Want to be CHPN....how to start?

aimeee, BSN, RN · May 14, 2005

Go to http://www.hpna.org and you will find links to the pages which instruct you on how to get your CHPN. Hospices will often reimburse part or all of the testing costs for their employees. If you join HPNA you will receive a big discount on the costs, as well as the Journal, as part of your membership benefit. I recommend you buy the Core Curriculum to keep as a reference, and the study guide is also helpful but you might want to borrow that from someone if you can.

Ashera, LPN · May 15, 2005

Go to http://www.hpna.org and you will find links to the pages which instruct you on how to get your CHPN. Hospices will often reimburse part or all of the testing costs for their employees. If you join HPNA you will receive a big discount on the costs, as well as the Journal, as part of your membership benefit. I recommend you buy the Core Curriculum to keep as a reference, and the study guide is also helpful but you might want to borrow that from someone if you can.

Thanks! Exactly the link I was seeking - joined HPNA, and will register in a week or so after receiving the membership stuff and start to get ready for the September exam. I appreciate your info!

Spider Cat · Aug 14, 2005

are the core curriculum and study guide on the site enough to study and pass the exam or should I look for something else to study also? If something more - can anyone suggest something??

fab4fan · Aug 14, 2005

That, plus some solid hospice experience. HPNA suggests two years; they used to require it, but now it's just suggested.

I plan on taking it; I took it years ago when it was the CRNH exam. It was pretty difficult as I remember. I went with a co-worker who was an excellent hospice nurse. I passed, she didn't. I was really surprised, because of the two of us, I thought she'd pass before me.

katwoman7755 · Aug 14, 2005

I just took the exam (and passed) in March...it was more difficult than I had expected....I had nearly 2 yrs hospice experience at that time.

Good luck

Kathryn

Ashera, LPN · Aug 14, 2005

What did you find the difficult part of it? The questions....or is it once again - all the answers are correct but some are more correct? Is it a logical exam like common sense or is it like wanting to know specifics from the book?

Like will my common sense and experience help me out or am I needing to memorize stats and facts -

The first part of the Core Curriculam is a lot of stats, history, names and places. Do they pull from that?

Just any direction you can shed some light on what to concentrate on would be so helpful!!! Thanks!

aimeee, BSN, RN · Aug 14, 2005

There were a number of questions where I didn't think any of the solutions they provided were very good. Those were the hardest for me. I expected to see a lot more to do with narcotic conversion. I think there was only one narcotic conversion on my exam. There were a couple on AIDS and quite a few that seemed to be concerned with an interdisciplinary approach.

katwoman7755 · Aug 14, 2005

There were a number of questions where I didn't think any of the solutions they provided were very good. Those were the hardest for me. I expected to see a lot more to do with narcotic conversion. I think there was only one narcotic conversion on my exam. There were a couple on AIDS and quite a few that seemed to be concerned with an interdisciplinary approach.

I agree...found that some of the questions just weren't really good questions....and it had quite a bit of everything on it. The symptom management questions were harder than I thought they would be...this was actually the section I did the worst on. I had alot of experience with aspects of funding/medicare/inpatient status, as all of my pt's were at LTC facilities and I did alot with re: the inpatient or routine home care status..so that stuff was real easy for me...but that's part that alot of hospice nurses have trouble with, b/c if you are only doing home care, you probably will not deal alot with understanding the hospice medicare benefit and all it's wonders. There also were questions re: the IDT. Now, having said that it was much harder than I thought, I must also confess that I didn't study...and basically just drew from the knowledge that I had. So, I would recommend studying...esp. pain/symptom management....OH and there were several question where they would give just symptoms and you would sorta have to guess what disease process may be causing those symptoms...and to my surprise...there were 3-4 lab questions on it...were you actually had to know normal lab values...and what the abnormal values may be caused from and what kind of symptoms might arise. Also, all the meds are going to be listed by their chemical names (not name brand). And, if you are like most of us...your hospice or the group of MD's in your community that serves your patients, tends to sorta use most of the time the same groups of meds (cause they work), but this test will ask you about a multitude of possible meds that may be used. So, like I said, I would suggest really studying...although it's not impossible to pass just relying on your own knowledge...of course that depends also on how much experience you have had. Hope that helps.

Kathryn

fab4fan · Aug 14, 2005

That's how I remember the CRNH exam. And while there were only a few narcotic conversions, you had to know all the equianalgesic doses cold; no charts to help.

I studied some, but drew mostly on my experience. This time I am going to study, because it was more difficult than I had expected (and I had expected it to be hard).

Ashera, LPN · Aug 14, 2005

Kathryn - thanks so much!

Do you feel that this test varies from a question bank - from exam to exam, like the boards do?

I'm in an inpt facility so won't have particular experience in specifics of home or nursing home based care...but yet again, a hospice pt is a hospice pt. But the medicare stuff? Yuck!

But I will concentrate on studying what I am not really strong in knowledge on now and relax on the parts I think I'm going to just know from experience. Thanks again!

katwoman7755 · Aug 15, 2005

Kathryn - thanks so much!
Do you feel that this test varies from a question bank - from exam to exam, like the boards do?
I'm in an inpt facility so won't have particular experience in specifics of home or nursing home based care...but yet again, a hospice pt is a hospice pt. But the medicare stuff? Yuck!
But I will concentrate on studying what I am not really strong in knowledge on now and relax on the parts I think I'm going to just know from experience. Thanks again!

I was under the impression (since it was a paper test) that maybe they have a couple of versions of the test, but a rather limited amount of questions they are drawing from...not sure how often they totally revise it. As far as being in the inpt facility, sounds like you personally may not be dealing with all the medicare stuff...see I was in a LTC (several actually) and they had contracts with our hospice so that if patients were having symptom management problems or something that met inpatient criteria, we could switch them from routine home care status to inpatient...and then back if those issues resolved...so I dealt alot with the hospice medicare benefit...that's an area I realize alot of hospice nurses don't know much about as I talk to them, primarily b/c alot of hospices are not using the hospice medicare benefit to it's fullest extent. Not that any of that really has to do with good hospice care...it's a paperwork, and therefore, funding game....it's were potentially good revenue comes from.

Also, as far as studying, study it all....things I thought I knew alot about still seemed to have just weird, difficult questions....Don't get me wrong, the test wasn't as difficult as the nclex....but just harder than I expected...so I was caught a little off guard. It certainly won't hurt to overprepare.

Kathryn