Identification of Alternative Physician Assistant Recertification Models: An Analysis of the Landscape and Evidence Surrounding Approaches to Recertification in the Health Professions

Longitudinal Assessment to Evaluate Continued Certification and Lifelong Learning in Healthcare Professionals: A Scoping Review

“…In 2018, the Rand Corporation reported on the use of longitudinal assessment (LA) amongst healthcare professions, and the emergence of LA as pilot studies within the ABMS member boards and the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants (NCCPA) (Reid et al, 2018). Longitudinal assessment is an evaluation method that assesses learning acquired over-time, is more formative in nature, and has an intent of identifying knowledge gaps and opportunities for continuing education (ACICBL, 2011;Griffis et al, 2022;Price et al, 2018).…”

“…Many physician specialty certifying boards are currently offering LA as a requirement or as an option for recertification, but evidence about the impact of LA on patient care and outcomes is unknown. Other healthcare certifying boards such as nursing specialties have not incorporated LA into their continued certification processes (Reid et al, 2018;Spence et al, 2021). With the novelty of LA as a means to assess healthcare providers' knowledge/judgment/skills, as well as lifelong learning, quality evidence does not yet exist on the psychometrics of LA tools in the varying healthcare specialties.…”

“…Studies have shown that spaced learning (exposure to materials interspersed with other activities), repeated testing, and interleaving of content (simultaneously presenting several different learning topics) improves knowledge retention by improving the brain's ability to differentiate between concepts, thereby strengthening memory associations 1 (Anzia, 2021;Brennan et al, 2004;Brown et al, 2014;Griffis et al, 2022;Price et al, 2018;Reid et al, 2018). Compared to studying content in blocks of time, interleaving allows for better knowledge retention due to studying related but distinct content over time, a concept that is similar to LA in that learning and testing occur in spaced increments (Price et al, 2018).…”

“…The Rand Corporation elucidated the challenges between certificants and certifying organizations in that the latter have an obligation to the public to instill confidence that healthcare professionals have met predetermined standards for practice and possess the knowledge, judgment, and skills to provide high-quality patient care; they also have a responsibility to their certificants to keep the burden of continued certification in balance (Reid et al, 2018). In balancing the assurance to the public and the burden to certificants, LA provides platforms of formative assessment at regular, spaced intervals, while also providing summative assessments that offer consumers of healthcare a level of confidence that healthcare professionals retain knowledge, judgment, and skills after initial certification in their chosen professions (Reid et al, 2018).…”