2025 National Practice Analysis of Cardiac Medicine Nurses

Executive Summary of CMC Exam Development

AACN Certification Corporation conducts regular national studies of practice, also known as practice analyses, as the foundation for the development of certification test plans, which are based on current clinical practice. The purpose of the CMC study of practice is to describe the job activities of cardiac medicine nurses in sufficient detail to provide a basis for the development of a professional, job-related subspecialty certification exam.

A Practice Analysis Task Force (PATF) was appointed by AACN Certification Corporation. The selected subject matter experts represented a wide variety of work-related characteristics, such as years of experience, work setting, geographic location and area of specialty. This diversity reduces the risk of bias as the PATF develops a scope of practice reflecting the roles and responsibilities of cardiac medicine nurses.

The PATF met in October 2024 to identify the responsibilities of nurses caring for adult cardiac patients and develop a web-based survey. The task force developed and piloted a survey that included 40 task statements and 106 knowledge statements across four content domains.

The final web survey was sent to individuals identified by AACN Certification Corporation as nurses practicing in cardiac medicine. The survey yielded 670 usable responses, with respondents' ratings displaying an acceptable level of interrater reliability for the knowledge statements and tasks.

Reviewing the survey results, the PATF identified the task and knowledge statements that would comprise the new CMC Test Plan and developed the weighting for each major content domain.

Continuing with the exam development, the CMC Item Writing Committee (IWC) and Item Review Committee (IRC) drafted and fine-tuned exam items for pretesting based on the updated test plan.

The CMC Exam Pool Review Committee (EPRC) then reviewed the complete pool of exam items for relevance, accuracy and fairness, validating each item with at least one evidence-based reference listed on the exam bibliography.

Last, the CMC Score Evaluation Committee (SEC) analyzed the difficulty of the items in the final item pool to determine the passing standard, also known as the cut score. The multiple-choice subspecialty certification exam will be composed of 75 scored items, plus 15 unscored pretest items.

The CMC Test Plan is available for exam candidates, review course instructors, and other interested individuals and organizations.