Recertification and Reentry to Practice for Nurse Anesthetists: Determining Core Competencies and Evaluating Performance via High-Fidelity Simulation Technology

Introduction The National Board of Certification and Recertification for Nurse Anesthetistsaddressed a barrier to return to practice of uncertified practitioners by replacing required direct patient care experiences with high-fidelity simulation. Objectives The aims of this study were to: (a) validate a set of clinical activities for their relevance to reentry and determine if they could be replicated using simulation, (b) evaluate the content validity of an existing simulation scenario containing the proposed clinical activities and determine its substitutability for a clinical practicum, and (c) evaluate the validity of two methods to assess simulation performance. Methods A modified Delphi method incorporating an autonomous, anonymous, three-round online survey process using three unique expert certified registered nurse anesthetists groups was used to address each study aim. Results Twenty-seven clinical activities gained consensus as necessary to be assessed in the simulation. All 14 survey questions used to determine simulation content validity exceeded the minimum content validity index (CVI) value of 0.78, with a mean CVI of 0.99. The global rating scale CVI and the competency checklist CVI were 0.83 and 1.0, respectively. Conclusion The findings add to the existing literature supporting the utility of simulation for high-stakes provider assessment and certification