Practice Analysis of Certified Technicians in the Disciplines of Orthotics and Prosthetics

The results in this section document the quantitative ratings of the respondents on the knowledge and skills statements delineated in association with each of the six domains. All survey respondents rated the knowledge and skill statements on two rating scales:

• Criticality—How critical is this knowledge or skill to optimizing outcomes for patients? The Criticality ratings for 34 of the 35 knowledge statements were rated minimally critical or higher on the criticality scale, of these 25 achieved a mean criticality of at least 3.0. All of the 19 skills achieved mean criticality ratings of 2.5 or higher, of these 15 achieved mean criticality ratings of at least 3.0.
• Point of Acquisition—At what point should this knowledge or skill be acquired by a Certified Technician?

The Acquisition rating scale is used to determine the point at which a knowledge or skill is required for practice. To the degree that respondents support Acquisition primarily before passing the ABC examinations, a body of knowledge or a skill may be considered as validated for inclusion in a credentialing program such as ABC’s programs for Certified Technicians. For 45 of the 54 knowledge and skill statements, more than half of respondents indicated the knowledge or skill should be acquired before the point of certification.