Professional Certification Commission (PCC) 2019 Year in Review

By Heather Rich, MPA

2019 was another successful year for the PCC. We had 250-candidates test for the CGRN exam resulting in 180 candidates passing the CCRP exam achieving an overall exam pass rate of 72%, which is an increase of 1.25% from 2018.

The Pulmonary Rehabilitation Certificate continues to show a strong participation rate, in 2018, we had 277 certificates modules purchased followed up in 2019 with 169 modules purchased.

AACVPR and the PCC commissioned a job analysis study from Professional Testing for the CCRP certification examination. A job analysis study is designed to obtain descriptive information about the tasks performed on a job and the knowledge needed to adequately perform those tasks.

The purpose of this job analysis study was to:

• Develop and validate the listing of tasks and required knowledge related to the work performed by practicing Cardiovascular Rehabilitation professionals
• Update the test specifications for the CCRP examination.

The job analysis study consisted of several activities: survey development, survey dissemination, and compilation of survey results. The successful outcome of the job analysis study depended on the information provided by CCRP certified professionals throughout the study.

The PPC convened the Job Analysis meeting in September 2019, with a taskforce of 9 subject matter experts (SMEs) currently credentialed as CCRP’s. The survey was developed and distributed in October 2019 and closed in November 2019. The new content outline will be available at the end of January and will be used during the May 2020 exam.

The CCRP exam windows for the remainder of 2020 are below:

• May 1- 31, 2020
• September 1 – 31, 2020
• November 1 – 30, 2020