetted quality burn care across the interprofessional team. Leadership positions within organizations, are responsible for formulating policy, developing education, and providing oversite ensure success of association. A previous s...

The law is a public affair. The involvement of psychiatrists and psychiatry in legal and judicial proceedings themselves, not to mention the ever-increasing media commentary, is an opportunity to educate the public, but it also entails the very real risk of compounding public misinformation and misgivings about our field. The American Psychiatric Association has both a professional staff Divisi...

Endodontics was recognized as a specialty in the mid-1960s, following decades of developing a body of scientific knowledge and proven techniques for managing the etiology, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of diseases and injuries of the pulp and associated periradicular conditions. There are now 7000 members of the American Association of Endodontists, about a quarter of whom are board cert...

Preamble In 2003, the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants (NCCPA) initiated an effort to define PA competencies in response to similar efforts being conducted within other health care professions and growing demand for accountability and assessment in clinical practice. The following year, representatives from three other national PA organizations, each bringing a uniqu...

Most professions are represented by one unified association, but not rehabilitation counseling. From its earliest years of professionalization, counseling has been multiple associations. Initially, representing the discipline through associations was deemed necessary to capture nuanced differences within field. However, existence come under increasing scrutiny in face declining membership and a...