Report from the 2010 APIC Annual Meeting

Fran Feltovich, MBA, RN CIC®, CPHQ, 2010 CBIC President

For those of you who were unable to attend the “CBIC Town Hall Session: An Evidence-based Approach to Assessing the Competence of Infection Preventionists” during the APIC Annual Conference in New Orleans, here’s a summary of the session. Approximately, 200 attended the session in which they heard Dr. James P. Henderson, Executive Vice President, Castle Worldwide, Inc and Terrie Lee, CBIC’s President-elect address the importance of certification, maintaining certification through a rigorous renewal process, such as re-testing, and the development and maintenance of CBIC’s examinations.

Dr. Henderson has extensive experience in the development and equating of national certification and licensing examinations for diverse professions. He is also the lead author of the National Organization for Competency Assurance’s (now the Institute for Credentialing Excellence) benchmarking study, “Practices and Requirements of Renewal Programs in Professional Licensure and Certification”.

Some key points from Dr. Henderson’s presentation:

• The public and other stakeholders rely on certifying organizations to ensure that certificants demonstrate continuing competency in their professions
• Reliance on only continuing education for re-certification is waning
• There is no substantial evidence that continuing education is sufficient to demonstrate competency
• Consistency in the quality and nature of continuing education courses and assessments is difficult to ensure and is needed

Some key points from Terrie’s presentation:

• The proctored computer- based exam was developed for the IP with 2 years experience. It is the only option for initial certification and may be used to re-certify. The score report is given after the exam is completed.
• The Self-Achievement Recertification Exam (SARE) was developed for the IP with seven years experience. It is now web based and once answers are submitted a score report is generated.
• Failed re-certifiers:
  • Certification is extended throughout the year, but the individual must pass the exam during the year.
  • If one fails the computer-based exam, he/she can take the computer-based exam again or can take the SARE.
  • If one fails the SARE, he/she must take the computer-based exam
• New computer-based exams were released July 2010
• The new SARE will be released January 2011

Predominant comments during the question and answer period following the presentations centered on:

• Allowing continuing education credits for renewal of certification
• Provide correct answers to missed SARE questions
• Maintain the value of certification by continuing to require recertification by examination

There was insufficient time for all questions/comments to be addressed so we hope to have another opportunity to meet with certificants and potential certificants during the 2011 APIC Annual Conference to continue the discussion about CBIC’s certification and recertification processes. Until then, please feel free to send your comments and queries to info@cbic.org

Please watch for my article in the Fall issue of APIC’s Prevention Strategist for more commentary on continuing education vs. retesting to maintain certification and comments on providing the answers to missed SARE questions.