NEHA Green Book

Chapter 4 CONTINUING EDUCATION

The modes of environmental health and sanitary practice do commonly change, and the environmental health practitioners must be responsive to these changes. Further, these changes must be implemented in a way that the public is best served. Meeting the need of changing expertise by environmental health practitioners can be accomplished through a continuing education program which allows the practitioner to remain on the job while updating his knowledge and skills in new areas of environmental health and technology. According to the Council for Noncollegiate Continuing Education, their term "con tinuing education" means..."that lifelong education or training which refreshes, updates, or upgrades competencies of adults, enabling them to better perform their economic or social responsibilities; it does not include general education for academic creden tials or preparation for job entry.'' .. The National Environmental Health Association, in 1974, appointed a Task Force to create a mechanism to address the matter of continuing education for environmental health practitioners. Francis J. Goldsmith, J.D., served as chairman. An interim Council for Continuing Education in Environmental Health evaluated the need and purpose of a permanent entity, and in June 1979, the National Council for Continuing Education in Environmental Health was chartered and bylaws adopted at the annual meeting of NEHA in Charleston, South Carolina. The Council was incorporated in the State of Delaware in August 1979. ln accordance with the provisions of the charter... ''The National Council on Contin uing Education in Environmental Health, Inc.,...is a private, non-profit corporation ha\·ing authority to promulgate and establish such rules, regulations, procedures and criteria as may be required to fulfill its responsibilities; establish a system to review and certify continuing education programs for the members of the professions; maintain records and communicate information contained therein to professional association committees, members, educational institutions, and other interested parties; promulgate and carry out such programs and policies as necessary to insure proper continuing educa tion for professional environmentalists and promote healthful living in the environment, and confer recognition on those individuals successfully completing Council-certified continuing education programs...'' Further, the Council shall function to "Assure...the public that members of the Environmental Health Professions are involved in relevant learning experiences and that certain minimum professional standards are continually being met by providers of continuing education; promote the need for continuing education and encourage professionals to pursue it; advise and counsel academic and other institutions, corpora tions, government agencies, and all interested parties concerning the conduct of, the approval of, and the need for, continuing education programs; establish and imple ment programs to certify continuing education and provide information to interested parties; create and maintain a system of records on individuals participating in any Council-certified Continuing Education Program.'' 1 I

This Council was the first step toward implementing the expanded role of environmen tal health practitioners and assuring that high quality services are available to the public.