Donna Surgest Tatum, PhD, CAE, CAEd™
Founder, NCBAC™
Interviewer
This interview is one of a series of print interviews conducted by NCBAC™. The series includes leaders in the area of healthcare, aging and dementia. Some have conducted research, some are business leaders and others are experts in the best methods of day to day care.
Today we're speaking with Dr. Donna Surges Tatum who is the founder and president of NCBAC™, the National Certification Board for Alzheimer and Aging Care. Dr Tatum is also a practicing psychometrician. Donna, we certainly want to learn more about NCBAC™ and how it contributes to the elder care community, but maybe we should begin asking you what exactly does a psychometrician do?
Dr. Tatum
That's a good question - nobody says I want to grow up and be a psychometrician, because none of us know what that means until we get into this weird little world of testing. Psycho is mental; metrician is measurement. So it's mental measurement. What we do are things like psychological testing, or the kindergarten through senior in high school testing that the States do that on a regular basis. What I focus on is certification and licensure. We really delve into the mechanisms of testing. A psychometrician is someone who oversees the entire process to ensure the testing standards are met; analyzes data to make sure the test items are fair, targeted and working properly. With certification/licensure credentialing, our mission is to validate fair testing to protect the public.
Interviewer
So why would I want to be certified with something? If I take a course in elder care and go and take care of my grandmother or someone a nursing home, am I going to do a worse job than someone who has taken a certification course? Help me with that.
Dr. Tatum
Well, I think that any kind of education and experience is important. That is something we learn, and it becomes part of our ability, our skillset.
Certification is outside recognition of that skill. It is a third party saying, “Yes, this person knows the area of elder care.” Or it could be a car mechanic or a nurse. There's a certification or license for just about any occupation. It is professional recognition and a quality indicator.
Interviewer
So how do you get to that when you certify somebody in elder care, how do you know that they understand elder care? Where do the questions come from? How do you figure out what to ask and how do you create a certification exam?
Dr. Tatum
It’s important to know that The American Psychological Association, the American Educational Research Association and The National Council on Measurement and Education, all combined to create what we call the testing Bible: Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing. It has all of the standards that we adhere to, to ensure a proper and valid test. It consists of the guidelines for what we do and how we do it.
It all starts long before the first test is taken by a person. The first thing you do is you make sure that there is a body of knowledge that is unique to a profession. A committee is formed of people who are experts in that area. You gather documentation by conducting a literature review, evaluating job descriptions and licensure requirements, whatever may be available for that profession. The Subject Matter Experts, or SMEs, use all the information to determine the “body of knowledge.”
Then, through a further series of meetings the committee decides what the work is and creates a Job Task Analysis survey which links education to practice. After the survey data are analyzed and the topic areas are weighted, the committee establishes the test specifications, or Test Plan. It is a long and detailed project.
Interviewer
When you say you gather surveys from people doing the work, how many do you need? 10, 15, hundreds? thousands?
Dr. Tatum
Well, that varies. For our caregiver and educator survey we have had many hundreds of responses, maybe over a thousand by now. We want to make sure that it's geographically distributed because sometimes there are practices that some people may do in the West coast that aren't used in the Midwest. Because this is a national exam, we want to make sure that we capture all of the nuances of what is done.
Interviewer
This sounds like a lot of work. How long did the whole process take? If somebody wants to start a certification from beginning to end, how long does it take?
Dr. Tatum
Oh, absolutely. If you're starting from scratch, depending on human resources, available information and money, it can range from over a year to several years.
Interviewer
So, it sounds like you worked with a number of colleagues who were in somewhat related professions, but why did you start this? Was there a personal experience that launched you into this? How did you get the idea and how did you decide that there was a need in this area?
Dr. Tatum
Well, as so often happens, things are just serendipitous. You pull a string and you follow it! I was teaching at the University of Chicago and a woman took my class who was president of eight assisted living homes. One night after class we were talking about the fact that she certified the caregivers who worked there.
As I talked further with my student, I learned that what she had was actually talking about was an in-service training in her facilities. Then participating employees were offered a printed certificate – essentially attendance completion. That's what many people think is certification. I realized maybe this was something that needed to be done as a true certification
Interviewer
And was this your first certification, for the Certified Alzheimer's Caregiver?
Dr. Tatum
We developed two credentials simultaneously; the Certified Alzheimer Caregiver (CAC™) and the Certified Alzheimer Educator (CAEd™). We assembled a group of SMEs who were experienced in Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders, or ADRD. The committee was comprised of nurses, social workers, administrators, educators, activities directors, caregivers and testing experts. We were very fortunate the dean at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy gave us meeting space monthly for three years as we developed the credentialing program.
We felt that it was very important to give the caregiver a certification, but who's training them? We asked ourselves - how do you learn how to do it? Inservice training? Some people may go to school in gerontology, for instance as a nurse practitioner. But the everyday caregiver has got to be trained and often doesn’t have a formal program. We felt that it was important for them to have a certified Educator; someone who really proved they understood the field. A portion of the Educator test is how to teach and engage adults, which is very different than teaching traditional students.
Interviewer
So you believe that certification sets a template for how to do things right?
Dr. Tatum
Well we certainly think so. We can't guarantee that everyone who is certified is going to do their job properly or not be neglectful or abusive, but we can determine that they have the knowledge and the basic competencies that are required to care for these very vulnerable people.
Interviewer
So, you have certified Alzheimer's Caregiver, and you have the Educator. Are there other certifications that you have currently or others that are you working on to bring to market?
Dr. Tatum
Yes. There are several in those categories. Currently, we also have the Certified Relocation Transition Specialist.
They are people who earn certifications to work with seniors who are starting the difficult process of downsizing their homes. Or seniors who perhaps are leaving their family home because they can no longer care for themselves and they need to go into a more manageable living situation. It's a very particular skillset.
Interviewer
So, if I'm a younger senior, say 55 years old and my husband died and I'm living in a 4,000 square foot home and I want to get into something smaller, what do I do? How do I get someone to help with that?
Dr. Tatum
Well, that's when you hire a Certified Relocation Transition Specialist, or CRTS™. They’re skilled at this and they'll have some Ninjas helping them. There's a great deal of packing and sorting and all kinds of things that go into the move. It's not just a move. Everybody gets somewhat disoriented in a move. It's very, very discombobulating to have to do all of this. So, Seniors turn this over to the experts who know how to pack, move, sort, donate, sell, deal with the agent and relocate if that is part of the plan
I would love somebody to come into my house right now and help me. There’s a Swedish term, for cleaning later in life - I think it's basically extreme spring cleaning if you want to know the truth. The CRTS™ team comes in and takes a good look at how to help people make this transition. They often will take it through to estate sales. They'll help with the organizing – often it's hard to throw things out. When people have had dementia for a while, sometimes hoarding can also be a major issue.
Interviewer
So, the CRTS™ team comes in and they basically help you make the move?
Dr. Tatum
Yes. They're very aware of the different kinds of facilities if that is where the person needs to go. They will set up the rooms as, as closely as possible with the furniture from home if they are going to a new home. It's requires skill and a lot of hard work. Letting go of stuff is not letting go of your memories, but it often feels like it is. So sometimes they will take pictures of what is special to a person or maybe keep the sugar and creamer from a set of dishes that you never use anymore.
Interviewer
For someone who didn't know they were going to be a psychometrician, you seem to be pretty prolific. What are you working on next? I'm assuming this would also be in the area of elder care?
Dr. Tatum
Well, we have quite a few that we've been looking at. It's a long-term process. We're thinking about perhaps creating something for first responders. They often get called in when people have dementia. Sometimes they are confronted with behavior that is erratic. So, it's important for them to recognize what the signs and signals are of someone with dementia and how to handle that.
Sometimes family caregivers want to learn and to professionalize. I think it can be an important step to take when you are a family caregiver; sometimes you just don't have a support group. That's another training and certification we are seriously considering - family caregiver. They have some special areas that they need to deal with.
Interviewer
Excellent. Okay. So, if someone is reading this and they either manage a facility, or a group of people or they themselves want to become certified where do they go? How do they get signed up? How do they learn more?
Dr. Tatum
Well, of course we have a website. It's www.NCBAC.net. You can find all of the information on our website for eligibility, test specifications, Code of Ethics, and other requirements in the Candidate Handbook.
Anybody who wants to learn more can go to our website. You can learn about CRTS™, or how to become a Certified Educator or a Caregiver. Of course, you don't have to take our online training course. A certification that is a true certification does not require its own education.
Maybe you have graduated from an accredited school - you do not have to take our training. Or perhaps a person has a great deal of experience. If I'm working in a nursing home and I would like to have a national certification and worked there for years, I don't have to take the specific training, I could just go ahead and take the exam.
We did create training in response to the many requests that we had because our certification covers the entire body of knowledge. It’s essential to note there is a firewall between NCBAC™ training and the exams. The training was developed independently from the exams. It is a comprehensive course that follows the Test Plan but is not based upon specific test questions and is not a guarantee to pass the exam.
Interviewer
So, your training and exams are separate offerings?
Dr. Tatum
Yes. They are separate offerings. It’s important to review the Content Guideline which is posted on the website. It details what the topic areas are and all the subtopics that are covered on the exam. If a person meets eligibility requirements because they have worked in the field, and feels confident their experience and training are reflected, then they may not need the training to pass the exam and become certified.
Interviewer
So if I'm working in Missouri and I'm moving to Iowa, it's recognized across States as a national credential.
Dr. Tatum
Yes, it's a national credential. We have been recognized by the US Department of Labor. The State of New Jersey has also designated our certifications as Industry Valued Credentials.
Interviewer
Well, I hope that everyone has found this informative. Is there anything else that you would like to add that maybe I didn't cover or that you think might be important to people who are either hiring caregivers or are a caregiver themselves?
Dr. Tatum
Well, first of all, I would just like to say thank you to all the people who work in this field and particularly the ones who give direct care because you are doing the sacred work. We have a tsunami coming in terms of need for qualified caregivers.
I think back to when we started this project fourteen years ago or more, we didn't quite know it was such a problem. At our committee meeting recently, we looked around and of the original people who are still on the test development committee, every single one of us except for one person had a parent who had dementia – sometimes as many as three parents. My own mother developed it. I started recognizing it about three years into the project. I cannot tell you how grateful I am to all the wonderful people who helped care for her. It's a calling. That's one of the reasons that we feel so strongly and all of us are so dedicated to this organization because it is the sacred work, it's hard work and it is a calling and we want to recognize those who perform the everyday miracles of caring for our loved ones.
Interviewer
Thank you, Donna. I hope those folks that are reading this have gained some information from our discussion. Again, if you want to get more information about enrolling, you can look up NCBAC.net. You can find any other interviews that we've done. They're posted as we do them on an ongoing basis. So thank you very much for reading this and we hope you'll watch for more interviews with industry leaders in the coming months.