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The content expert panel (CEP) met in February at the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) to learn the outcomes of the second role delineation study. The new content outline for the examination was developed, and the group then reclassified all of the old questions to correspond to the new content outline. The ANCC recruited item writers and gave a workshop about how to write items in March. In June, the CEP met again to review the new test questions. The goal was to review at least 215 questions to have enough questions for the latest form of the test. We reviewed 415 questions! Some needed to be revised, some were not salvageable, and some will be rewritten at a future meeting. Many of the questions were quite good, which is a tribute to the item writers. Their names were not revealed to us, or I would mention them here.

Perhaps you received an invitation, which was sent out by ANCC in June, to field-test the new examination. The field test will be given from August 29 to September 19, 2009. This will give us information about the strength of the questions and help determine the new passing score and whether some questions should be discarded because they were not rigorous enough. The CEP will meet in October to review the field test results and to review more questions submitted from the item writers; in November to revise the references used to support the questions; and in December to help ANCC set standards for the new examination forms. The ANCC plans to launch the new form in May 2010. The test content outline and the reference list will appear on the ANCC and American Society for Pain Management Nursing (ASPMN) websites as soon as they are available.

It has been very satisfying for me to see the generation and analysis of both role delineation studies. We are very fortunate to be working with ANCC, which is a fine organization. They are a pleasure to work with, and everyone is quite knowledgeable in their respective fields. The CEP has been working together for 5 years. The group is quite cohesive and works very well together. ANCC staggered our terms of service and some will be rotating off the panel. Perhaps you should consider submitting your name to ANCC to work with the CEP or as an item writer. You learn a great deal, work with some fabulous people, and contribute to our profession.

In June, ASPMN received wonderful news from Elsevier, the publisher of our journal. The Journal Citation Reports (JCR) published the 2008 results. Pain Management Nursing ranks 8th among 60 journals in the Nursing category with an impact factor of 1.537! This is very impressive and an excellent indicator that the content in our journal is cited in many places. This is due to the interdisciplinary nature of the journal. JCR is used by librarians to determine which journals to keep or acquire (Thomson Reuters). Authors and editors use it to identify the most appropriate, influential journals in which to publish. Information analysts and bibliometricians can track citation trends and patterns. The JCR covers more than 8,000 of the world's most highly cited and peer reviewed journals. Congratulations to ASPMN, our reviewers, and authors.

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Reference 

1. Thomson Reuters. Accessed June 22, 2009, at: http://thomsonreuters.com/products_services/science/science_products/scholarly_research.
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