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Close to 2,500 Responded to CCHI's JTA Survey!
The Certification Commission for Healthcare Interpreters (CCHI) and the healthcare interpreting profession are fortunate to have such a committed community of interpreters, supervisors of interpreters, and trainers. We asked you to help us create a thorough and accurate definition of the healthcare interpreter profession and in just two weeks, close to 2,500 of our community responded to the national study.
Your dedication and support continues to confirm that CCHI’s mission to develop and administer a national, valid, credible, vendor-neutral certification program is on target and supported by our profession. We are grateful for your support because it is critical that CCHI gets it right and develop a certification program that reflects your needs. For the definition of the profession to be truthful and without bias, it must come from the profession itself! Based on your overwhelming response to our survey, it will!
Ahead this month, we are analyzing the job-task analysis (JTA) survey and working with certification experts to write the Job Task Analysis Report. The results of this will:
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Provide the overarching framework for the certification program;
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Differentiate between job categories;
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Determine certification tracks and levels for awarding credentials (for example, results may suggest a need for a general healthcare interpreting certification and a mental health interpreting certification);
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Establish exam segmentation;
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Delineate job roles and how they map across certification tracks and tests; and
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Determine the appropriate levels of competency and define areas of expertise for interpreters.
The next steps are guided by our goal to develop a national, valid, credible, vendor-neutral certification program. The process that CCHI is using is designed specifically to ensure validity—the single most important testing concept in certification. Validity means your certification test measures what it intends to measure. Validity encompasses the idea of test use as well, i.e. the decisions made based on the test scores need to be consistent with the intended purpose of the test. For example, the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) is a valid and reliable test for admission to medical college – but it is not valid for admission to private high schools.
CCHI will assure that the certification program for healthcare interpreters is valid by following the national standards for developing and maintaining a certification examination, and by appropriately involving healthcare interpreters, managers/supervisors of health care interpreters, other medical professionals and consumer in the development and communication about the certification program. You can read more about validity on our website in our Report From The Front Lines.
Many more opportunities for you to stay involved are coming up in the next few months. We encourage you to stay involved and volunteer through our website to help CCHI create a highly valid certification examination – one that your colleagues can trust and support as an enhancement to the quality of healthcare in the United States.
How can you continue to help?
- Encourage your organization to become a supporter of the development of this certification program. Ask your organization leadership to contact us to discuss supporter opportunities.
- Volunteer to participate in developing the certification examination. Click on this link and tell us how you can help.
- Continue to check our website for news, encourage your colleagues to sign-up on our website to stay informed, and send us any comments and/or suggestions that you have.
Again, we appreciate your support and are honored to have you as part of the CCHI Community!
Coming Up: In March, we'll share the results from the JTA.
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