Greetings from the Certification Team!

As we are in the process of launching the new examination blueprints for the CHSE and CHSOS examinations, I wanted to touch base on the process of how new content, or new knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs), are added and removed from the blueprints.

The examination blueprints are reviewed every five years as part of the practice analysis process. During the initial stage of the practice analysis process, our exam vendor’s assessment design team perform research on both the Healthcare Simulation Educator and Healthcare Simulation Operations Specialist roles. This research includes reading recent journal articles, interviewing practitioners, and reviewing job postings. After this research, the assessment design team applies their findings to the current examination blueprints and makes suggestions for what line items may need to be removed and which may need to be added.

These suggestions are the brought to the practice analysis subject matter expert working panels. These subject matter experts meet in person to review all KSA statements including those suggested by the assessment design team. The goal of these meetings is for the working groups to come to consensus about the KSA list and will remove outdated statements, revise unclear statements, and add new KSAs that are not currently represented.

These lists are then distributed to the practicing population who is asked to provide their opinion on the importance of each statement. Ratings range from 5 (Extremely important) to 1 (Not important). Each statement much achieve an average rating of 3.5 (higher than moderate importance) to be included on the examination blueprint. KSA statements that do not meet the inclusion criteria are removed.

Finally, survey respondents are asked for KSA elements important to a Healthcare Simulation Educator or Healthcare Simulation Operations Specialist that were not represented in the survey. Each comment is reviewed by the subject matter expert panel for inclusion in the final examination blueprint. A couple notable items that were added this cycle were elements around diversity, equity and inclusion and distance learning.

In all, the processes of removing and adding elements to the content outline is a detailed, and extensive process. By following this process every five years, we aim to ensure only important and relevant KSAs are being tested on both the CHSE and CHSOS exams.

I hope all this helps provide valuable insight on the composition of the examination blueprints. As always, please reach out to the SSH Certification team if you would like further information or have any questions or concerns.

Until next time, be excellent to each other.

Rachel Araujo
Director of Certification