– NCCA Accreditation is the next step in demonstrating the NPS commitment to setting high standards and bettering the allied health community as a whole. –
Medical assistants are among the most pivotal allied health professionals when it comes to helping physicians, nurses, and others provide care to patients. Medical assistant roles incorporate administrative work with direct patient care such as taking vital signs and conducting laboratory tests.
Medical assistants can bring an extra level of professionalism and assurance to their roles by demonstrating their training skills through a certification exam. To do so, medical assistants must complete a training program and meet the requirements to sit for the national exam. From there, they are able to take a certification exam that verifies their understanding of critical topics in their field.
NPS is a leading provider of national certification across a variety of allied health professions. With program offerings in phlebotomy, electrocardiography, patient care, behavioral health, and medical administrative assistants, allied health professionals have a variety of options available to take their careers to the next level.
Next for NPS is the launch of a new medical assistant program designed to offer national certification of a new level. NPS is working directly with a team of consultants and partners to pursue NCCA accreditation for their new medical assistant program, with an effort to design a cutting-edge credential aimed at providing top tier certification in the industry.
The Value of NCCA Accreditation
Obtaining third-party accreditation for programs is one way to verify the efficacy of a national certification exam. The National Commission on Certifying Agencies, or NCCA, is an independent organization dedicated to setting the standards for testing across industries and professions. This impartial review and accreditation impart the knowledge that a chosen program meets high quality standards for development, implementation, and maintenance of programs based on a series of essential elements.
The NPS Path to NCCA Accreditation
NPS is developing a novel program for medical assistant national certification from the ground up. This process began with the establishment of an expert panel and governing committee responsible for creating bylaws and developing policies and procedures specific to the program. NPS is collaborating with Hanchar Consulting Services and proprietor Ronald Hanchar to manage the overall process of submitting for NCCA approval. Hanchar is responsible for project administration, test development oversight, and exam delivery among other tasks.
The process also entails the development of exam questions and test forms that will be used for an operational pilot. Program questions are developed through a job task analysis methodology that is designed to determine the most relevant questions to the profession. The pilot is designed to measure the efficacy of the test itself and to determine a viable and realistic cut score for the pass/fail exam. To ensure a validity evident centered approach to the exam, NPS is working with ACS Ventures and Scott Russell’s team there to create an industry standard by gathering evidence to support a validity argument for the national exam.
The goal of the accreditation effort for NPS is to create a legally defensible and psychometrically sound certification program that professionals throughout the industry and the country can have confidence in. Live remote proctoring will also be made available as a direct integration with ProctorU/Meazure to allow test-takers to take the national exam from any location with a live proctor.
How You Can Take Part the New Medical Assistant Program
If you are a medical assistant professional who recently completed a training program, you can take part in the NPS Medical Assistant National Certification initiative. The first 500 participants will be part of a historic moment for NPS as being a part of the first cohort of professionals to pass through the program. Your participation will help the NPS team develop its cut score for the national exam, which will be based on real participant data. The operational pilot is expected to go live in Q2 of 2023. For more information and to take part in the early access pilot, contact NPS directly at [email protected]
