- What Is the CHPNA Certification?
- Who Awards the CHPNA and Who Administers Testing
- Eligibility Requirements
- Exam Format and Question Style
- The Four CHPNA Content Domains
- Fees, Registration, and Testing Windows
- Passing Score and Results
- Renewal and the HPAR Pathway
- Preparing for the CHPNA Exam
- Who Hires CHPNAs
- Frequently Asked Questions
- The Hospice and Palliative Credentialing Center (HPCC) awards the CHPNA; PSI delivers the exam.
- The exam has 110 questions (100 scored, 10 unscored) with 2 hours 30 minutes to finish.
- Passing requires a scaled score of 500 on a 200-800 scale across four content domains.
- Eligibility needs 500 hours in 12 months or 1,000 hours in 24 months of supervised hospice/palliative practice.
What Is the CHPNA Certification?
The Certified Hospice and Palliative Nursing Assistant (CHPNA) credential recognizes nursing assistants who have demonstrated specialized knowledge in caring for patients with serious, life-limiting illness. It is not an entry-level license - it is a voluntary, post-employment certification that confirms a nursing assistant can competently support comfort-focused care, family communication, and end-of-life symptom management under registered-nurse supervision.
If you're still sorting out the basics of the acronym itself, our companion pieces on What Is CHPNA?, CHPNA Meaning, and What Does CHPNA Stand For? walk through the terminology before you dive into exam mechanics here.
Who Awards the CHPNA and Who Administers Testing
The Hospice and Palliative Credentialing Center (HPCC) is the certifying body that develops, owns, and awards the CHPNA credential. The Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association (HPNA) is the related membership organization - HPNA membership status affects your exam fee, but HPNA does not itself issue the certification. Keeping this distinction straight matters when you're reading materials, because the two organizations serve different roles in the process.
Actual exam delivery is handled by PSI, the third-party testing vendor. Candidates can sit for the CHPNA exam either at a physical PSI test center or through live remote proctoring from a private location that meets testing requirements. Both delivery formats use the same question content and time limits.
Eligibility Requirements
Before you can even register, HPCC requires documented, supervised experience. You must show either:
- 500 hours of hospice and palliative nursing-assistant practice within the preceding 12 months, or
- 1,000 hours of hospice and palliative nursing-assistant practice within the preceding 24 months
That work must occur under registered-nurse supervision within the United States. There is no shortcut around this hours requirement - it exists to ensure candidates have real, recent clinical exposure to the population and care setting the exam tests. For a full breakdown of documentation, acceptable practice settings, and how the hour thresholds are verified, see CHPNA Requirements 2026: Eligibility, Prerequisites & How to Qualify.
Exam Format and Question Style
The CHPNA exam consists of 110 multiple-choice questions, made up of 100 scored items and 10 unscored (pretest) items that you cannot distinguish from scored ones. Every question offers four answer choices with exactly one best answer - there is no partial credit and no penalty for guessing, so every question should be answered.
You are given 2 hours and 30 minutes to complete the exam, and reference materials of any kind are prohibited during testing. This is a closed-book, memory-and-judgment exam: you need to have internalized hospice and palliative concepts well enough to apply them to short clinical scenarios under time pressure.
The 2026 candidate handbook is built from the 2024 job analysis, meaning the four content domains and their emphasis reflect current, real-world hospice nursing-assistant practice rather than outdated assumptions. Cognitively, HPCC describes the exam as roughly 20% recall-level questions and 80% application-level questions - this is a distribution of thinking skill required, not a domain weighting. In practice, that means memorized facts alone won't carry you; you need to reason through patient scenarios.
Key Takeaway
Because 80% of questions are application-level, practice answering scenario-based questions rather than flashcard-style recall drills. Simulated test questions that mirror the CHPNA's style matter more than raw memorization.
For a deeper look at how difficult the exam actually feels in practice, and how the timing and question style compare to other assistant-level credentials, read How Hard Is the CHPNA Exam? Complete Difficulty Guide 2026.
The Four CHPNA Content Domains
All 110 questions are drawn from four content domains defined in the candidate handbook. Understanding what each domain actually covers - not just its title - is the single most useful thing you can do before scheduling your exam.
Domain 1: Patient Care: Activities of Daily Living
Covers hands-on assistance with bathing, dressing, feeding, mobility, positioning, and hygiene for patients whose comfort and dignity are the primary goals of care, rather than curative treatment.
- Safe transfer and repositioning techniques for patients with declining mobility
- Adapting ADL assistance as a patient's condition changes near end of life
- Recognizing when ADL needs signal a broader change in patient status
Domain 2: Patient Status and Environment
Focuses on observing, reporting, and documenting physical changes, symptoms, and environmental safety factors that affect a hospice or palliative patient.
- Recognizing signs of pain, distress, or active dying that must be reported to the RN
- Maintaining a safe, clean, comfortable physical environment
- Understanding infection control and safety precautions specific to home or facility hospice settings
Domain 3: Psychosocial/Spiritual Care of the Patient and Family/Caregivers
Tests your ability to provide emotional support and culturally sensitive care to patients and their families, including caregivers experiencing grief and anticipatory loss.
- Communicating with families under emotional stress
- Respecting diverse spiritual and cultural practices around death and dying
- Recognizing your scope: when to listen versus when to escalate to the care team
Domain 4: Professional Skills
Covers the nursing assistant's role within the interdisciplinary hospice team, communication protocols, documentation, and ethical/legal boundaries of practice.
- Reporting relationships and chain-of-communication with the supervising RN
- Confidentiality and documentation standards
- Recognizing scope-of-practice boundaries in hospice and palliative settings
For a domain-by-domain study breakdown with sample question types, see CHPNA Exam Domains 2026: Complete Guide to All 4 Content Areas.
Fees, Registration, and Testing Windows
Exam pricing depends on HPNA membership status:
| Candidate Type | Initial Exam Fee |
|---|---|
| HPNA Member | $190 |
| Nonmember | $280 |
| reTEST Assured Retake | $135 (discounted, one-time, within next three windows) |
If you don't pass on your first attempt, the reTEST Assured program allows one discounted retake for $135, provided you sit again within one of the next three testing windows following the unsuccessful attempt. This is a meaningful savings compared to paying the full initial fee again, so don't let the retake window lapse.
The CHPNA exam is offered during four testing windows each year: March, June, September, and December. Online applications close well in advance of each window - February 15, May 15, August 15, and November 15, respectively. Missing an application deadline pushes you to the next quarterly window, so build your practice hours and study timeline around these dates. Full scheduling logistics, including how remote proctoring appointments are booked, are covered in CHPNA Exam Dates 2026: Testing Windows, Deadlines & Scheduling, and a complete cost comparison - including what membership actually saves you over a certification cycle - is in CHPNA Certification Cost 2026: Complete Pricing Breakdown.
Passing Score and Results
To pass, you need a scaled score of 500 on a 200-800 scale. The scaled score isn't a raw percentage of questions correct - it's a statistically adjusted number that accounts for question difficulty, which is why HPCC doesn't publish a simple "answer X out of 100 correctly" threshold.
Official 2025 results showed a 79.5% pass rate for first-time candidates (232 of 292 passing) and an 82.5% overall pass rate (316 of 383 passing) once retakes were included. These numbers reflect a credential that is achievable with real clinical experience and structured study, but not one to walk into unprepared, given roughly one in five first-time candidates does not pass.
For the complete scoring methodology and a deeper statistical breakdown, see CHPNA Passing Score 2026: Exactly What You Need to Pass and CHPNA Pass Rate 2026: What the Data Shows.
Renewal and the HPAR Pathway
CHPNA certification is valid for four years. When your cycle ends, you have two options to renew:
- Re-examination route: Meet qualifying practice hours and retake the current exam.
- HPAR route: Complete the Hospice and Palliative Accrual for Recertification, which includes professional-development requirements, in lieu of retesting.
One important rule to note: if you attempt renewal via the examination route and fail, you cannot then switch to HPAR for that cycle - you must continue pursuing recertification through examination. Plan your renewal strategy early, well before your four-year window closes, so you're not forced into a route you didn't prepare for.
Preparing for the CHPNA Exam
Because the exam leans heavily toward application-level questions, effective preparation means practicing scenario-based judgment across all four domains, not just reviewing definitions. A focused multi-week plan tied to the actual domain structure works better than generic review.
Domains 1 & 2: ADLs and Patient Status
- Review safe transfer, positioning, and hygiene techniques for declining patients
- Practice recognizing status changes that require RN notification
Domain 3: Psychosocial/Spiritual Care
- Study communication approaches for grieving families
- Review cultural and spiritual sensitivity scenarios
Domain 4: Professional Skills
- Review scope-of-practice boundaries and documentation standards
- Practice chain-of-communication scenario questions
Full-Length Practice and Timing
- Take timed practice sets simulating the 2 hour 30 minute limit
- Review missed items by domain to target remaining gaps
A full walkthrough of this kind of structured plan, including how to pace domain review against your registration deadline, is available in CHPNA Study Guide 2026: How to Pass on Your First Attempt. You can also run through domain-specific practice questions on our CHPNA practice test platform to get comfortable with the application-style format before test day, and a condensed one-page review is available in the CHPNA Cheat Sheet 2026: One-Page Review of Must-Know Facts.
Who Hires CHPNAs
CHPNA-certified nursing assistants typically work in hospice agencies, palliative care programs, long-term care facilities with hospice units, and home health organizations that provide end-of-life services. Employers value the credential because it signals verified, supervised experience in comfort-focused care - something distinct from general CNA training.
If you're weighing whether the credential is worth pursuing for your career trajectory, Is the CHPNA Certification Worth It? Complete ROI Analysis 2026 and CHPNA Salary Guide 2026: Complete Earnings Analysis go into the employment and compensation landscape in more detail. For active openings and how the credential appears in job postings, see CHPNA Jobs, and for structured coursework that helps meet the practice-hour requirement, review CHPNA Training.
You can also browse our broader library, starting from CHPNA Certification and What Is CHPNA Certification?, or return to the main CHPNA practice test hub anytime you want to test your readiness with realistic, domain-aligned questions.
Frequently Asked Questions
The Hospice and Palliative Credentialing Center (HPCC) awards the CHPNA credential. The exam itself is delivered by PSI, either at a test center or via live remote proctoring. HPNA is the related membership association, and membership status changes your exam fee.
There are 110 multiple-choice questions total - 100 scored and 10 unscored - and you have 2 hours and 30 minutes to complete the exam. Each question has four answer choices with one best answer.
You need a scaled score of 500 on a 200-800 scale. This is not a simple percentage-correct threshold; it accounts for the relative difficulty of the specific questions you received.
You can use the reTEST Assured program, which offers one discounted retake for $135 as long as you sit again within one of the next three testing windows after your unsuccessful attempt.
Certification is valid for four years. Renewal requires qualifying practice hours plus either successful re-examination or completion of the Hospice and Palliative Accrual for Recertification (HPAR), including its professional-development component. If you attempt renewal by exam and fail, you must continue with the examination route rather than switching to HPAR.