ACHPN Exam Information and Outline
Advanced Certified Hospice and Palliative Nurse
ACHPN Exam Syllabus & Study Guide
Before you start practicing with our exam simulator, it is essential to understand the official ACHPN exam objectives. This course outline serves as your roadmap, breaking down exactly which technical domains and skills will be tested. By reviewing the syllabus, you can identify your strengths and focus your study time on the areas where you need the most improvement.
The information below reflects the latest 2026 course contents as defined by HPCC. We provide this detailed breakdown to help you align your preparation with the actual exam format, ensuring there are no surprises on test day. Use this outline as a checklist to track your progress as you move through our practice question banks.
Below are complete topics detail with latest syllabus and course outline, that will help you good knowledge about exam objectives and topics that you have to prepare. These contents are covered in questions and answers pool of exam.
Exam Code: ACHPN
Exam Name: Advanced Certified Hospice and Palliative Nurse
Total Questions: 175 multiple-choice questions (each with 4 options, only 1 correct answer). 150 scored questions, 25 unscored pretest questions
Time Allotted: 3.5 hours (210 minutes) to complete the exam.
Passing Criteria: A scaled score of 500 (on a scale of 200–800) is required to pass.
- Nursing Process in Caring for Patients and Families
- Conduct a comprehensive patient assessment in the context of serious illness including functional and nutritional status, patient/caregiver knowledge, emotions and coping strategies, support systems, resources/needs, and environmental factors
- Collect patient information (e.g., medical & psychosocial history, spiritual & cultural preferences, comprehensive review of systems, advance care planning documents, medical decision makers)
- Perform a systems-based physical examination
- Identify past and present goals of care and expectations in the context of health beliefs, values, and practices
- Diagnosis and Planning
- Formulate and prioritize differential diagnoses and apply findings to develop the plan of care
- Identify expected outcomes in relation to patient/caregiver goals of care, prognosis, and the improvement of quality of life
- Develop interventions based on patient/caregiver values, goals, and preferences, prognosis, level of care, available resources, and expected risks and benefits
- Establish safe, multimodal pain management plans
- Intervention and Evaluation
- Collaborate with the interdisciplinary team to develop, implement, evaluate, and modify the plan of care based on changing functional status, illness trajectory, care system, and patient/caregiver goals
- Communicate diagnoses, progression of disease, expected prognosis, and plan of care with the patient/caregiver and interdisciplinary health care team
- Recommend strategies to address psychosocial needs (minimize caregiver burden, patient/caregiver vulnerability, coping, bereavement, emotional and spiritual health)
- Implement pharmacologic therapies and facilitate nonpharmacologic interventions (e.g., palliative surgery, procedures, radiation, counseling, psychological therapy, complementary and alternative interventions)
- Facilitate advance care planning and care coordination with inpatient and outpatient teams
- Biomedical, Clinical, and Psychosocial-Behavioral Knowledge
- Explain the disease process and understand evidence-based palliative management for serious diseases and conditions
- Recognize hospice and palliative care emergencies (e.g., spinal cord compression, hemorrhage, seizures, superior vena cava syndrome) and provide evidence-based management
- Identify signs and symptoms associated with serious diseases and conditions and provide evidence-based management
- Understand psychosocial, emotional, and spiritual needs and provide evidence-based management
- Determine prognosis using evidence-based tools and comprehensive patient assessment
- Serious Illness, Loss, Dying, Grief, and Bereavement
- Identify common tenets of major religions and cultures in relation to serious illness, dying, and death
- Address issues related to loss, bereavement, grief, and mourning in the context of culture, ethnicity, race, and other factors
- Education and Communication
- Education (Patients, Caregivers, Health Care Communities)
- Establish a therapeutic environment and apply age-appropriate teaching methods tailored to the needs of the patient, family, and other caregivers
- Develop, implement, and evaluate formal and informal education
- Communication
- Analyze own communication (verbal and nonverbal) and possible interpretations
- Recognize and incorporate cultural differences when discussing hospice and palliative care
- Create an environment for effective communication and demonstrate therapeutic presence while maintaining professional boundaries
- Use appropriate principles and techniques to communicate serious news
- Initiate and facilitate conferences among patient, family, caregivers, medical and interdisciplinary team members, and other key stakeholders
- Professionalism
- Promote principles of biomedical ethics
- Address ethical issues related to withholding or withdrawing treatment, and non-beneficial treatment
- Address ethical issues related to palliative sedation, medical aid in dying, and suicide
- Scope, Standards, and Guidelines
- Identify and resolve issues related to scope of practice and practice protocols
- Incorporate national hospice and palliative standards and guidelines into advanced nursing practice
- Leadership and Self-Development
- Share knowledge through publications, presentations, precepting, and mentoring
- Educate local, state, and national organizations, institutions, and individuals about hospice and palliative care (e.g., differentiate palliative care from hospice care)
- Develop practice guidelines to advance hospice and palliative care
- Identify and address burnout, compassion fatigue, and moral distress in self and others
- Systems Issues
- Resource Access, Utilization, and Continuum of Care
- Advocate for timely access to palliative care and hospice services
- Develop hospice and palliative care programs and services
- Identify potential barriers and resources to promote continuity of care across all settings
- Maintain current knowledge of trends in legislation, policy, health care delivery, and reimbursement as they impact hospice and palliative care
- Quality Improvement
- Participate in continuous quality improvement
- Provide value-based, quality care