 How does NurseCompetency assist its customers in meeting the Joint Commission and OSHA standards and regulations?
NurseCompetency offers 25 core competency education topics. For each of these topics, there is a corresponding test to assure compliance with Joint Commission and OSHA regulations. We also offer comprehensive exams that cover all core competency topics - Core Competency: Nursing, Core Competency: Non-Licensed, and Core Competency: Allied. These exams cover Advance Directives, Age-Related Competency, Child Abuse and Neglect, Cultural Competency, Elder Abuse, Emergency Preparedness, Facility Safety, Fire Safety, HIPAA, Intimate Partner Violence, TJC NPSG, Latex Allergy, Medication Error Prevention, Musculoskeletal Injury Prevention, Pain Management, Patient Care Partnership, Restraints and Seclusion, Sexual Harassment, Tuberculosis Competency, Universal Precautions, and Workplace Violence. | | | Learn More
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How is NurseCompetency different from other web-based healthcare testing services?
NurseCompetency has one of the most innovative software platforms in the industry. Our software platform benefits our nationwide customers by enabling them to perform the following tasks:
- Link exams and checklists to roles to eliminate the tedious registration of individual candidates.
- Create their own exams, checklists, and educational materials with the option of using our extensive libraries as a base.
- Create customized instructions and email messages to send out to clinical candidates.
- View real-time descriptive statistics for their companies from our exam statistics dashboard.
- Enable or disable the display of correct answers to a candidate upon exam completion.
- Enable scoring based on our national benchmarks.
- Enable a fully integrated online application with our Plus package and staffing software with our Premium package.
- Enable or disable open registration to save valuable administrative time spent manually entering candidates into the database.
What effect does displaying the correct answer have on exam validity?
NurseCompetency provides our customers with the option to either display or not display the correct answers to a candidate upon exam completion. When this option is enabled, the correct answers will be displayed one time at the end of the exam. Because the questions are randomized, there is never an answer key that can be memorized if the customer has chosen to enable more than one exam attempt. "Showing them the correct answers after the exam is over will not affect the item analysis results for the exam as long as responses after the first attempt are not included in the analysis." - Yuhua Su, PhD (Psychometrician)
All of our statistics are generated on first attempts only, and our content validation comes from linking our questions back to our test blueprints and our knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSA) assessment. This KSA assessment is completed by our subject matter experts (SMEs), Director of Clinical Education, and members of our clinical advisory board. For each question on our clinical competency exams, we have assessed and documented the knowledge, skill, or ability that is being tested by the question, and why this element is necessary for successful job performance.
How are the NurseCompetency tests developed and validated?
Our Continuum of Competency model used for our test development was refined by Kathleen Maguire, RN, JD, who has worked as a senior editor with the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC). This Continuum of Competency model is similar to the model of test development used by the ANCC. In addition, NurseCompetency uses content-based validity, which ties each question back to a test blueprint and a full knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSA) assessment.
Does NurseCompetency have full-time clinicians on staff?
Yes, we have two full-time master’s-prepared nurses on staff that are dedicated to keeping our content current, and to answer any clinically related questions. Joseph Caracci, MBA, RN, co-founder of NurseCompetency, has served as the chief executive officer, president, and chairman of the board of directors since 2004. He brings more than 20 years of healthcare, technology, and business experience, and leads the company's software platform and content development. Joseph has worked for several healthcare organizations such as Banner Health, Dignity Health (formerly CHW), and Phoenix Children's Hospital. He has experience in Pediatrics, Pediatric Oncology, Telemetry, Critical Care, and Emergency Nursing.
Kathy Mercer, MA, MSN, RNC-OB, CNM, our Director of Clinical Education, is dedicated full-time to our content development and validity. Kathy is an advanced practice nurse and seasoned clinical educator, who has served as a faculty member for nursing programs at Oral Roberts University, Tulsa Community College, and Duke University College of Nursing. Most recently, she has worked as a clinical expert for Mosby/Elsevier, Inc., where she conducted literature reviews and clinically edited updates on selected topics in maternal-infant care for the Mosby’s Nursing Skills series in conjunction with the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric, and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN).
What type of statistical analysis does NurseCompetency perform?
NurseCompetency carries out both descriptive statistical analysis and reliability statistical analysis using jMetriK statistical software. The descriptive statistics evaluated are minimum score, maximum score, mean, median, standard deviation, interquartile range, skewness, and kurtosis. The reliability statistics evaluated are Cronbach's alpha, and Kuder-Richardson 21 (KR21). In addition, we perform an item analysis by evaluating the item difficulty index, item discrimination index, and the item-total polyserial correlation.
To assist NurseCompetency in the statistical analysis and interpretation, we retained Gregory J. Zarow, PhD., who trained in measurement theory and test construction at the University of California at San Diego, has published in the Journal of Neurosurgery, Neurological Research, and Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, and has co-authored the Spacelab Life Sciences Final Report for NASA. We also retained Yuhua Su, PhD., who obtained her PhD in Statistics from North Carolina State University in 2010. Dr. Su is currently a faculty member of the Nutritional Assessment of Populations program under the Department of Human Nutrition, Food, and Animal Sciences in the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Dr. Su is a member of the American Statistical Association and an editorial board member of the International Journal of Statistics and Applications.
If challenged on exam validity, what part will NurseCompetency play?
If any of our customers are summoned to court, NurseCompetency will provide documentation of its content validation process as published on our website, along with test blueprints, test descriptions, and test statistics (both descriptive and reliability statistics). In addition, for each question being challenged, NurseCompetency will provide its documented answers to the following questions:
- What knowledge, skill, or ability being tested by the question?
- Why is this knowledge, skill, or ability important for successful job performance?
How does NurseCompetency’s prices compare to its competitors?
For NurseCompetency, one unit is equal to a completed test or skills checklist. One of our competitors offers tests for one point and checklists for 1/4 of a test point. Their cost per test point, however, is about three times as much as the cost of one NurseCompetency unit - making our program a significant value by comparison.
NurseCompetency works hard to maintain a low overhead, so that we can pass on the savings to our customers. One way to decrease our overhead is by using the “train the trainer” method of product support. This innovative concept, used by multiple software companies such as SAP and VMware, provides in-depth training and unlimited access to the NurseCompetency helpdesk for your company super user. This onsite super user, who fully understands your company’s system configuration choices, as well as your company’s culture, can then assist your staff. This method of support provides greater confidence in the company super user, a more meaningful learning experience for your internal staff, and significant overall savings for your testing services.
What is the average number of skill items available on a NurseCompetency skills checklist?
The average number of skill items on a NurseCompetency skills checklists is 152. As job complexity increases, so does the number of skill items evaluated. For example, although our certified nursing assistant skills checklist contains 18 skill items, our ER skills checklist contains 238 skill items and our CVICU skills checklist contains 330 items. Because they are completed annually in order to document a current assessment of clinical skills, our skills checklists are designed to measure both frequency and recency of experience. We also allow our customers to customize our checklists and create their own checklists, by providing them access to our skills library, consisting of 2,533 skill items in 87 categories.
Can the NurseCompetency tests be manipulated?
No, none of the NurseCompetency tests can be manipulated. We do, however, offer our customers the ability to create their own clinical and nurses tests, with the added ability to use questions from our test library as a base. In addition, from our statistics dashboard, our customers can view descriptive statistics on their newly created tests. |