Three essential elements of APTA's Clinical Specialization Program:
1. It is a voluntary process. Participation in the certification process is initiated only at the request of the individual.
2. It is a nonrestrictive process. No attempt is made to prohibit others from practicing in a specific area, and board-certified physical therapists are not required to restrict their practice to the area in which they are certified.
3. It is a coordinated process. A central mechanism is provided for certifying specialists. This reduces duplication of effort and provides reasonable uniformity in the level and type of standards used as the basis for certification.
Specialty Councils
After APTA's House of Delegates approved each of the eight specialty areas, ABPTS appointed a specialty council in the areas of cardiovasculary and pulmonary, clinical electrophysiologic, geriatric, neurologic, orthopaedic, pediatric, sports, and women's health physical therapy. Each specialty council is composed of three physical therapists with expertise in that specialty area.
Responsibilities
Specialty Council responsibilities include the following:
ABPTS has established minimum eligibility requirements to sit for the specialist certification examinations: (1) current licensure to practice physical therapy in the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, or the Virgin Islands and (2) evidence of a minimum of 2,000 hours of clinical practice in the specialty area, 25% of which must have occurred within the last 3 years.
Specialty councils, with the approval of ABPTS, develop specific requirements to be eligible to sit for the certification examination in their specialty area. These requirements vary across specialty areas and include factors such as evidence of hours in general physical therapy practice, hours of direct patient care, and evidence of competency in cardiopulmonary resuscitation and emergency care.
The specialty councils of ABPTS develop the specialist certification examinations. The National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME), a not-for-profit institution whose mission is to provide the highest-quality testing and research services to organizations involved in the licensure and certification of medical and health science professionals, provides test development, test administration, editorial production, and psychometric services to ABPTS and the specialty councils.
The specialty councils make the determination on the content areas to be covered on the examination and the number of items in each area, based on the results of a practice analysis. This practice analysis, also referred to as a job analysis, is a systematic plan to study professional practice behaviors and knowledge that comprise the practice of the specialist. The practice analysis is described in detail in the Description of Advanced Clinical Practice (DACP)/Description of Specialty Practice (DSP) for each specialty area. The practice analysis is a description, based on survey data and expert judgments, of the task and roles as well as the expected knowledge, skills, and abilities of physical therapists who possess advanced clinical skills in the area of specialty practice.
The specialty council uses the results of the practice analysis to write or revise a set of test specifications for the examination. The test specifications, also referred to as the content outline or examination blueprint, provide an outline of the content of the exam and consist of the percentage of questions representing each competency on the examination. The blueprint also helps to guide the development of an appropriate number of items for each area included in the examination blueprint.
Although the specialty councils are responsible for examination construction, ABPTS oversees all item-writing activities and eval!uates the item-writing process. Questions or exam items are written to reflect the test specifications by content-area experts currently practicing in the specialty area, including practitioners and academicians, representing the full range of practice settings in all regions of the country. Item writers attend workshops and receive instruction to enable them to write high-quality, practice-related test items. Test items undergo extensive editing and review by subject-matter experts and professional test editors before the council approves them to be placed on an examination.
The item-writing process is coordinated through the Specialization of Content Experts (SACE) and the Committee of Content Experts (CCE). ABPTS established SACE to create a cadre of trained item writers to facilitate the production of high-quality test items. Members of the Committee of Content Experts (CCE) are experienced item writers who serve as mentors for SACE members in their specialty area. ABPTS appoints members of SACE and CCE, upon recommendation from specialty councils.
The specialty councils construct the examinations in conjunction with NBME staff, including professional test editors. Each specialty council meets annually with testing agency staff to review new and existing items in the test item bank, which is stored and managed by NBME. Shortly after the item review meeting, a specialty examination of approximately 200 items is constructed. The questions are designed to test synthesis and analysis levels of cognitive skills as well as content knowledge. The examination is composed of objective multiple-choice questions with four answer choices. The questions either stand alone or are part of a series that relates to a presented case study.
NBME administers the specialist certification examinations through Prometric, a division of Thompson Learning, Inc. The examinations are administered by computer under proctored conditions at multiple sites across the US that meet high standards of equipment, comfort, and security. Following each administration, examinee responses are electronically transmitted to NBME.
After key validation, a procedure designed to identify items that may be miskeyed or not functioning as expected, candidates' responses are scored and converted to standard scores. The standard scores are scaled so that the minimum passing score on each examination is 500.
The certification examinations assess a clearly defined domain of knowledge and skills. Candidates are certified upon achievement of a passing score on the examination.
The specialist certification examinations are criterion referenced, and the passing score for the examination is based on the content of the exam and an analysis of candidate performance.
Each specialty council forms a standard-setting committee composed of individuals who represent the spectrum of practitioners in the specialty area and who are diverse in the origins of their practice, theoretical approaches, practice setting, geographic area, sex, and race. Each standard-setting committee then participates in a content-based standard-setting study conducted by NBME. An outcome of each committee's standard-setting study meeting is the recommendation of a passing standard for the respective specialty examination. ABPTS makes a final decision regarding passing standards for each of the specialty examinations.
NBME scores the specialist certification examinations, and candidates are issued a report that specifies their score, the passing score on the examination, and an analysis of performance according to the major competency areas tested. Although the score is based on the actual number of questions answered correctly, it is a scaled score. ABPTS requires a scaled score of 500 to pass the examination.
The purpose of recertification is to verify current competence as an advanced practitioner in a specialty area and to encourage ongoing education and professional growth. To maintain the certified specialist designation, individuals must recertify every ten 10 years.
Click here for rosters of newly certified clinical specialists by specialty area, residing state, chapter affiliation, and for a numbers chart of certified specialists in physical therapy, for 1985 - 2009.
As of 2009, there are 9,409 individuals who have been certified as clinical specialists. The breakdown by specialty areas is as follows:
Specialty Area |
Number of Certified Specialists |
Cardiovascular & Pulmonary |
138 |
Clinical Electrophysiology |
139 |
Geriatrics |
1006 |
Neurology |
757 |
Orthopaedics |
5590 |
Pediatrics |
943 |
Sports |
775 |
Women's Health |
61 |
[Last updated: 03/19/10 | Contact: spec-cert@apta.org]
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