I strongly recommend playing the "video", which is really just a soundtrack, while reading this post.
I'm about to leave the safe, familiar bounds of the Shire, and venture forth on a bitter journey to a destination from which there may be no return.
I'm registering for my Board Recertification Exam.
Requirements for admission to the 2015 maintenance of certification examinations include:
A full, active, unrestricted medical license. Check.
Completion of 270* Category-1 CME credits in the past 10 years, with 150 in the past five years. Check.
Completion of at least two self-assessment activities that provide 24** SA CME credits in the past ten years. Check.
Completion of one Improvement in Medical Practice (PIP) unit. Check.
Now the fun part:
DSM-5 Conversion
Updated April 28, 2014
With the publication of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5), the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN) will adapt its examination specifications and content to conform to DSM-5 classifications and diagnostic criteria for all of its computer-delivered certification and maintenance of certification (MOC) examinations according to the following timeline:
Computer-delivered examinations administered in 2013 and 2014
Will continue to use DSM-IV-TR classifications and diagnostic criteria
Computer-delivered examinations administered in 2015 and 2016
Will use classifications and diagnostic criteria that have not changed from DSM-IV-TR to DSM-5, as follows:
1. Diagnoses and diagnosis subtypes from DSM-IV-TR that are obsolete with the publication of DSM-5 will not be tested. Example: Substance-induced mood disorder is obsolete.
2. Diagnoses and diagnosis subtypes in DSM-5 that were not mentioned at all in DSM-IV-TR will not be tested. Example: Hoarding disorder is new to DSM-5.
3. Diagnoses that are exactly or substantially the same in both DSM editions will be tested. Diagnoses that are substantially the same are defined as:
(a) those that have had a name change only
Example: Phonological disorder (DSM-IV) is called speech sound disorder in DSM-5.
Example: Factitious disorder (DSM-IV) is called factitious disorder imposed on self in DSM-5.
(b) those that have been expanded into more than one new diagnosis
Example: Hypochondriasis (DSM-IV) has been expanded into two new diagnoses in DSM-5: somatic symptom disorder and illness anxiety disorder.
(c) those that have been subsumed or combined into a new diagnosis
Example: Alcohol abuse (DSM-IV) and alcohol dependence (DSM-IV) are combined into alcohol use disorder in DSM-5.
For these diagnoses, both DSM-IV-TR and DSM-5 diagnoses will be provided on examinations.
I'm so confused.
Here's some more good news:
Applications must be completed on-line by September 01, 2014 (11:59 PM Central Time). Applications completed on-line after September 01, 2014, require an additional $500.00 late fee. Applications will not be available after November 03, 2014
The late fee is over and above the $700 Application Fee and the $800 Examination Fee.
Since I don't want to have to take the exam a second time, I better start studying. Where to begin?
Here's an online review course for just $1097! If you fail, you get a 100% refund of your tuition, PLUS an additional $500, PLUS online course access until you pass, tuition free!
If you pass, you get a set of Ginsu Knives!
The course includes:
High-Yield Content! utilizing '“Question-Based Learning.” Lectures are constructed from a series of board-style multiple choice questions, each coupled to a mini-lecture on that question’s topic.'
PLUS
Anytime, Anywhere Access!
PLUS
Board-style Practice Exams!
I can't wait to see how it turns out.
