At the item writer workshop in February, Kevin Rush spoke to us about critical incidents and how this content may be used in new items. Critical incidents can provide us insight into tasks we have already identified or understanding of new and more nebulous tasks that make up effective performance. When using the critical incidents method, it is important to understand the nuances of the method.
The Critical Incident item writing method is a structured way of thinking through item development for potentially nebulous aspects of job performance. In Critical Incident Item Writing, the item writer reflects on past experiences (critical incidents) relating to an item topic. The item writer reflects about times they saw exemplary performance on the topic and times they saw unsatisfactory performance on the item topic. Some questions the item writer can try to answer about each critical incident to help them reflect are:
- What were some of the things that were done right?
- What were some of the things that were done wrong?
- How could the things that were done wrong be done better?
- What was the outcome?
With the above information the item writer has a foundation of information that can be used for the formulation of effective items.
Some areas where critical incident reports method might be useful to consider are:
- Demonstrated Technical Proficiency
- Patient Relationships
- Professional Responsibility
- Personal Responsibility
- and Patient Care.
For example, an item about patient relationships might look like this:
Before getting an x ray of their sinuses, a patient indicates that they are reluctant to remove their beaded head covering, for religious reasons. Which of the following can be done that may help them feel more comfortable?
- ask if they prefer to work with a radiographer of the same gender
- explain the x ray will only take 5 minutes
- send the patient back to the ordering physician without taking the x ray
- take the x ray with the head covering on
A reference for this item can be found on Google books by entering into the search bar: female only radiography middle eastern and narrowing the dates to 2015 to 2022 with a preview and full view. One reference that works is:
Patient Care in Radiography - E Book: With an Introduction to Medical Imaging, Ehrlich, 9th edition, 2017, pp. 93-95.
For Radiography, this item is coded as: A.1.B.2.A.2.
Want more information about how to leverage the Critical Incident Report method for developing your items?
Consider reading our brief 2 page pdf summarizing our Senior Director of Credentialing Operations, Kevin Rush, talking about Critical Incident Reports at our recent Item Writer Workshop:
https://volunteers.arrt.org/files/dl/dc8d7142ec4911f2df526b8d444b43d6/
For more information about how to get even better at writing items, consider making use of our other item writing resources:
https://volunteers.arrt.org/item-writing-informational-documents/
