10 exam-style questions with answers and explanations, straight from our 1,030-question bank. Tap an answer to check yourself. When you're ready, take the scored version in the free practice test.
The CHPLN exam has 150 questions and runs 3 hours.
These 10 free CHPLN questions are organized by exam domain, so you can see how each part of the Certified Hospice and Palliative Licensed Nurse blueprint is tested. Reveal the answer and explanation under each question.
A patient with end-stage heart failure has an implanted device that provides both defibrillation and pacing. After several painful shocks, he asks to stop the shocks but keep any pacing that helps him feel comfortable. His wife fears that changing the device will stop his heart immediately. The discussion with the device team should be based on which fact?
Correct answer: B - Shock therapy can be disabled separately from the device's pacing functions.
Treatment of oral thrush and nausea allows a patient with advanced cancer to eat close to his usual intake again. Nevertheless, he continues losing muscle and strength. He can swallow safely and has no evidence of bowel obstruction. His family asks whether a feeding tube would reverse the loss. Which explanation is most accurate?
Correct answer: A - Cancer-related metabolic changes can drive muscle loss that additional calories alone may not reverse.
Three days after a morphine dose increase, a patient with metastatic cancer develops brief, irregular jerks of the arms, visual hallucinations, and pain when a sheet brushes the skin. The original focal pain has improved. The patient has severe chronic kidney impairment, but renal function and other medications are unchanged. Which explanation best accounts for the new findings?
Correct answer: C - Morphine neurotoxicity from impaired renal clearance of accumulated opioid metabolites
A nonverbal resident with advanced dementia has a Pain Assessment in Advanced Dementia (PAINAD) score of 6 during morning care. After prescribed analgesia, the nurse repeats the assessment during the same care activity and obtains a score of 2. The resident remains equally alert, breathes as before, and no longer pushes the caregiver away. How should this change be interpreted?
Correct answer: B - The lower score supports improved comfort, without establishing that pain has completely resolved.
An alert home-hospice patient with advanced pulmonary fibrosis says, 'I cannot get a satisfying breath.' Oxygen saturation is 96% on room air. This episode resembles prior breathlessness relieved by prescribed as-needed morphine; there is no new chest pain, fever, or change in lung findings. No rescue dose has been given today, and the dosing interval permits one now. What would provide the most appropriate immediate relief?
Correct answer: A - Give the prescribed morphine and direct a fan toward the patient's face.
During a visit to a patient with vertebral metastases, the nurse learns that back pain became much worse overnight. Both legs now feel weak, and the patient cannot pass urine despite a strong urge. The patient was walking yesterday and wishes to receive treatment for reversible threats to mobility. The priority is to:
Correct answer: D - Limit movement and activate urgent evaluation for possible spinal cord compression.
A caregiver requests loperamide because an opioid-treated patient has 'diarrhea.' The patient has passed small amounts of watery stool several times today but no substantial bowel movement for six days. There is rectal pressure and mild abdominal fullness. The patient still passes gas and has no fever or vomiting. Laxative doses have not recently increased. What concern should be assessed before an antidiarrheal is given?
Correct answer: C - Fecal impaction with liquid stool leaking around retained feces
Pain returns in a patient receiving a continuous subcutaneous opioid infusion. The pump settings, concentration, and volume delivered match the prescription, but the insertion site is swollen and the dressing is wet. The LPN is trained and authorized to replace the subcutaneous site under agency protocol. Before treating this as an increased opioid requirement, the nurse should:
Correct answer: A - Replace the site under protocol, then reassess drug delivery and pain.
After a grandmother dies from cancer, her 5-year-old grandson tells the hospice nurse, 'I got mad and told Grandma I wished she would go away. Did I make her die?' How should the nurse answer his question?
Correct answer: D - Your words did not make her die. She died because her body was very ill, not because you were angry.
An opioid-tolerant patient's breakthrough-pain prescription remains morphine 10 mg by mouth every 2 hours as needed. The previous bottle contained 10 mg/5 mL; the replacement contains 20 mg/mL. During return demonstration, the caregiver draws 5 mL from the new bottle, using the old instructions. Nothing has been administered. Which correction both delivers the prescribed dose and addresses the source of the error?
Correct answer: C - Measure 0.5 mL; replace the old volume instructions and repeat the return demonstration.
The CHPLN exam also covers these domains. Drill them in the full free practice test:
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