CHPN certification

[Elle23]

I am an RN (20+ years) who has finally decided to take the plunge and pursue hospice nursing.

I am currently doing private duty nursing, and I plan to stick with my little guy until he doesn't need me anymore (probably a matter of months).

To prepare until that happens, I am planning on reading/ studying everything I can regarding hospice/ palliative nursing. I was also planning on obtaining the CHPN certification (if I pass the exam, of course).

Is it weird to obtain the CHPN certification without ever having worked as a hospice nurse? (I have volunteered for hospice in the past so I do have an idea of what is involved).

My desire is to know as much as I can going into this, and I believe being certified will help my chances of landing a job when the time comes.

Thoughts?

[_firefly, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

Anybody else taking this test soon or that just took it? Study strategy suggestions? I have the HPNA book, the CHPN practice questions book, and the Oxford Textbook of Palliative Nursing (good read but too much detail I think for this test).

[TammyG]

I relied solely on the HPNA core curriculum and did fine.

[Pondmud]

I just sat for and passed the CHPN exam yesterday :)

Here's what I can tell you:

I think it's highly possible your previous experience may cover for the 2 years hospice-specific experience that the exam recommends you have You know how to assess a patient's symptoms, you know how to deal with the psychosocial issues of patients and their families. You probably know medications for nausea, constipation, pain, agitation and congestion; the signs of imminent death; what cancers are likely to metastasize where.

A coworker told me that I could probably study and pass the exam after having less than a year's experience. The main difference, she thought, was that the content covered by the exam would be more meaningful to me after working a few years. As it turned out, I took the exam after working 2 years in an in-patient hospice unit.

That being said, the exam makes you feel like you failed, even if you did well! You need 75% in order to pass, and I got 91%. I still felt terrible about my performance. The reason why is that the questions are written like NCLEX questions. So for example, you'll have multiple choice 4 answers. One is clearly wrong. Another is kind of right, but doesn't address the question exactly, so you eliminate that. And then you have two equally good answers to choose from. Evil!

I would say - get the study guides and see for yourself. You can schedule your test any time. Good luck :)

[_firefly, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

Congratulations Pondmud! Thanks for the excellent description of what to expect on the test.

[mother_matters]

I also took the test two weeks ago and passed (phew!). I agree with others who said that you're not sure if you passed or failed when you hit the finish button. The version of the test that I took had much more emphasis on chemo symptom management than I was expecting. To me, it seemed that aprox 50% of the content came directly from the study guide (such as where specific cancers specifically metastasize). For the other half of the questions, I had to rely on my experience as a hospice nurse (about 1.5 years). I had also purchased the book with sample questions and felt those were allot easier than true test questions---gave me a false sense of security when I was preparing. When I took the exam, the first three questions truly stumped me and my heart fell in my stomach---not the way you want to start things! While I don't think it's impossible to take the exam without prior hospice/palliative care experience, I think it would make it allot more challenging. While I didn't find the HPNA prep class particularly helpful (I went to the one in Pittsburgh), I think a study group would have been nice. Best of luck to all of those preparing to take it in the spring!

[_firefly, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

I ended up getting 100/135, so failed by one question. Not too bad I guess for having never worked as a nurse. Need to keep working on pain and symptom management (mostly pharm I think). I'll probably be back to try again. I realized at the last minute that all the meds are listed in the back of the book. Just FYI for those preparing.

[QuiltDog]

I ended up getting 100/135, so failed by one question. Not too bad I guess for having never worked as a nurse. Need to keep working on pain and symptom management (mostly pharm I think). I'll probably be back to try again. I realized at the last minute that all the meds are listed in the back of the book. Just FYI for those preparing.

Sorry to hear that and you should try again. I think with some experience, you will find it a little easier. I had nine-plus years if oncology experience before becoming a hospice nurse, and this helped tremendously. I have found the tests to be heavy in oncology disease processes, treatments and symptoms. Best of luck!!

[Pondmud]

Agreed - the test was quite heavy on the oncology knowledge (I still don't know how to predict metastases from the venous flow), even though there are just as many cardiac and pulmonary patients out there as onc patients who end up in hospice.

Firefly - you will get it next time, and you know that :)

[lifelearningrn, BSN, RN]

I'd say the majority of our patients are dementia, not cancer. We do get cancer patients, sadly usually after they've been pushed to death's door with chemo/radiation and the oncologist has decided the patient wont survive another treatment. The only time we get cancer patients who aren't close to death are when we get the ones who refuse chemo and radiation.

[Red Kryptonite]

I'd say the majority of our patients are dementia, not cancer. We do get cancer patients, sadly usually after they've been pushed to death's door with chemo/radiation and the oncologist has decided the patient wont survive another treatment. The only time we get cancer patients who aren't close to death are when we get the ones who refuse chemo and radiation.

Ain't that the truth? I find it very sad because we could have done so much more for those patients had they been referred sooner. From my perspective it seems oncologists are particularly bad at having honest end of life discussions, which seems utterly ridiculous for such a specialty. And then when they do talk about it, they do totally unhelpful things like tell the family that their loved one has exactly so long left before they die, leaving us to clean up the emotional mess when they either last longer or die much quicker than thought. I've seen that with trauma patients that come to us too, though.

[_firefly, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

I retested finally and passed. Experience definitely makes it easier to associate all of the symptoms they give with the proper management, though with work these can also be learned through reading and studying.

[TAchinRN]

I have written the CHPN board to find out if my 22 years of nursing experience will be enough to sit for the exam without having actually worked in Hospice. I am hoping that as mentioned here, the requirements of 2 years is just a recommendation. I live in rural Alaska where there is no hospice nursing at all. The only thing we have remotely for Hospice patients is a volunteer group that will provide 2 hours respite care so the family members can go shopping and such. I would really like to get my certification and then look into helping our community develop Hospice for this area.