We are pleased to announce the 2010 National Patient Safety Goals Exams are available for immediate implementation!

To continue in assisting you with your testing needs, we are releasing the 2010 NPSG exams specific for Nursing, Allied, and Non-Licensed Personnel. The following exams are now available and located in the Mandatory section of the exam list:

• 2010 NPSG (Nursing) – includes RN’s and LPN’s
• 2010 NPSG (Allied) – includes PT, OT, ORT, Radiology, Certified Medication Aides, CNA’s (licensed by state) and other Allied personnel that retain licensure.
• 2010 NPSG (Non-Licensed Personnel) – includes CNA’s (non-licensed by state), HHA’s, sitters and all other Non-Licensed Personnel.

The 2009 NPSG exams will still be available in your account until January 1, 2010.

***To use the 2010 NPSG exams via profiles, you must change your profiles to reflect this. ***

Your profiles can be modified by following a few simple steps. For step-by-step assistance, check out the training video – “Creating Profiles”.

For your convenience, the “Creating Profiles” training video can also be found in your NurseTesting account under the Help tab! Remember that for the protection of your account, only Admins have access to modifying profiles!

The 2010 NPSG will also be reflected in the new 2010 Core Mandatories that will be released this month!

We hope that these changes will assist you in your continued success for 2010!

One question that tops the FAQs for NurseTesting.com is:

Can you send me a study guide for that exam?

We appreciate each caregiver’s devotion to scoring well on competency exams, but some NurseTesting exams just don’t have a study guide to provide. So, here is the run-down of reasons why certain exams either do, or do not, come complete with a manual.

Mandatory Exams – Study Guide? – Yes

All of the NurseTesting mandatory Modules include study guides within the NurseTesting system. We don’t have these publicly available, however when you click “begin” for a mandatory module you will have the option to download a study guide before actually beginning the exam.

The study guides are found between the two red lines and can be viewed using the free downloadable version of Adobe Acrobat Reader. Caregivers obtain access to printing these manuals for reference during the timed exams.

NurseTesting Job Knowledge Exams – Study Guide? – No

The Job Knowledge exams on NurseTesting are designed to measure the clinician’s current job knowledge as it relates to the job duties that will be performed. Being that the clinician should posses this knowledge on the first day of the job, we do not provide study guides for job knowledge competencies.

On a more specific note, the RN Pharmacology assessment is based upon basic Medical Surgical pharmacology constructs, such as: IV Fluid Rate Calculations, Medication Administration, Tablet Calculations, Metric conversions.

NurseTesting Skills Checklists – Study Guide? – No

The NurseTesting checklists are self assessments where the clinician rates their own skills. Therefore no study guide is needed for these as it is simply up to the clinician to declare their skill level for different aspects of that job. The self assessed ratings stretch over perceived proficiency and frequency of each job related task.

So now you know the truth behind the perceived madness – providing study guides for all exams would simply ensue a disservice for our available validated placement and pre-screening tools.

Had success completing an exam without the study guide? Please feel free to share your thoughts on your experience with us!

Core Mandatories Parts I and II have been updated today to reflect questions with new content. If these are attached to a profile currently, your profiles have been automatically updated with the new content. The only difference you will see is -0408 after the name of the exams, reflecting the last upgrade that we have done. Any current Core Mandatory exams that were sent, and have not been started are still accessible by your caregivers!

On Friday, Feb 1st, NurseTesting had changed the name of the Age Specific Mandatory to: Population Specific Mandatory in response to information received from our healthcare facilities about the change in name.

However, upon further investigation and speaking directly with the Joint Commission, we have learned that the Population Served requirement for hospitals is a generic term used for assessing competencies based on the type of patients seen in a particular facility.

Many of NurseTesting’s mandatory and clinical exams, when combined, meet or exceed this requirement. The new Core Mandatories includes much of the content that is referenced under the Population Served competency requirement. For more information see the 2008 Core Mandatory News Article.

We have returned the exam back to Age-Specific Mandatory. We apologize for any confusion and inconvenience this may have caused you or your staff. The content was never changed, it was just the name of the exam. We appreciate your understanding as we strive to be proactive and keep our information current. We rely upon our clients and the Joint Commission to keep abreast of any changes and work diligently to bring the most recent content to the market in a timely fashion.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Core Mandatory Part I and II, now have an updated scoring category.

• Questions missed within the core mandatory exam will now be labeled according to the area of the manual in which they were missed.
• For example, if a candidate fails the fire-safety area of the core mandatory, you can now send only the fire safety exam for the candidate to re-take.
• In addition, any mandatory exams sent to a candidate, separate of the Core Mandatory Modules, will have a new manual attached, reflecting updates in the content.

OR Tech and Surgical Tech checklists are now consolidated

The OR Tech and Surgical Tech checklists are now consolidated into one checklist titled: OR/Surgical Technologist. Any OR Tech or Surgical Tech checklists previously sent can still be completed.

In an effort to assist you in obtaining or maintaining your 2008 Joint Commission Certification for Healthcare Staffing Services (HCSS), NurseTesting now features Core Mandatories Parts I and II.

These new Core Mandatories will assist you in meeting or exceeding the Joint Commission’s HCSS Human Resources Management requirements for supplemental staff. The New Core Mandatories also reduce the amount of exams that an individual clinician must take as part of the hiring process. Each part is condensed to a single exam, so clinicians only have to take 2 exams to meet all of the Joint Commission competency requirements. Each core package is accompanied with a manual for the caregiver to review.

Part I (3 exam points) includes:

• Age Specific
• Cultural Diversity
• Disaster Preparedness
• Environmental Safety
• Fire Safety
• Hazardous Chemicals
• HIPAA
• Infection Control

Part II (3 exam points) includes:

• 2008 National Patient Safety Goals
• Abuse
• Domestic Violence
• Ethics for Healthcare
• Pain Management
• Patient Restraints
• Patient Rights
• Workplace Violence Remember you can always send specific exams separately.