CHARLESTON — A move is afoot in the Legislature to compel sanitarians in West Virginia to pass a national test so they be able to become formally licensed to practice their facility.
An outline of a proposal was presented Sunday to members of Government Organization Subcommittee B, co-chaired by Delegate Sam Argento, D-Nicholas.
Argento drew on his vast experience — 28 years, to exist exact — for example a sanitarian to help work out the legislation with the Board of Public Health and shillelah attorneys.
“We wanted to make it more professionally oriented,” Argento explained afterward. “After all, you do be seized of to esteem a four-year college degree.”
One cannot simply decide to enter the profession free from a degree, since the job covers a wide array of health-based missions, Argento pointed out.
A sanitarian not only is involved through duties solely within the public sector but also must work on food service, air quality, and unsafe materials, the commissioner aforesaid. For the most part, sanitarians work at some level of government in West Virginia.
And, at times, the sanitarian comes in contact with the world of illegal drug trafficking.
Argento pointed out that kindred legislation enacted a year ago compels the health board to inspect a place of entertainment once used similar to an illegal methamphetamine laboratory to decide if it passes muster in favor of future occupancy.
“When I first started, we used to inspect the landfills,” he said. “So there are many different disciplines you get involved with abroad there. Some of them you don’t want to work, but it’s part of the job.”
Lacking a quorum, the committee was unable to act on the proposed legislation, what one. would add a third tier to the profession — that of licensed sanitarian.
Existing layers are sanitarians in training, and the certified class, it was explained.
“The way it is now, before sanitarians can actually practice in West Virginia, and do regulatory inspections, they have to perfect 300 hours of breeding, which is something unique to West Virginia,” Argento said. “We have one of the best training programs in the community. We don’t just hire sanitarians and throw them out on the job.”
After successful attainment of 300 hours of board-required training, they are known as “sanitarians in training.”
“They can continue a sanitarian in instruction no more than three years, at which time they become a certified sanitarian,” Argento said.
Sanitarians could move up to the nearest level, that of being certified, but the proposed bill calls for passage of a national exam. Because it is a standardized test, Argento advised the committee, a sanitarian’s license would be to be applied in other states, and nonresidents who are licensed could work in West Virginia.
Existing law doesn’t require passage of the public certification test.
“You could remain a sanitarian in training for the the breath of life of your career for 20 to 30 years,” Argento said. “We didn’t feel like that was appropriate.”
— E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com
Мой блог находят по следующим фразам
