Acute Care Nurse Practitioner Board Certification Exam Content Outline

This is a computer-based test (CBT)

There are 175 questions on this examination. Of these, 150 are scored questions and 25 are pretest questions that are not scored. Pretest questions are used to determine how well these questions will perform before they are used on the scored portion of the examination. The pretest questions cannot be distinguished from those that will be scored, so it is important for a candidate to answer all questions. A candidate's score, however, is based solely on the 150 scored questions. Performance on pretest questions does not affect a candidate's score.

This Test Content Outline identifies the areas that are included on the examination. The percentage and number of questions in each of the major categories of the scored portion of the examination are also shown.

Please note the areas under Category I, Assessment of Acute and Chronic Illness, and Category II, Clinical Management, are associated with major problem/issue areas. These problem/issue areas are listed in the notes located at the end of this document. These notes are:

• Note 1: System-Specific Health Problems
• Note 2: Psychosocial Health Issues
• Note 3: Common Problems in Acute Care.

Test Content Outline

1. Assessment of Acute and Chronic Illness (24.5%)
   1. Epidemiology/disease control
   2. Pathophysiology (e.g., anatomical variants and manifestations of disease; as associated with Note 1 or Note 3)
   3. Psychopathology (as associated with Note 2)
   4. Diagnostic reasoning (as associated with Note 1, Note 2 or Note 3)
   5. Physical assessment (as associated with Note 1, Note 2 or Note 3)
2. Clinical Management (27.5%)
   1. National Standards of practice/published clinical guidelines (e.g., Joint National Committee (JNC), American College of Cardiology (ACC), World Health Organization (WHO); as associated with Note 1, Note 2 or Note 3)
   2. Pharmacotherapeutics (as associated with Note 1, Note 2, or Note 3)
   3. Clinical therapeutics (e.g., nutrition, occupational therapy/physical therapy, complimentary therapies)(as associated with Note 1, Note 2, or Note 3)
   4. Clinical decision-making (development of a coherent plan to address complex problems; as associated with Note 1, Note 2, or Note 3)
   5. Safety (e.g., restraints, reporting abuse/neglect)
3. Health Promotion and Disease Prevention (16%)
   1. Risk factor analysis (e.g., wellness assessment)
   2. Risk reduction (e.g., lifestyle modification, health maintenance guidelines)
   3. Special needs of the adult across the lifespan (e.g., young adult, older adult, elderly adult, frail elderly adult)
   4. Screening tests
4. The Nurse Practitioner and Patient Relationship (15%)
   1. Cultural competence and spiritual awareness (as associated with Note 1)
   2. Therapeutic communication (e.g., telecommunication, verbal, nonverbal, written)
   3. Teaching/coaching (e.g., assessing, educating, collaborating, and evaluating; as associated with Note 1)
   4. Patient advocacy (as associated with Note 1)
5. Professional Role and Policy (13%)
   1. Ethics
   2. Scope of practice/health care public policy
   3. Access to care (e.g., treatment cost-effectiveness, drug costs, poverty, and transportation)
   4. Coordination of care (i.e., interdisciplinary planning)
6. Research Utilization (4%; Evidence-Based Practice Principles)

Note 1: System-Specific Health Problems

1. Cardiovascular
   1. Acute coronary syndromes/ coronary artery disease
   2. Hypertension
   3. Heart failure
   4. Valvular disease
   5. Peripheral vascular disease
   6. Deep-vein thrombosis
   7. Pulmonary hypertension
   8. Cardiac rhythm disturbances
   9. Pericarditis
   10. Tamponade
   11. Cardiomyopathy
   12. Aneurysm
   13. Endocaratitis
2. Pulmonary
   1. Emphysema
   2. Asthma
   3. Bronchitis
   4. Respiratory infections
   5. Tuberculosis
   6. Pulmonary embolism
   7. Acute respiratory failure
   8. Acute respiratory distress syndrome
   9. Pneumothorax
   10. Pleural effusion
3. Endocrine
   1. Diabetes mellitus
   2. Thyroid diseases
   3. Addison's disease (adrenal insuffiency)
   4. Syndrome of inappropriate secretion of antidiuretic hormone (SIADH)
   5. Cushing's disease
   6. Pheochromocytoma
   7. Diabetes insipidus
   8. Endocrine Imbalances
4. Neurologic
   1. Cerebrovascular disease
      1. Transient ischemic attack
      2. Stroke
      3. Aneurysm
   2. Neurologic Inflammatory/ Degenetive Processes (e.g., Myasthenia gravis, Guillain-Barre syndrome, and Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson)
   3. Head trauma
   4. Spinal cord trauma
   5. Meningitis
   6. Encephalopathy
   7. Seizure disorder (including status epilepticus)
   8. Herniated disk
   9. Headache
   10. Intracranial Pressure (ICP)
5. Renal/genitourinary/ gynecologic
   1. Infection (EGSTD, renal, urinary)
   2. Renal Disease (e.g., renal insufficiency, acute tubular necrosis, end stage renal failure)
   3. Benign prostatic hypertrophy
   4. Renal artery stenosis
   5. Renal calculi
6. Gastrointestinal
   1. Peptic ulcer disease
   2. Hepatitis
   3. Hepatic failure
   4. Cholecystitis
   5. Pancreatitis
   6. Diverticulitis
   7. Peritonitis
   8. Mesenteric ischemia
   9. Appendicitis
   10. Ulcerative colitis
   11. Bowel obstruction
   12. Esophageal varices
   13. Gastrointestinal bleeding
   14. Cirrhosis
7. Hematology/oncology
   1. Anemias
   2. Cancers (e.g., lung, colon, breast, prostate, ovarian, lymphoid, melanoma)
   3. Sickle cell disease
   4. Coagulopathies
8. Immunology
   1. Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome/human immunodeficiency virus infection
   2. Rheumatoid arthritis
   3. Other autoimmune diseases (e.g., systemic lupus erythematosus, scleroderma, sarcoidosis)
   4. Acute allergic reactions
   5. Immunosuppression
9. Musculoskeletal
   1. Trauma
   2. Degenerative joint diseases (e.g., rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, gout)

Note 2: Psychosocial Health Issues

1. Violence
2. Depression
3. Substance abuse
4. Anxiety
5. Grief
6. Sexuality
7. Powerlessness
8. Altered mental status (e.g., delirium, dementia, psychosis)

Note 3: Common Problems in Acute Care

1. Fever
2. Shock (e.g., cardiogenic, hemmorhagic, neurogenic, septic)
3. Nutritional imbalances
4. Fluid, electrolyte, and acid-base imbalances
5. Poisoning and drug toxicities
6. Wound management
7. Infections (e.g., Community- and hospital-acquired, Opportunistic, Cellulitis)
8. Immobility
9. Palliative care (i.e., end-of-life care, including pain management
10. Transplantation
11. Pain (e.g., acute and chronic)

This page last revised 1/24/2007.