The Job Task Analysis:
Defining the Profession

       →      Expert Panel 
              →      Credible Process 
                      →     JTA Report
                             →      Test Development

CCHI's main mission is to develop and administer a national, valid, credible, vendor-neutral certification program for healthcare interpreters.  Click here to learn about our plans, process, and timeline.  We began the development of a national certification program in September 2009; conducted the job task analysis (JTA) that created a current definition of the healthcare interpreting profession through an unbiased, scientific study; created a test blueprint; and are now developing the examination.  This is your certification program and we encourage you to get involved to help CCHI create a highly valid certification examination – one that your colleagues can trust and support as an enhancement to the quality of health care in the United States. 

Expert Panel

CCHI gathered 10 healthcare interpreting professionals who represent the individual, geographic and work demographics of the industry. Distinguished members of this Job Task Analysis Panel, pictured here, include the following healthcare interpreters:

• Weli Awale, Jewish Vocational Services, Kansas City, MO
• Sonia Bowe-Gutman, Health Partners/Regions, Minneapolis, MN
• Ajdin Camaga, Spectrum Health, Grand Rapids, MI
• Jeanne Farrow, University of Wisconsin Medical Center, Seattle, WA
• María Elena Gaitán, Office of Diversity & Cultural Competency-Los Angeles County, Los Angeles, CA
• Jeanette Higgins, JMH International LLC, Columbia, MD
• Maria Lara, Greenville Hospital System, Greenville, NC
• Lien Huynh, International Language Services, Chicago, IL
• Jasbeer Ratty, Harborview Medical Center, Seattle, WA
• Di Wu, Midwest Association of Translators and Interpreters, Kokomo, IN.

This panel of experts developed the job task analysis and we invited all members of the interpreting field to participate so that we could hear your voice and develop a certification program that reflects your needs. The survey was open for 2 weeks and the response was fantastic--2479 interpreters, supervisors of interpreters, and trainers responded. Thank you!

Credible Process

The Job Task Analysis provided the framework for CCHI's national, valid, credible, vendor-neutral certification program for healthcare interpreters. You may have noticed that we use this sentence in everything we publish. That is because healthcare interpreting is our core and our strength and we are driven by the desire to serve the current and future needs of healthcare interpreters. We believe these four adjectives define our approach, guide our process, and are the critical elements that differentiate CCHI interpreters and the stakeholders who are counting on us to provide a trained, qualified, and certified population of healthcare interpreters.

CCHI’s certification for healthcare interpreters is not branded to or licensed from any vendor of language services. We are developing our certification from the ground up and not relying on any commercially-oriented certification, training, testing or assessment developed by other organizations. CCHI’s certification program is being developed by CCHI which will retain sole ownership, as well as the ongoing responsibility for updating the program. CCHI is not derived from or related to a commercial owner/sponsor.

The development of a national certification process goes beyond the creation of a test. Certification is a complex process in any field but especially so in a field in which the content is steeped in difficult linguistic and cultural issues. We wholeheartedly agree to the need for scientifically rigorous assessment methodologies but also want to create an equitable and fair process that will allow all competent interpreters, regardless of background, to be able to demonstrate the knowledge and skills they possess as interpreters. We do not want high numbers of good interpreters failing simply because of a certification tool’s inability to adequately assess knowledge and skills across cultural and linguistic differences. Click here to read Cultivating Certification, a series of articles about the process CCHI will use to develop a high-quality program, or view our timeline for developing a credible and valid certification program.

JTA Report

CCHI’s process of developing a national, valid, credible, vendor-neutral certification program for healthcare interpreters began with a Job/Task Analysis(JTA) study of the profession of healthcare interpreters. The results of this national survey provide the overarching framework for CCHI’s certification program. The JTA is the primary mechanism for establishing the job-relatedness of decisions concerning standards for professional certification and for supporting arguments of content validity for examinations, The process started with the JTA panel defining the tasks performed by Healthcare Interpreters and the knowledge, skill and ability (KSA) believed to be important for competent performance of those tasks. The panel came to consensus on the characteristics of individuals for whom CCHI’s first certification is designed - the entry level healthcare interpreter:

A person who is able to perform the functions of an entry level healthcare interpreter competently and independently in a healthcare setting with the knowledge, skill and ability required to relay messages accurately from a source language to a target language in a culturally competent manner and in accordance with established ethical standards.

Next, a survey was developed based to gather information on the KSAs identified by the JTA panel. 2,479 responses representing healthcare interpreting services in 141 languages were received during the survey period. This represented an excellent response rate and well exceeded the minimum required for statistically reliable results for the study. The distribution of the demographic characteristics of the respondent population was reviewed by subject matter experts and is representative of the breadth of the profession.

Summary of JTA Results
The analysis of the data collected through this Job/Task Analysis study confirm that the study has appropriately and accurately identified the tasks performed by entry level healthcare interpreters and the KSAs required to perform those tasks. Therefore, CCHI has what it needs in an examination specification document to achieve a valid, fair and legally defensible certification examination. CCHI’s Job Task Analysis resulted in tasks and KSAs that differed in the manner in which they may be tested. Those KSAs that can be tested through selected response items (such as written multiple-choice items) were grouped separately from those KSAs that must be tested through a performance based testing format requiring oral responses. This separation resulted in a test blueprint that includes a two part examination summarized below:

Part 1 – Managing Healthcare Interpreter Functions
Domains & Percent of Test:
Manage an Interpreting Encounter                                    30% - 35%
Healthcare Terminology                                                     22% - 25%
Interact with Other Healthcare Professionals                    20% - 24%
Prepare for an Interpreting Encounter                              16% - 20%
Cultural Responsiveness                                                     3% - 6%

Part II – Performing Healthcare Interpreting
Domains & Percent of Test:
Interpret Spoken Communication                                       85% - 90%
Sight Translate/Translate Healthcare Documents               10% - 15%

Test Development

CCHI developed and pilot tested a two part certification examination for healthcare interpreters.  Those who passed the pilot test received a credential.  Click here to apply now and be among the first healthcare interpreters to earn a CCHI credential.