I support this reasonable and timely change to the process of approving residents. I have supervised a number of residents in Virginia over the last five years and have found the approval process to be both uneven and inconsistent. I believe this is the result of the Board not having enough staff to perform all of its required tasks. It is my understanding  the Board has contracted out the approval process for residents which has resulted in a great deal of inconsistency in the approval process. I doubt that the Board will be provided sufficent staff anytime in the near future to perform close overslight over this contracted out process, thus when mistakes or misunderstandings occur, and the have occurred much too ofen, there is no real way to quickly resolve them. These mistakes and misunderstandings slow down the approval process for resident candidates, who in actuality meet all the requirements, but can not  in fact begin collecting clincial and supervisory hours in a timely manner. Thus the starting time requested in the Petition when hours can begin to be collected seems to me to be both fair and right for these individuals and is an appropriate response to the situation in which the Board finds itself.