Keeping current in health education: Processes to verify practice of health education specialists

Background: The Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES) and the Master Certified Health Education Specialist (MCHES) certifications offered by the National Commission for Health Education Credentialing (NCHEC) are based on Areas of Responsibilities, Competencies, and Sub-competencies, which have been verified and refined in a series of studies, including the Role Delineation Project (1985), the Competencies Update Project (CUP, 1998-2004) and the Health Education Job Analysis (HEJA, 2010). Methods/Results: To verify current practice of health education specialists, a 21-month job analysis study began in 2013. Organizational stakeholders were engaged to facilitate cooperation to improve the previous processes and participation in the job analysis. The study involves exploring the similarities and differences between credentialed entry- and advanced-level health education specialists, CHES and MCHES, as well as certified and non-certified health education specialists. Implications: Results of this study will provide a systematic and valid update of the entry and advanced areas of practice. In addition, it will yield updated Responsibilities, Competencies, and Sub-competencies that are the basis for both a curricular framework for professional preparation programs in school, community/public health education and the content outlines and test specifications for both the CHES and MCHES examinations.