Your Input Needed for New Job-Analysis Survey

The Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards (FSMTB) has posted a job-analysis survey on its Web site, www.fsmtb.org, to determine new entry-level licensure standards for the profession and criteria for a new national examination. The survey will remain online at least until January 2007.

“The information gathered … will be used to guide the content of [a] national licensure examination,” says FSMTB’s new executive director, Debra Persinger. “It will also guide the development of a model practice act.”

The FSMTB it working toward a new exam to replace the National Certification Examination for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork, administered by the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork (NCBTMB). The FSMTB formed in September 2005 in response to persistent complaints from NCBTMB certificants about difficulty in reaching and communicating with the NCBTMB; a perceived lack of transparency among the NCBTMB leadership; and the national exam’s dominance in the arena of state licensure, even though state massage-therapy boards have had no input into its content.

The online-survey request states, “Massage/bodywork therapists in all areas of practice and with all levels of experience are needed to tell us how important various tasks are and how often you perform these in your practice. Responses from educators and business owners within the massage/bodywork profession are needed as well.” The survey is only for professional massage therapists, not students

FSMTB hopes to receive 10,000 responses from its survey, “but the practical answer is that we want as many responses as possible,” says Persinger.