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Update on Certification for Academic Nurse Educators
November 2004
We have made significant progress on the development of the Academic
Nurse Educator certification examinations since our last update.
We would like to thank the Governance, Policy & Procedure
and Test Development Committees for their hard work and productive
efforts. Because breaking new ground is no easy task, we are being
very careful and taking every measure possible to assure that the
NLN Academic Nurse Educator Certification Program is of the highest
quality. Please read the following update on the most recent steps
taken.
What’s New
- Selection of a vendor for the Practice
Analysis
We are pleased to announce that the National League for Nursing
has selected Applied Measurement Professionals, Inc., (AMP) to assist
in the development and delivery of the Academic Nurse Educator Practice
Analysis (also known as a Role Delineation Study). AMP is highly
qualified and has extensive experience providing practice analysis
and test development services to a variety of nursing and health-related
certification programs. We are enthusiastic about the work we will
be accomplishing with AMP.
- Development of the Practice Analysis Survey
Instrument
An Advisory Committee, consisting of members from the Test
Development Committees and AMP staff met on October 23 &
24 to develop the Academic Nurse Educator Practice Analysis survey
instrument. At this meeting, the Advisory Committee developed and
organized a draft list of nurse educator practice activities and
a set of demographic questions to be included on the final Practice
Analysis survey instrument. Survey respondents will be asked to
complete the demographic data and rate the practice activities in
order to express judgment on the significance of each activity as
it applies to their current practice. Prior to its delivery, the
Practice Analysis survey will be piloted to a small sample of nurse
educators to obtain feedback about content and clarity of the survey
instrument. Once finalized, academic nurse educators throughout
the United States will be randomly selected and asked to complete
the Practice Analysis, which will be available on-line. After a
psychometrician analyzes the results of the Practice Analysis, the
findings will be used by the Advisory Committee to develop the Academic
Nurse Educator Certification Examination Test Specifications and
Blueprint.
The Practice Analysis defines work responsibilities and activities
that will be used to link the certification examination to professional
practice, so we hope that everyone who is invited will participate.
To ensure that we have your accurate e-mail address, NLN members
may go to the “Member Login” section at www.nln.org
to verify or update your personal membership information. If you
do not have your membership number at hand, you may access your
information by first name, last name and state. If you are interested
in becoming a member of the NLN, please visit the “Membership”
section on our website. Remember, this will be a random selection,
so not everyone will be asked to participate.
- Development of Scope & Standards,
Policies and Procedures
Members of the Governance, Policy & Procedure Committee
are creating polices and procedures that are pertinent to certification.
Examples of the work currently in progress by this committee include:
developing the Scope and Standards of academic nurse educator
practice, determining eligibility criteria, identifying the credential
to be used, establishing the recertification process, developing
an appeals process and creating a reference list. To protect the
integrity of the certification processes, this committee is working
to demonstrate compliance with the standards and criteria of accreditation
bodies such as the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA)
and the American Board of Nursing Specialties (ABNS).
We are very encouraged by the enthusiastic response we received
to the Call for Item Writers posted on this website this
past April. We would like to extend our appreciation to those who
applied. Upon careful consideration, the decision has been made
to schedule Item Writing in early 2005, at which point in time the
Test Specifications and Blueprint will be available to guide this
process. We plan to select the Item Writers from the pool of applicants
who responded to the Call. Each nurse educator who applied
will receive notification via e-mail once the final decisions about
this aspect of the test development process are made.
We anticipate that an academic nurse educator certification pilot
examination will be offered in September 2005 in conjunction with
the NLN Educational Summit. We will continue to keep you informed
with regular updates as we progress through each phase of this project.
If you have any questions, please contact:
Tracy A. Ortelli, MS, RN
Coordinator, Nurse Educator Certification
tortelli@nln.org
Click here to read previous Update
on Certification: March 2004.
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