Experience Documentation in Assessing Professional Practice: Lessons from Awarding Advanced Certification to Health Education Specialists

Background: Upon initiation of any licensure, registration, or certification within a profession, policy makers for the process have to consider, and if so under what parameters, certification of experienced practitioners currently working in the field. The National Commission for Health Education Credentialing (NCHEC) offered a one-time experience documentation opportunity (EDO), for those currently certified as health education specialists. Method: Important decisions were made on the range of structures, processes, and policies in introducing a new credential, including a one-time offering of health educators to demonstrate advanced practice via documentation. To provide documentation of practice and have two recommenders attest to this practice moves the assessment of practitioners higher on Bloom's Taxonomy of learning, as the exercise moves beyond a low level knowledge recall and application stage to one of comprehending, applying, and synthesizing learned knowledge. Results: This presentation explains the rationale for policies, procedures, and best practices in administering the EDO process. This can be instructive to other disciplines that may be similarly situated in understanding a standard practice in a profession. This process demonstrates a way to validate a professional's understanding of the competencies, as well as who judges and approves this understanding through a three-tiered review process: (1) practitioner; (2) recommender who testifies to practice of applicant; and (3) certifying body review. Implications: Opportunities and limitations of using an EDO process will be discussed.