54
The work for NAS had actually just begun, however. Realizing that the state law provided for minimum standards and qualifications, NAS planned for a gradual upward revision of those standards as the times would require. Monitoring of the progress of the law, constant improvement of the examination, establishment of training courses, recruitment efforts, and much research remained to be done. Individual sanitarians who were grandfathered in would need to keep on studying, reading current articles, and improving themselves to keep up with the new men who must qualify by registration. With the California registration law in place, NAS could turn its energies to two tasks: assisting other states in securing Registration Acts, and turning "inspectors into educators.'' The first task was begun by forming a Legislative Committee (October 1945) consisting of sanitarians from different parts of the country who would promote Registration Acts modeled after the California law. The success of the California law gave impetus to national expansion on two fronts - the association's organizational development and the development of four-year college curricula for sanitarians throughout the country. In the November/December 1947 issue of The Sanitarian, the difference between "state" registration and "NAS" registration was spelled out to alleviate apparent con fusion. "The Association provides the sanitarian at large with a central evaluating agency and a means of attaining some professional recognition by colleagues. However, the ultimate goal is official recognition by state agencies." It appeared that NAS registra tion held more professional meaning, while the R.S. conferred by a governmental body held substantial legal meaning. While neither NAS nor California was the first to issue such certificates, they did hold the distinction of being the first entities to use the term "Registered Sanitarian." According to the NAS Bylaws, only members in good standing (dues paid) were per mitted to become Registered. New national standards for certifying registered sanitarians were adopted by NAS effective July 1, 1949, recognizing the three principles: A broad educational background is an essential part of the sanitarian's training; to be professionally recognized, a college education is necessary; and formal education alone cannot complete the training of a sanitarian. When the new standards were adopted at the 1948 annual meeting, the Association had registered 457 sanitarians and done a formal evaluation oftheir applications to arrive at the following analysis: 57 percent of the registrants were between the ages of 30-50; 55 percent had some college training, varying from one to five years or more; 22 per cent had degrees varying from bachelor's degrees to professional degrees. Of 169 registrants who stated their college major, 28 percent were in bacteriology, biology, zoology, chemistry or physics; 27 percent had completed courses in public health sanita tion. Half had less than five years experience in the field of public health and half had more. Of the registrants, 45 had published a total of 116 articles. The majority of those reporting were employed under Civil Service. The year of greatest number of applica tions was 1945 when 142 were admitted to membership. Rejected applications were not kept and, therefore, could not be evaluated.
The SO's - Expansion and Revision
The NAS continued to evaluate and register its membership. A California Advisory Committee on Sanitarians' Standards appointed in 1951 was charged with updating the
Powered by FlippingBook