Problems plague ANCC’s fall credentialing test
Organization to revisit eligibility requirements
When M. Hungsberg, RN, BSN, CCM, MLIS, a case manager in Chicago, heard that the Washington, DC-based American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) was coming out with a credential specific to nurse case managers, she immediately requested an application.
What Hungsberg got, however, was a series of headaches as she attempted to navigate a confusing application process that culminated in her being deemed ineligible even to sit for the exam.
"It was not what I would expect from this organization," she says. After sending in her application, she received a letter informing her that she failed to meet one of ANCC’s eligibility requirements for taking the exam.
"So I sent back another response and had phone discussions with them also," Hungsberg says. "And of course this was in the midst of other chaos because they were being inundated with all these calls because the cut-off date was approaching." She wrote a letter appealing her denial and was sent a second booklet. But the Oct. 4 test date came and went with no official response. "It was about 10 days after that that I got a certified letter saying that I didn’t meet the criteria," she says. "It was absurd."
Hungsberg wasn’t alone in her frustration. Of the 500 case managers who applied to take the exam, as many as 40% were denied. Many of the case managers who were allowed to take the exam also complained, citing logistical problems. In response to these complaints, Carolyn Lewis, PhD, RN, executive director of the ANCC, has drafted a card to send to all 22,000 who took ANCC’s October certification examinations. "The number seated for the October examinations was more than the total for both the June and October examinations in 1996," Lewis says. "Therefore, in response to any inconvenience that the candidates may have encountered, I am sending a card from ANCC saying If you encountered any problems during the October 1997 test cycle, ANCC extends its apology.’"
The ANCC set three main eligibility criteria for those interested in taking the nursing case manager exam:
• Applicants must hold the RN.
• Applicants must have a baccalaureate degree.
• Applicants must already hold a core specialty credential from the ANCC.
It was the third requirement that largely fueled the controversy over ANCC’s fall test. Many felt that by requiring applicants to hold a core specialty in another area, the ANCC was denying the legitimacy of case management as a specialty unto itself.
"The ANCC has been going back and forth about whether case management is a separate type of specialty," says Martha Koen, RN, MSN, vice president of the National Institute for Case Management in Little Rock, AR, and a member of ANCC’s Test Development Committee (TDC) for the case management exam. "They decided that they would go about this in a modular fashion so that people like nurse practitioners or clinical specialists who hold a specialty credential in that area could get a second modular-type certification in case management. They have since decided that, well, that wasn’t a smart thing."
Lewis says that since setting the specialty requirement, ANCC has found that most case managers do not have a core clinical specialty that would make them eligible for the ANCC case management exam.
Hungsberg, who was denied eligibility for not meeting the specialty requirement, claims that the original application materials she received were vague about eligibility criteria.
Because of dissatisfaction with the specialty requirement among case managers, the TDC will likely reconsider it before the spring test. "I think they’re going to change it so that more people who don’t hold credentials in other areas can sit for this exam, and it wouldn’t be requisite on a pre-existing credential," says Koen, whose organization does not officially endorse any credential.
A final decision on possible changes to the eligibility criteria will be made before the publication of ANCC’s 1998 catalog, Lewis adds. "Like I’ve told a lot of nurses that have been upset, please be patient with us," Lewis says. "When you do a pilot test, it’s merely to collect data. Those nurses who passed the exam certainly will be certified. But a pilot is to collect data for analysis and determine where you need to make changes. Our No. 1 goal is to be responsive to the needs of the nursing community, and that’s the reason we’re going to go back and take a second look at this."
[For more information on the ANCC case management credential, contact: American Nurses Credentialing Center, 600 Maryland Ave. SW, Suite 100 West, Washington, DC 20024-2571. Telephone: (800) 284-2378.]
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