NARM: 2018 Exam Matrix

Welcome! As you may know, the North American Registry of Midwives (NARM) will release an updated written test in 2019. They have also updated their Candidate Information Booklet (CIB) this year. This can be a little confusing and create extra work for those that were working off the previous 2014 CIB. I'm working through the old and new version to help breakdown what has changed.

The 2018 CIB has a new exam matrix. As you can see below, one content area completely changed. Midwifery Counseling, Education and Communication has been replaced by Professional Issues, Knowledge, and Skills. All the other areas have the same content area. The percent of test questions in each area is now a range rather than a set number of questions.

The ‘written test specification’ for the new content, Professional Issues, Knowledge, and Skills, area looks very different. This reflects NARMs recent work around creating a current job analysis of CPMs scope of practice and what is considered general knowledge that all CPMs should have. The test specifications are “the essential curriculum for entry-level midwives” and what NARM encourages students to use when preparing for the exam.

This is a brief overview of how the exam matrix has changed to support the new version of NARM's midwifery test. We’ll continue to dig in and focus on the new written test specifications in the candidate information booklet 2018 version.

You can download the NARM CIB at http://narm.org/pdffiles/CIB.pdf

I’d love to hear in the comments how you’re preparing for the test and what your thoughts are about the updated CIB. Thanks for being with me on this journey of living a midwife life.

Note: NARM is the certifying organization for Certified Professional Midwives, CPMs.