Since I’m evaluating so many books for IT courses, I’ve decided to start doing formal reviews here and on Amazon. I hope these are useful for other instructors like me.
Back in 2012 the HIT certification was brand new and materials were just coming out. I looked at some that I could only describe as ratty, which clearly were selling only because there was literally almost nothing else. Fortunately, there was this book, by far the best thing out there at the time. My copy was a review copy supplied by UNM.
It wasn’t perfect. In fact it looks very much like a first edition built for the first version of a new certification. I’ve been teaching CompTIA certs for some 15 years, and I’m pretty familiar with how they build tests. In this case I’d say they merged questions from the A+, Network+ and Project+ with strong doses of medical terminology and medical legal concepts. As other reviewers have noticed, the pool of questions on the sample test CD is pretty limited. They did, however, seem to cover the same ground as the actual test questions.
This cert was a snap for me because I’ve worked in medical and IT for over 20 years, and have taught the A+, Network+ and Security+ many times. But I’d have to agree that for a person coming into this field cold, this book alone wouldn’t be enough. You’d need to study medical terminology in more depth than you’ll get here, and build a background in security because you won’t get explanations of some pretty deep concepts you’ll be expected to understand for the test.
On the other hand, if you’ve got some experience in this field, this book does a good job of steering you toward the issues the test emphasizes: regulations and agencies, workflows, terminology and security. If you can get on top of the legal hierarchy, for instance, and you’ve already got an A+, you’re most of the way there.
Now, in 2015, I’ve taught this certification with successful students. But I’m surprised, after looking online, that there is still little to compete with this book for a detailed class text. The newer materials I’ve seen are mostly “cram school” stuff, which some people like but I don’t. If I do see continued interest in HIT cert classes this will be my text, but I’ll also be looking for more functionally complete materials. Given what I’ve seen of Joy Dark’s writing, a second edition will be much better. The real test is going to be adoption of the HIT certification itself as a credential, and that I’m still waiting to see.
ISBN-13: 978-0789749291 ISBN-10: 0789749297,
http://www.pearsonitcertification.com/store/comptia-healthcare-it-technician-hit-001-cert-guide-9780789749291
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