College of Massage Therapists of Ontario

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College of Massage Therapists of Ontario

• Welcome
• Please be advised that the information in this
  presentation is general and will change based on
  the administrative needs of the College of
  Massage Therapists of Ontario when executing its
  certification examinations.

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Please Note

• The information you are about to receive is
  general in nature.
• For more specific information about the College
  or its certification examinations, please review
  your candidate booklet or visit the Colleges
  website at www.cmto.com.

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OSCE Development

• The College has taken every precaution to ensure
  that its certification examinations are fair,
  transparent and defensible.
• The certification exams are based on
• the Job Analysis Survey (JAS)
• the Standards of Practice
• the Massage Therapy Competency Standards
  (MTCS) Document, and
• the Massage Therapy Act, 1991

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OSCE Development

• The JAS is a survey conducted on a monthly basis
  utilizing a group of MTs who are in good
  standing with the College and who have been in
  practice for various lengths of time.
• From the results of the JAS, the College is able
  to determine the blueprint for the exam, enabling
  the development of the examination specifications.

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OSCE Development

• All the criteria within an OSCE station are
  referenced to the JAS specifications, the
  standards of practice and the MTCS document.
• OSCE stations are predetermined and cannot be
  modified, edited, or changed in any way during an
  administration of the exam.

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OSCE Development

• There is nothing subjective about the Colleges
  certification examinations.
• Examiners are rigorously trained on each criteria
  point within each station so that each examiner
  is standardized in the interpretation of each
  criteria point.

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OSCE Development

• The College maintains a highly trained group of
  Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) who are vital to
  the development of the certification
  examination.
• SMEs are responsible, under the direction of the
  Examination Officer, to ensure the examiners are
  appropriately trained for their role within the
  examination.

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What is an OSCE?

• A series of stations around which candidates
  rotate.
• At each station, candidates are asked to
  undertake a well-defined task or tasks.
• Performance is evaluated using criteria that is
  carefully defined prior to the examination.

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What is an OSCE

• Performance is scored on structured rating forms
  by examiners, in a yes or no format.
• The OSCE format allows a wide selection of tasks
  to be assessed at one time.

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What is an OSCE

• OSCE stations are 10 minutes in length, with 2
  minutes to read the stem (information posted on
  the wall outside the examination room) and 1
  minute to travel between stations.

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Candidate Administrative Procedures

• Applications can be found on the Colleges web
  site at www.cmto.com/regist/doc.htm
• An application must be submitted, processed and
  scheduled for every examination attempt.
• Candidates must submit payment for every
  examination attempt or the application will not
  be processed or scheduled.

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Candidate Administrative Procedures

• Payment is due at the time the application is
  received by the College.
• Candidates must wait for confirmation from the
  College before they can participate in the
  certification examination.

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Administrative Procedures at the OSCE

• Confirmation letters from the College must be
  presented when the candidate arrives and signs in
  (registers) at the exam site, on the day of both
  their MCQ and OSCE examinations.
• Candidates must arrive promptly at the candidate
  registration area, at the scheduled exam time.

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Administrative Procedures at the OSCE

• Candidates must present both photo ID and their
  confirmation letter in order to sign in.
• Once candidates sign in they are issued a
  candidate number for the purpose of anonymity
  during the exam. Along with the candidate
  number, they are also assigned a track colour
  and a starting station.

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Administrative Procedures at the OSCE

• Candidates are not permitted to bring anything
  into the candidate orientation/holding area after
  they have signed in, nor are they permitted to
  leave the area unless accompanied by College
  staff.
• Hospitals are notorious for theft and candidates
  are advised to not bring valuables with them. The
  College cannot accept responsibility for lost or
  stolen items.

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Administrative Procedures at the OSCE

• After sign in, candidates are directed to place
  their personal belongings in an assigned location
  within the registration area. For the convenience
  of the candidate, their belongings are then
  delivered to the candidate sign out area and can
  be retrieved upon exiting the premises.
• A video station is done with all candidates
  together as a group. Candidates watch a 10
  minute video then provide short answer questions
  based on the video. Candidates have 15 minutes
  for the short answer section.

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Administrative Procedures at the OSCE

• After the video station, candidates receive an
  orientation to the OSCE from the Examination
  Officer. Candidates may ask questions at this
  time.
• Penmanship and grammar are not factored into the
  scoring of the video station, but please keep in
  mind that if the candidates penmanship is
  illegible, their score may be affected.

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Administrative Procedures at the OSCE

• The College will provide candidates with paper to
  take notes during the video, but the candidate
  will be responsible for supplying their own
  writing utensils.
• At the appropriate time, candidates are asked to
  arrange themselves according to their track
  colour and are escorted by support staff to their
  exam location within the hospital.

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Administrative Procedures at the OSCE

• Once all candidates have arrived at the
  appropriate location, candidates are directed to
  their starting stations within the OSCE circuit.
• Candidates are directed during the OSCE via a
  buzzer system as to when to begin reading the
  stem, when to enter the station and when to
  advance to the next consecutive station.

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Administrative Procedures at the OSCE

• When the OSCE begins, there should be a candidate
  standing in front of each of the 13 stations.
• Each station is independent and does not impact
  the station either before or after.

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Administrative Procedures at the OSCE

• Each station is 10 minutes in length. Candidates
  may do whatever they wish for the ten minute
  period, except that which would endanger the
  client. If the candidate wishes the client to
  move, the client will move and so forth. All of
  the Standards of Practice apply at all times.

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Administrative Procedures at the OSCE

• There are rest stations in the OSCE exam. A rest
  station consists of a chair in the hall where a
  candidate will sit for the entire 10 minute
  period of the station. Candidates may not talk,
  read ahead to the next station or leave the chair
  unless escorted by support staff.

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Administrative Procedures at the OSCE

• Upon completion of all the stations, candidates
  are directed to a sign out area. Candidates sign
  out, complete an optional feedback form based on
  their exam experience, collect any personal
  belongings and exit the premises.
• Candidates should expect to spend approximately 5
  to 6 hours at the exam site.

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Candidate Information for Exam Day

• Due to the large numbers of candidates for each
  exam administration, candidates are divided into
  tracks according to colour (red, blue, green,
  etc.).
• Each track colour contains identical stations.
• Each station in each colour track is set up
  identically to the stations in other tracks.

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Candidate Information for Exam Day

• Due to the physical limitations of the
  examination site, candidates must be somewhat
  creative during the examination. For example, if
  the candidate normally leaves the room while the
  client disrobes, the candidate may have to pull a
  curtain or turn their back to maintain client
  privacy while the they disrobe during the OSCE.
• All materials necessary to complete the station
  are provided.

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Candidate Information for Exam Day

• All exam rooms are equipped with a sink and a
  massage table. Massage tables are set to one
  height and cannot be changed. Candidates are
  expected to make the modifications necessary to
  permit them to deal with that height.

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Candidate Information for Exam Day

• Candidates must be focused instead of
  proceeding through a general interview or
  physical exam, candidates must tailor their
  examination and/or interview of a client to the
  clients immediate complaint in order to provide
  relevant information within the 10 minute
  timeframe for that station.

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Candidate Information for Exam Day

• During the exam, there are a number of staff
  members called support staff in the exam area to
  assist candidates.
• Support staff will assist candidates to their
  next consecutive station, they will escort them
  to and from the washroom and if at any point in
  the exam a candidate has a problem (within
  reason), they will alert the appropriate person
  to assist the candidate.

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Candidate Information for Exam Day

• The examination will not stop for any reason once
  it has started.

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OSCE Physical Layout
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OSCE Physical Layout

• The circles with numbers on the previous slide
  are support staff assigned to assist candidates
  and ensure the examination runs smoothly. In
  addition to the support staff, there is a Track
  Boss. The Track Boss is responsible for the
  entire track and ensures the track is running
  smoothly and efficiently throughout the
  examination.
• The arrows indicate the direction of traffic
  within the track from station to station.

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Examiners

• Examiners are rigorously trained prior to each
  exam administration.
• Examiners are trained on each station in the OSCE
  and on each item within each checklist for each
  of the stations that they examine during the
  OSCE.

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Examiners

• The examiners role during the OSCE is two fold.
  First, they assess each candidate according to
  the predetermined checklist of criteria. Second,
  they are there for the protection of the client.
• An examiner will not stop the candidate if they
  have gone off course during a station or if they
  are doing something other than what was
  instructed via the stem information.

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Standardized Clients

• Standardized clients are not massage therapists
  and should be treated with the same respect a
  candidate would demonstrate in the clinical
  setting.
• Standardized clients will talk and respond to the
  candidate.

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Standardized Clients

• Standardized clients will be in an appropriate
  state of dress or undress depending on the
  station type.
• Standardized clients receive a high degree of
  training by the Examination Officer for each role
  they participate in within the OSCE.

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11 Station OSCE

• The Colleges responsibility is to the public.
  As such, the decision to move from four stations
  to 11 stations was discussed and reviewed
  carefully. Candidates will complete 11
  independent stations which provide them with many
  opportunities to demonstrate their knowledge,
  skills and abilities. Station repetition is a
  product of the examination blueprint and allows
  the College to see a greater cross-section of
  each candidates abilities.

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Languages

• There are two official languages in Canada,
  French and English. The exam is provided in both
  of these languages. ESL candidates who apply for
  the certification examinations will be given the
  same consideration as any other candidate.
  Special accommodations are not provided for ESL
  candidates.

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Special Accommodations

• Special Accommodations are provided to candidates
  who are physically, visually, mentally and/or
  learning impaired. Candidates who apply for
  special accommodation must complete a Special
  Accommodation Package, which is supplied by the
  College upon request. Special accommodations
  must be complete with a medical report and
  clinical diagnosis and be submitted by the
  deadline date together with the exam application.

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Special Accommodations

• Special accommodation packages received without
  an application (or vice versa) and after the
  application deadline date will not be accepted or
  considered.

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Feedback

• It is important to remember that the College is
  not a teaching institution. As such, it is not
  the responsibility of the College to provide
  feedback for the purpose of assisting candidates
  in improving their weak areas. The Colleges
  responsibility is to assess a candidate for
  readiness to practice.
• The College will not provide additional feedback
  about the exam other than the feedback a
  candidate receives with their results.

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Scoring

• Examination scores are reported in a scaled score
  format. This is not a percentage. A scaled
  score and a percentage are not comparable.
• A candidate who receives a scaled score of 69 may
  not necessarily pass the examination if they were
  to receive one more yes on a score sheet. This
  is how a scaled score is much different than a
  percentage.

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Scoring

• A candidates raw score (total number of yes
  marks) is converted to a scaled score so that
  each examination is comparable to all other
  examinations and so that the cut score of 70
  falls in the same place on the scale every time.
  An easy analogy to explain a scaled score would
  be like converting Fahrenheit to Celsius so that
  the freezing point is always (0) zero.

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Facts and Terminology

• The College does not have board exams, it has
  certification exams.
• The College does not run OPs or oral practical
  exams, it runs Objective Structured Clinical
  Examinations (OSCE).
• The College is not a teaching institution
  (school) is it a regulatory body and as such, is
  responsible to the public of Ontario.

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Facts and Terminology

• The College is a long time member of the Council
  of Licensure, Enforcement, and Regulation
  (CLEAR) and the National Organization for
  Competency Assurance (NOCA), two North American
  organizations that share knowledge and
  information regarding regulatory issues.

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Facts and Terminology

• The College regularly attends conferences offered
  by these two organizations to ensure its
  certification examinations meet the national
  standard for certification and testing.
• The Certification Examination is run on a cost
  recovery basis.

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Facts and Terminology

• OSCE Objective Structured Clinical Examination
• MCQ Multiple-Choice Examination
• Stem Information found outside each exam room

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IMPORTANT INFORMATION

• Please note that the information contained in the
  candidate booklet for any given year, supercedes
  the information contained within this
  presentation.
• As previously mentioned, the information in this
  presentation is general in nature.