Sleep Medicine Examination Application Process for Technologists

Format, Time and Place

The next ESRS Examination in Sleep Medicine will take place as an online event on  Saturday, September 23, 2023.

The Examination

The examination will consist of two parts.

1. The first part will be a written test, consisting of 70 multiple-choice questions to be completed on-site. 28 questions will be related to chapter 2 (Assessment of sleep disorders and diagnostic procedures) and the other 42 questions will be related to topics from chapters 1, 3 – 15 of the ESRS Textbook. This part lasts 105 minutes. The passmark is 60%.
2. The second part of the examination will focus on practical skills. This part will involve sleep staging, event scoring and interpreting two excerpts from PSG recordings and also a full MSLT recording. All consecutive 30-second epochs will be displayed on your monitor. Regarding all scoring tasks successful candidates must achieve an 85% concordance with the panel of experts. This part lasts 120 minutes. The overall passmark of the practical examination is 60%.

Both parts must be successfully passed in order to qualify for certification.

Further details can be found in:

Penzel et al. Sleep medicine catalogue of knowledge and skills – Revision. J. Sleep Research (2021) 30, https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.13394. Please see Table 2 in this article, it maps the rough distribution of credits re. questions regarding the sections of the examination.

Readings

The 2nd edition of the ESRS Sleep Medicine Textbook (2021 edition!!!) is the main recommended reading for this examination. All interpretations in the practical part and some questions in the theoretical part will be based on the 2020 AASM Scoring Manual Version Version 2.6.

Requirements

Technologists, nurses, and other sleep professionals who wish to take the examination should meet the following requirements (please prepare the mentioned documents before starting with the application).

Possess one of the following: a degree in science, psychology, nursing or similar; RPSGT qualification or equivalent national qualification/registration. Applicants who do not match these criteria must provide formal evidence of training, qualifications and professional development activities equivalent to degree/RPSGT level (e.g. diploma, professional certification, course certificates).Have at least 5 years post graduate experience in performing, scoring and analysing polysomnography and Multiple Sleep Latency Test (MSLT) and Maintenance of Wakefulness Test (MWT) procedures, polygraphy and actigraphy studies.

Have experience in the diagnostic procedures and management of a full range of sleep disorders

Have a very good knowledge of sleep physiology and pathophysiology obtained through recognised and accredited sleep education courses and meetings, particularly those recognised and accredited by national and international sleep societies.

Please note, the examination and instructions will be in English, therefore candidates must have a good command of English. A general dictionary “English – Your language” is allowed.

A. In addition, applicants must:

*Be proposed for eligibility for the exam by the clinical director of their sleep centre or a member in good standing with the ESRS who can vouch for their experience.

*Submit a detailed CV with relevant education and employment history

*Submit scanned copies of relevant qualifications, and meeting attendance certificates as above

Be a current ESRS member at the time of their application. (If you are not an ESRS member please visit https://esrs.eu/register/) 

Pay the examination fee (payment will be made by using a credit card, PayPal or bank transfer)

B. Required documents

Please prepare the above-mentioned documents (marked with *) before starting the application. The documents can be uploaded as PDF-files or JPEG-files within the online Application. Any other file formats, f.ex. MS WORD-files will be automatically rejected by the online application system. The name of the PDF-file must include the name of the applicant and the content of the document. We recommend putting all documents in one pdf-file. The size of the PDF-file should not exceed 5 MB).

Other candidates that feel they may fulfil the eligibility criteria, please contact: axel.wiechmann@esrs-examination.eu

C. Examination Fee

• The examination fee for the online edition is € 600.- EUR (included is a non-refundable 90.- EUR administration fee, payable on submission of the application).

D. Online Application

The online application will be open from December 01, 2022 – January 31, 2023.

E. Acceptance of your application

You will be notified regarding the acceptance of your application at latest by mid-March 2023.

F. Repeating or shifting the examination

All those, who missed the examination passmark in one or two parts of the examination, are allowed to repeat the missed part(s) of the examination at the next examination date free of charge and without a renewed application. The repeaters are required to confirm their participation by email. Only an update from on-site to online examination fee might be charged.

Any accepted applicant, who can’t sit the examination for personal reasons, is allowed to postpone the participation to the next available examination free of charge and without a renewed application one more time. Only an update from on-site to online examination fee might be charged. The roll-overs are required to confirm their participation by email.

G. Examination grant

The ESRS Board is pleased to announce a program of six travel grants related to the ESRS Examination in Sleep Medicine to support participants. Applications for this program will be accepted together with your application from December 01, 2022 – January 31, 2023. For grant requirements, please read this.

H. The Qualification

The successful candidate will have the ESRS qualification title of “Somnologist”  with the following specification:

Somnologist – Technologist

For any further questions, please contact our exam team: