Thank you for the opportunity for me to express my concerns regarding the licensure regulations of administrators in assisted living communities throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia.

My concerns have nothing to do with being licensed.  I am perfectly agreeable to the fact that all administrators, myself included, be held to a standard and expectation set forth by the Commonwealth of Virginia.  Our residents, families and industry deserve to have leaders who exhibit skills that make a difference, ensure dignity and self-expression, show responsibility for our actions as well as demonstrate integrity. 

What I am discouraged about is the fact that we must take a comprehensive national exam and not state specific exam based on what, we as administrators in the Commwealth of Virginia, are accountable for.  How does preparing for a national exam, that is mearly for licensing purposes only, make us better administrators in Virginia? 

I am being asked to go in and take a test on national, not state specific regulations and then be judged by merely a pass or fail score.  Does this truly demonstrate whether or not I am qualified to be an administrator in Virginia?  I am a successful and devoted adminstrator for the past three years and I currently hold a two year license.  Test me on our state regs and I have no quarms about taking this exam.  Test me on someone else's regs, then that is where the issue lies.  You don't make a student take the Cailfornia SOLs in Virginia so why make an admistrator take a national exam?  Especially when only four states out of 50 take this particular exam.  If this test was a Virginia exam, based on our regulations, then it would be completely acceptable.  It's what we as administrators are hired to do, it's what we are hired to comply with and it's what we are hired to be accountable for in our buildings.  Having a national exam, for lack of a better term, is stupid!  

As I mentioned, there are only four states in the country with this absurd exam.  Four!  Plus, each state has its own specific regs.  It makes absolutely no sense!  What benefit to our industry or piece of mind will our families and friends take in knowing that all of us had to fill out pages of an application (which is another issue) and spend hundreds of dollars to take a test that doesn't even apply to what we specifically do in our state?

This is politics!  It truly does not benefit our residents to take a non-state specific exam.

My other concern is the application process.  Personally, I feel like I am applying for security clearance.  I understand we need to be registered, but the details are a definite overkill and seem truly unnecessary.  

I would greatly appreciate reconsidering replacing the national exam for a more job specific state exam.  If the object is to have better runned assisted living communities throughout the Commonwealth, then have a state exam.