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SJBird55 -> RE: Taking OCS test with 1-2 years experience. (August 5, 2007 8:20:33 AM)
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Resnik and Jensen have already proven that years of experience does not equal expert. In medical journals it has also been proven that frighteningly, the longer a physician has practiced the less evidence the physician uses and the quality of care is suboptimal. Hmmm...
From just a practical, common-sense, life perspective, I think it would be a better idea to have the exam requirements set at a level of hours equal to about 5 years of full time employment (just as the majority of you are saying). I don't take the stance of a watering down affect though. The rationale would be that by that time in one's career, I'd say that most therapists as a whole (any professional actually) begins to get "comfortable." Whenever one begins to get "comfortable," one tends to lose motivation to improve because one believes that their performances are acceptable (especially based on our horribly non-clinical annual "competencies" or annual performance reviews). If one really wanted that OCS or specialty certification right after graduation, well, that person would be motivated to learn, continue to learn and not become quite as complacent. The person would hypothetically be that way because the chances of failing a specialty exam would be greater if the person didn't maintain an ever involving knowledge base. On the flip side... there would also be those therapists that at the 5 year career mark were beginning to feel bored, burned out or just wanting to "prove" their skill and a specialty certification would potentially be what they would want.
Another aspect to consider is how we learn. With whatever route one chooses to become licensed, there is a ton of information learned during the educational years. In one to two years, I don't believe one has learned to appreciate all the intricacies and interactions between the systems of the body. Around the 5 year mark or so, if one were to study and prepare for a specialty exam, the pulling together of the information combined with the clinical patients treated does tend to give little light bulb responses of, "yeah... that's right" or a higher clarification of the experiences experienced because as you study, you now actually have the capability to pull experience into the picture and there is this neat clarity that occurs compared to any studying experience while acquiring your degree.
Also, increasing the clinical hours required also really provides time for a recent graduate to well, pull everything together - potential experience in leadership, communication skills, negotiation skills (we negotiate ALL the time with patients), confidence skills, people skills, delegation skills because we need more than just "book smarts." We need to be able to successfully apply the knowledge. All of that put together combined with a specialty certification is a nice "package." In viewing it as a whole package kind of thing, acquiring a specialty certification 1-2 years out is somewhat premature, in my opinion.
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