- CHPNA is awarded by the Hospice and Palliative Credentialing Center (HPCC), not by any similarly-named credential elsewhere.
- The exam has 110 questions (100 scored, 10 unscored) in 2 hours 30 minutes, passing at a scaled score of 500 on a 200-800 scale.
- Eligibility requires 500 hours of hospice/palliative nursing-assistant practice in 12 months, or 1,000 hours in 24 months, under RN supervision.
- Testing happens in four annual windows: March, June, September, and December, each with a set application deadline.
What Is CHPNA Certification?
The Certified Hospice and Palliative Nursing Assistant (CHPNA) credential recognizes nursing assistants who provide direct, hands-on care to patients facing serious illness, terminal diagnoses, and end-of-life transitions. It is a specialty certification layered on top of your existing nursing assistant role, signaling to employers and families that you have demonstrated knowledge specific to hospice and palliative settings rather than general acute or long-term care.
Unlike a generic competency badge, CHPNA certification is tied to a defined body of knowledge covering comfort-focused daily care, symptom recognition, family communication during grief and dying, and the professional boundaries unique to hospice teams. If you're just getting oriented to the credential, our overview article What Is CHPNA? and the plain-language breakdown at CHPNA Meaning are good companion reads before you dive into exam mechanics.
Who Awards the Credential
The Hospice and Palliative Credentialing Center (HPCC) is the certifying body that actually issues the CHPNA credential. The Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association (HPNA) is a related but separate membership organization; HPNA membership status affects your exam fee tier but HPNA itself does not administer the test. The examination is delivered by PSI, either at a physical test center or via live remote proctoring, giving candidates some flexibility in how and where they sit for the exam.
Understanding this separation matters when you're registering: your application goes through the HPCC certification process, while your membership discount eligibility is determined by your HPNA status. For a deeper dive into the organizational structure and terminology, see What Does CHPNA Stand For? and What Is A CHPNA?.
Eligibility Requirements
Before you can sit for the exam, you must document sufficient hands-on hospice and palliative nursing-assistant practice. HPCC requires one of the following:
- 500 hours of hospice and palliative nursing-assistant practice within the preceding 12 months, or
- 1,000 hours within the preceding 24 months
In both cases, this practice must occur under registered-nurse supervision and within the United States. This isn't a paperwork formality - the exam is written assuming you've actually performed personal care, observed symptom changes, and interacted with families in a real hospice or palliative environment, not just studied the concepts in a textbook.
For a full walkthrough of documentation, qualifying employment settings, and how to calculate your hours accurately, read CHPNA Requirements 2026: Eligibility, Prerequisites & How to Qualify.
Key Takeaway
Track your qualifying hours as you accrue them rather than reconstructing them at application time - RN supervision and U.S.-based practice must both be verifiable.
Exam Format and Scoring
The CHPNA exam consists of 110 multiple-choice questions: 100 are scored and 10 are unscored (used for future exam development, though you won't know which is which). You have 2 hours and 30 minutes to complete the exam. Every question presents four answer choices with exactly one best answer - there's no partial credit or "select all that apply" format to worry about.
Passing requires a scaled score of 500 on a 200-800 scale. This scaled approach means the raw number of questions you need to answer correctly can shift slightly between test forms, since scaling adjusts for minor differences in difficulty across versions of the exam. Reference materials, including notes or outside resources, are prohibited during testing - everything you need must already be in your memory.
According to official 2025 results, 79.5% of first-time candidates passed (232 of 292), and the overall pass rate across all candidates was 82.5% (316 of 383). These numbers reflect real outcomes for this exact credential - for more context on what they mean for your own preparation, see CHPNA Pass Rate 2026: What the Data Shows and How Hard Is the CHPNA Exam? Complete Difficulty Guide 2026.
| Exam Element | Detail |
|---|---|
| Total questions | 110 (100 scored, 10 unscored) |
| Time allowed | 2 hours 30 minutes |
| Answer format | 4 choices, 1 best answer |
| Passing score | 500 on a 200-800 scale |
| Reference materials | Not permitted |
If you want the exact score mechanics spelled out in more detail, our dedicated piece on the CHPNA Passing Score 2026: Exactly What You Need to Pass breaks down how the scaled scoring actually works.
The Four Content Domains
The 2026 candidate handbook reflects the 2024 job analysis and organizes exam content into four domains. Roughly 20% of questions test simple recall while about 80% require application of knowledge to patient scenarios - this cognitive-level split describes how questions are asked, not how many points come from each domain.
Domain 1: Patient Care: Activities of Daily Living
Covers hands-on personal care adapted for patients with declining function, including bathing, positioning, mobility assistance, nutrition and hydration support, and skin integrity - all through a comfort-focused rather than curative lens.
- Recognizing when ADL needs change as disease progresses
- Adapting techniques for patients with limited mobility or consciousness
- Reporting changes in function to the supervising nurse
Domain 2: Patient Status and Environment
Focuses on observing and reporting physical status changes - pain behaviors, breathing patterns, skin changes, and signs of approaching death - plus maintaining a safe, comfortable physical environment for the patient.
- Recognizing nonverbal signs of pain or distress
- Identifying signs associated with the dying process
- Environmental safety and infection control in the home or facility setting
Domain 3: Psychosocial/Spiritual Care of the Patient and Family/Caregivers
Addresses emotional, social, and spiritual dimensions of hospice care, including supporting grieving families, respecting cultural and spiritual practices, and maintaining appropriate boundaries.
- Communicating with patients and families under emotional stress
- Recognizing signs of caregiver burnout or complicated grief
- Respecting diverse spiritual and cultural end-of-life practices
Domain 4: Professional Skills
Covers the nursing assistant's role within the interdisciplinary hospice team, documentation practices, scope-of-practice boundaries, and ethical/legal responsibilities specific to hospice and palliative settings.
- Understanding RN supervision and delegation boundaries
- Accurate, timely documentation of observations
- Confidentiality and professional conduct standards
For a complete breakdown of subtopics, sample question styles, and how to allocate study time across all four areas, see CHPNA Exam Domains 2026: Complete Guide to All 4 Content Areas.
Fees, Testing Windows, and Deadlines
Initial examination fees are $190 for HPNA members and $280 for nonmembers - a meaningful savings if you join HPNA before applying. If your first attempt is unsuccessful, the reTEST Assured program offers one discounted retake for $135, available within one of the next three testing windows following the failed attempt.
CHPNA testing occurs in four windows each year: March, June, September, and December. Online application deadlines fall about a month before each window opens - February 15, May 15, August 15, and November 15, respectively. Missing a deadline means waiting for the next quarterly window, so mark these dates early in your planning.
Because the windows are fixed and infrequent, timing your application around your eligibility hours and study readiness is critical. Our detailed scheduling guide, CHPNA Exam Dates 2026: Testing Windows, Deadlines & Scheduling, maps out exactly how to plan backward from a target testing window.
Recertification and Renewal
CHPNA certification is valid for four years. When renewal approaches, you have two paths:
- Re-examination: Retake and pass the current exam along with documenting qualifying practice hours.
- HPAR (Hospice and Palliative Accrual for Recertification): Complete required professional-development activities in lieu of retesting.
One important rule to note: if you attempt renewal by examination and fail, you cannot switch to the HPAR pathway afterward - you must continue pursuing renewal through the examination route. This makes it worth carefully considering which renewal path fits your situation before you commit to one.
Who Hires CHPNA-Certified Assistants
CHPNA certification is most valuable in settings where end-of-life and serious-illness care is the core mission rather than a small part of a broader patient population. Typical employers include:
- Hospice agencies providing home-based, inpatient, or residential hospice care
- Palliative care teams embedded within hospitals or health systems
- Long-term care and skilled nursing facilities with dedicated hospice units
- Home health agencies offering palliative support alongside skilled services
Employers in these settings often view the credential as evidence that a nursing assistant already understands the emotional intensity, communication demands, and comfort-care priorities specific to this population - reducing onboarding friction compared to hiring someone without specialty experience. If you're weighing whether the certification will actually move your career forward, Is the CHPNA Certification Worth It? Complete ROI Analysis 2026 and CHPNA Salary Guide 2026: Complete Earnings Analysis dig into that question directly. For active openings and how the credential shows up in job postings, see CHPNA Jobs.
Building a Focused Study Plan
Because the exam splits into four distinct domains with different content demands, a generic "study everything equally" approach wastes time. Instead, sequence your preparation around where you're weakest and where the exam leans most heavily on applied judgment rather than memorization.
Domain 1 & Domain 2 Foundations
- Review ADL adaptations for declining patients and common comfort-care techniques
- Drill recognition of physical status changes, including signs associated with the dying process
Domain 3 & Domain 4 Application
- Work through scenario-based questions on family communication and grief support
- Study scope-of-practice boundaries and documentation standards under RN supervision
Mixed Review and Timed Practice
- Take full-length timed practice exams matching the 110-question, 150-minute format
- Focus remaining review time on domains where practice scores lag
Since roughly 80% of questions require applying knowledge to a scenario rather than simply recalling a fact, practicing with realistic scenario-based questions matters more than flashcard memorization alone. Our CHPNA Study Guide 2026: How to Pass on Your First Attempt lays out a complete week-by-week plan, and the CHPNA Cheat Sheet 2026: One-Page Review of Must-Know Facts is useful for quick final-days review. You can also build exam-day comfort with realistic timed questions using the practice tests on nursingassistantprep.com.
Key Takeaway
Prioritize scenario-based practice over rote memorization - with an 80% application-heavy exam, recognizing the right action in context matters more than reciting definitions.
Frequently Asked Questions
There is no separate mandatory training course; eligibility is based on documented practice hours (500 hours in 12 months or 1,000 hours in 24 months under RN supervision), not a specific training program. That said, structured preparation is strongly recommended. See CHPNA Training for options.
The exam has 110 multiple-choice questions - 100 scored and 10 unscored - with 2 hours and 30 minutes allowed to complete them.
You can use the reTEST Assured program for one discounted retake at $135, available within one of the next three testing windows after your unsuccessful attempt.
Yes. Initial examination fees are $190 for HPNA members and $280 for nonmembers, so joining HPNA before you apply can lower your upfront cost.
Certification is valid for four years. Renewal requires qualifying practice hours plus either a successful re-examination or completion of the HPAR accrual pathway with its professional-development requirements. Note that failing a renewal exam locks you into the examination route rather than allowing a switch to HPAR.