10 free, exam-style Certified Hospice and Palliative Nurse (CHPN) practice questions with answers and explanations. No signup required. Work through them below, then take the full free CHPN practice test to study every exam domain.
The CHPN exam has 150 questions and runs 3 hours 0 minutes.
These 10 free CHPN questions are organized by exam domain, so you can see how each part of the Certified Hospice and Palliative Nurse blueprint is tested. Reveal the answer and explanation under each question.
A hospice nurse assesses a patient who has become increasingly somnolent with cool, mottled lower extremities and irregular breathing with periods of apnea. These findings MOST likely indicate:
Correct answer: C - Indicators that death is imminent
A patient stable on 90 mg of oral morphine daily is rotated to oral hydromorphone because of intractable itching. Using standard equianalgesic ratios, the calculated 24-hour hydromorphone dose is about 22.5 mg. Before writing the new order, the nurse should expect the dose to be:
Correct answer: B - Reduced by 25-50% for incomplete cross-tolerance
A patient receiving 60 mg of oral morphine over 24 hours continues to have pain that breaks through the scheduled doses. Which breakthrough (rescue) dose of oral morphine is MOST appropriate to add?
Correct answer: B - 6 mg
A daughter is alarmed that her father's around-the-clock morphine keeps being increased, saying she is afraid he is becoming addicted. The most accurate explanation is that the rising requirement is MOST likely due to:
Correct answer: D - Tolerance and disease progression, not addiction
A patient is started on a long-acting opioid for metastatic bone pain. Which co-intervention should be initiated at the SAME time as the opioid?
Correct answer: A - A scheduled stimulant bowel regimen
A patient with advanced lung cancer describes a burning, shooting pain that travels down the arm. This description is MOST consistent with which type of pain?
Correct answer: D - Neuropathic pain
A patient with end-stage COPD has severe dyspnea at rest. Oxygen saturation is 94% on room air. Which intervention is the MOST appropriate first-line pharmacologic treatment for the sensation of breathlessness?
Correct answer: A - A systemic opioid
In the last hours of life, a patient develops noisy, gurgling respirations from pooled secretions. The family is distressed. After repositioning, which action BEST addresses the situation?
Correct answer: B - Give an antimuscarinic and reassure the family it rarely distresses the patient
A patient's nausea is thought to be driven by opioid stimulation of the chemoreceptor trigger zone. Selecting an antiemetic that targets this mechanism means choosing an agent that primarily blocks which receptor?
Correct answer: D - Dopamine (D2) receptors
The family of an actively dying patient is upset that she has stopped eating and drinking and asks the nurse to request a feeding tube. Which response by the nurse is MOST appropriate?
Correct answer: B - "Reduced intake is expected now, and artificial feeding rarely improves comfort or survival."
The CHPN exam also covers these domains. Drill them in the full free practice test:
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