Often times, I receive questions about particular items on the certification exams. Today, I’ll share an overview of the path an item takes before being placed on an exam—it is quite the trek!
The process begins with a Practice Analysis (also called a Job Analysis). This analysis serves to pull together the information that identifies what it is that you—the healthcare simulationists—do in your work. We conduct a survey of articles, job descriptions, SimConnect discussions and more, gathering it together and compiling it with the assistance of our psychometric experts at Schroeder Measurement Technologies, Inc. (SMT). A group of subject matter experts (SMEs) then pores through it, and categorizes, stratifies, and identifies what is done. All this is sent, via survey, to the healthcare simulation community, verifying all that was captured, and voila—the landscape of practice is now set for items to be written in the examination blueprint.
Afterwards, more SMEs meet in person to write, review and revise each item through a consensus process, guided by the experts at SMT. The exam content must meet strict criteria; it must be consistent, free of language issues, mapped to the exam blueprint, representative of principles and concepts and more. The end result is that each item is often almost unrecognizable from the original draft. More SMEs are tasked with looking at these finalized items; comparing them to the other content; ensuring the final quality of the items as the forms (full exams) are put together; and mapping to the overall content of domains for each certification.
Finally the question is on the computer-based exam. It is a long path, filled with many SMEs who strive to create a high-quality exam. To date, there have been nearly 50 SMEs involved in the creation of the CHSE exam. And we continue to involve more to make the exams better!
Now you know the basic path. This doesn’t even consider what happens once the data starts coming in…
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