A couple of months ago I earned my Epic ASAP Emergency Department certification. This was my first Epic training and first Epic certification of what I am hoping to be the first of many. My education was not part of a nurse certification or for one of the coveted Epic jobs. Though I would love to be an emergency room nurse I think of myself as a computer geek and proud of it. My Epic training and Epic certifications are steps in my target of becoming one of the leading experts on health care information systems. These classes are as important to my job as BLS classes are to a nurse certification.
Now, with every certification program through Epic you must complete the appropriate courses at the Epic System's facility in Madison, Wisconsin. In these courses you are given Training Companions (work pamphlets), access to the Epic Users Web and the iSWTD learning environment. For the ASAP portion you need to complete and pass one software build and 2 examinations. The grading system might be different for others but my scores had to be over 80% for each portion with an average grade of over 85% in order to pass.
Side Note: I'm not going to dig too deeply into the learning experience in this post. I will leave that for another day. However I will cover my experiences with the ASAP Certification process and the strategies I used to study for and pass my examinations.
I am going to have to say the tests were brilliantly put together. Each question was engineered to test your knowledge and there are no straightforward answers. For anyone who may be looking to certify in one of the health care information systems from Epic I would like to share my personal study techniques.
In the iSWTD environment you'll be given two sections to work in; Practice and Project. In both, you'll be given a base product in which to work. Inside each of those you will be given access to the Text (developer) and Hyperspace (the end user) environment.
The exams are open-source. This suggests you will be permitted to use everything in the iSWTD environments as well as your Training Companions and personal notes. Nevertheless even allowed access to these resources the tests are still very challenging. You have two hours per examination and you will need every minute.
In preparation for the exams I have the following recommendations;
1) Work through the exercises in the Training Companion using the Practice environment of your iSWTD first. This will allow you to work on the areas you are weakest in, get use to making changes, and reviewing the outcome of those changes without influencing anything permanent.
2) I highly suggest completing the build portion in the Project environment of your iSWTD before totally studying for the exams. For new users or for someone that has worked with Epic applications before this will help you gain a larger knowledge of the software and imprint a visual map of the system in your mind. It will also allow you the chance to get use to the terminology utilized in Epic training.
3) Makes sure you are completely familiar with the nomenclature used by Epic Systems. In my career I have worked with many clinical applications as well as many operating systems. It isn't hard to confuse terms from one system to another. Just be absolutely sure to know these terms and their functions/meanings.
4) Take each exam at least one week apart. This will give you adequate time to study for each part. I have heard of people taking the examinations inside a few days of each other but the feedback from these trainees was not positive.
5) When taking each examination download the PDF version of your Companion and leave it open on your PC. When you run across a question you need to confirm before answering, search (Ctrl+f) for the key words. This greatly eases back on the time spent looking for the info you need.
6) Read each question thoroughly. This is a crucial tip. As I mentioned in my opening the questions are created quite skillfully and can easily trip you up if you are not utterly focused on precisely what they are looking for. Most individuals skim thru while reading, as you could be doing now. Look at each question, the way that it is worded, the terms they use, and how they use them. Each question was surely built to test your understanding of the subject. So read carefully and take some time to think each question comprehensively.
7) Last but certainly not least,. Take all of the time given to you. If you finish early go back and look up those questions you didn't feel 100% happy with. I did this and found at least 5 questions to where I needed to change my response because the first go-round I overlooked one miniscule operative word that absolutely changed my way of thinking and my answer.
Now, with every certification program through Epic you must complete the appropriate courses at the Epic System's facility in Madison, Wisconsin. In these courses you are given Training Companions (work pamphlets), access to the Epic Users Web and the iSWTD learning environment. For the ASAP portion you need to complete and pass one software build and 2 examinations. The grading system might be different for others but my scores had to be over 80% for each portion with an average grade of over 85% in order to pass.
Side Note: I'm not going to dig too deeply into the learning experience in this post. I will leave that for another day. However I will cover my experiences with the ASAP Certification process and the strategies I used to study for and pass my examinations.
I am going to have to say the tests were brilliantly put together. Each question was engineered to test your knowledge and there are no straightforward answers. For anyone who may be looking to certify in one of the health care information systems from Epic I would like to share my personal study techniques.
In the iSWTD environment you'll be given two sections to work in; Practice and Project. In both, you'll be given a base product in which to work. Inside each of those you will be given access to the Text (developer) and Hyperspace (the end user) environment.
The exams are open-source. This suggests you will be permitted to use everything in the iSWTD environments as well as your Training Companions and personal notes. Nevertheless even allowed access to these resources the tests are still very challenging. You have two hours per examination and you will need every minute.
In preparation for the exams I have the following recommendations;
1) Work through the exercises in the Training Companion using the Practice environment of your iSWTD first. This will allow you to work on the areas you are weakest in, get use to making changes, and reviewing the outcome of those changes without influencing anything permanent.
2) I highly suggest completing the build portion in the Project environment of your iSWTD before totally studying for the exams. For new users or for someone that has worked with Epic applications before this will help you gain a larger knowledge of the software and imprint a visual map of the system in your mind. It will also allow you the chance to get use to the terminology utilized in Epic training.
3) Makes sure you are completely familiar with the nomenclature used by Epic Systems. In my career I have worked with many clinical applications as well as many operating systems. It isn't hard to confuse terms from one system to another. Just be absolutely sure to know these terms and their functions/meanings.
4) Take each exam at least one week apart. This will give you adequate time to study for each part. I have heard of people taking the examinations inside a few days of each other but the feedback from these trainees was not positive.
5) When taking each examination download the PDF version of your Companion and leave it open on your PC. When you run across a question you need to confirm before answering, search (Ctrl+f) for the key words. This greatly eases back on the time spent looking for the info you need.
6) Read each question thoroughly. This is a crucial tip. As I mentioned in my opening the questions are created quite skillfully and can easily trip you up if you are not utterly focused on precisely what they are looking for. Most individuals skim thru while reading, as you could be doing now. Look at each question, the way that it is worded, the terms they use, and how they use them. Each question was surely built to test your understanding of the subject. So read carefully and take some time to think each question comprehensively.
7) Last but certainly not least,. Take all of the time given to you. If you finish early go back and look up those questions you didn't feel 100% happy with. I did this and found at least 5 questions to where I needed to change my response because the first go-round I overlooked one miniscule operative word that absolutely changed my way of thinking and my answer.
About the Author:
Created by Jason Sanderson, Industry Director - Healthcare and Hospital for UsersUnite. Jason writes a blog that debates the 1 and stories related to hospital and healthcare software of all types. If you should happen to have a subject that you want to see Jason write about please send her an email with the details at salesusersunite.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment