Pilot Testing the APRT Outcome Assessment

The National Board for Respiratory Care (NBRC) is developing an Outcome Assessment for the role of an Advanced Practice Respiratory Therapist (APRT). This role is conceived to be that of an Advanced Practice Provider, like nurse practitioners and physician assistants.

Outcomes to be assessed are those experienced by graduates of an accredited APRT education program. Currently, there is one accredited master’s degree program operating at Ohio State University, and a second program at the University of North Carolina, has submitted a letter of intent. Other programs are being considered but have not yet sought formal accreditation.

A study of this new role concluded two years ago, culminating in a detailed content outline and a design plan for assembling this assessment. The first draft of the assessment has been approved by an examination committee; however, we want to enable potential refinement of items based on solid evidence. To provide this evidence, we will conduct a pilot test to compare the pattern of responses among the options within each item to the test scores associated with pilot test participants.

• Each respondent will
  • access the 170 items unsupervised starting in mid-September,
  • have 3 weeks to submit their responses,
  • use a personal device connected to the Internet to respond to items,
  • may access outside resources while they respond to the items, and
  • be expected to respond to these items while alone.
• There could be adjustments made to the way items are presented in the first test form based on pilot test results, so the NBRC does not plan to give feedback to participants, such as a total score, percentage score, or percentile rank.

If you would like to participate in this pilot test project, please click the link below by September 30th to provide the information required to grant access to the assessment.

https://www.nbrc.org/aphttps://www.pulmapp.com/blog-home/rt-pilot-test-volunteer-form/