THE DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF NEW VERSIONS OF THE WRITTEN EXAMINATION FOR THE AMERICAN-HEART-ASSOCIATION ADVANCED CARDIAC LIFE-SUPPORT PROVIDER COURSE

Study objective: To create new versions of the written, multiple-choic e examination used in the American Heart Association (AHA) Advanced Ca rdiac Life Support course, evaluate their reliability and difficulty, and then design revised versions with improved reliability and of stan dardized difficulty. Design: Psychometric evaluation of new versions o f the AHA Advanced Cardiac Life Support test and revisions. Setting: A HA Advanced Cardiac Life Support courses. Participants: Candidates for completion of AHA Advanced Cardiac Life Support provider courses in f ive states. intervention: The course content was divided into 11 conte nt areas that were weighted for importance and appropriateness for tes ting in a multiple-choice format. The weights were used to construct a blueprint for a 50-question, multiple-choice examination. Five versio ns of the examination were then constructed based on the content bluep rint, drawing from new questions and expert revision of previously wri tten questions. Reliability and difficulty were assessed using 915 adm inistrations at five different sites nationwide. The initial test vers ions differed in their degree of difficulty, which was not explained b y demographic factors. The results were used to revise three of the ve rsions to improve reliability and equalize difficulty of the versions. Measurements and main results: The final five versions have estimated reliability ranging from Cronbach's alpha of .62 to .86. Mean scores ranged from 87.4% to 89.1%. Conclusion: After field testing and revisi on, five examinations with acceptable reliability and roughly equal di fficulty were constructed. The new examinations test the participants' knowledge of important aspects of resuscitation science and practice based on a blueprint of the course content.