THE NEED FOR MENOPAUSE EDUCATION HAS NEVER BEEN GREATER. The numbers of aging women are increasing worldwide to a record level. Every day in North America alone, more than 6,000
women reach menopause.1,2 Menopause presents an ideal opportunity to change and improve health practices and enhance quality of life for women. In
turn, increasing numbers of healthcare providers are incorporating a menopause-related component into their clinical practices.
Moreover, in the research arena, new findings continue to enhance our knowledge while conflicting findings present us with
challenges of how to appropriately inform women and positively impact their health decisions through menopause and beyond.
In 2002, The North American Menopause Society (NAMS) responded to a growing need to establish some essential standards for
healthcare providers who were treating peri- and postmenopausal women. These standards were meant to ensure that women at
this transitional time would receive the highest possible quality of clinical care. NAMS thus began developing a rigorous,
periodic competency examination for licensed healthcare practitioners in a wide variety of disciplines (including physicians,
physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and pharmacists), which would validate their expertise in this area of women's
health. Passing the examination would earn them the credential of "NAMS Menopause Practitioner."
A recent JAMA commentary says: "Research suggests that, on average, clinical skills tend to decline over time; a meta-analysis
by Choudry and Fletcher illustrates that practice does not make perfect and supports the argument that physicians must engage
in continuous professional development ... to retain competency."3 Hundreds of licensed practitioners around the world have now taken the menopause practitioner competency examination, a
multiple-choice instrument focusing on a well-defined body of knowledge representative of professional practice, created by
NAMS. Almost 600 practitioners currently hold this prestigious credential.
The credential's benefits include those that are tangible, such as the possibility of more patient referrals, job promotion,
or higher salaries, and, perhaps more important, those benefits that are not as tangible, such as learning and incorporating
new knowledge, which require that providers continue their professional development and be certified for the competency they
achieve from this education. The NAMS credential also affords enhanced professional credibility and the personal satisfaction
of providing patients with the best care possible. "The examination is in compliance with two key points in the NAMS mission and vision statement: to promote education for healthcare
providers that increases understanding of menopause, and to improve quality of life for peri- and postmenopausal women," said
Wulf H. Utian, MD, PhD, DSc(Med), NAMS executive director and a credentialed NAMS menopause practitioner.
RECOGNITION OF COMPETENCY Those who pass the examination receive a certificate of added qualification that displays the three-year period of the credential,
plus suggestions on how to promote this accomplishment within the community. The credential provides valuable assistance to
women in locating healthcare providers with expertise in menopause through an up-to-date list on the Society's Web site (http://www.menopause.org/consref.aspx). Certificants also receive a lapel pin that distinguishes them as uniquely qualified to serve women at this time of life.
EXAMINATION OUTLINE The original contents of the examination consisted of a compilation of the results of a national role delineation study that
surveyed practitioners about what they believed was crucial knowledge for treating women during peri- and postmenopause. And
every year thereafter, the examination has been updated and expanded by committees of renowned experts in the field, assisted
by experienced testing professionals. A total of 100 multiple-choice questions about recall, application, and analysis of
clinical situations are included, broken down approximately as 30% epidemiology, 25% basic science, and 45% clinical care.
The content outline is presented below:
Physiology-Normal (15%)
» Terminology/demographics
» Hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian axis
» Receptor activity
» Endocrine changes
» Perimenopause
» Postmenopause physical changes/normal symptomatology
Physiology-Abnormal (15%)
» Premature menopause
» Induced menopause
» Pelvic pathology
» Other
Health disorders of peri-/postmenopausal women (25%)
» Sexual function
» Skeletal
» Cardiovascular
» Urinary tract
» Central nervous system
» Sleep
» Endocrine
» Arthritis
» Cancer
E-mail Alerts
RSS Feeds
Practice Tools
