HPM PASS™ 3rd Edition
Hospice and Palliative Medicine Physician Assessment & Self-Study Tool
Assess your knowledge of hospice and palliative medicine and prepare for the hospice and palliative medicine board exam with HPM PASS™. This 150-item practice test is designed to evaluate your knowledge as a physician, uncover areas where additional study may be helpful, and simulate the board certification examination.
How You Will Benefit
- Gain instant access to this easy-to-use, self-study tool from your desktop or mobile device.
- Assess your knowledge with evidence-based questions and referenced discussion of the correct answers and additional resources.
- Experience an online test first hand before sitting for the certification exam.
- Earn CME credits and MOC points
Access to HPM PASS
You can access HPM PASS in two ways (twice in each mode):
- Study mode provides the correct answer and explanations throughout the test
- Test mode simulates an examination, with results and explanations delivered after you have completed the practice test.
Content is based on the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) and American Osteopathic Association (AOA) blueprints for the certification examination. In an outcomes survey, more than 90% of respondents indicated the content and format were helpful for their board preparation, and 95% reported passing the exam.
Sample Question
A precocious 4-year-old boy with an irreversible cancer diagnosis has not been told he will die. While playing with the child-life therapist, he builds a hospital and an emergency entrance, noting that the little boy inside is very sick and dying and needs help. He has never before acknowledged concerns about being sick. After the child-life therapist explores his thoughts and concerns further, she shares them with the palliative medicine physician.
What should the physician and child-life therapist do with this information?
- Keep it to themselves because it was a confidential conversation.
- Immediately find the parents and coach them to speak to the boy more openly.
- Tell the social worker to make him her next priority visit.
- Inform the interdisciplinary team that he is aware of his situation.
The correct answer is D, inform the interdisciplinary team that he is aware of his situation. To take the best care of the boy, his psychosocial and existential concerns need to be addressed. He is clearly providing evidence of his concerns, and the expertise of the interdisciplinary team should be brought to bear to assist him. The route of caring for these needs may be funneled through parents, the child-life therapist, or someone else close to him, but the training of the interdisciplinary team is needed to ensure the highest quality of care.
Option A, keep it to themselves because it was a confidential conversation, is incorrect. A 4-year-old child does not have the independent legal or moral right to a confidential conversation.
Option B, immediately find the parents and coach them to speak to the boy more openly, is not correct because the parents need to know he is aware of his illness and impending death, but they cannot be expected to completely change their behavior. The team’s expertise should be tapped to maximize the adaptation of the parents as well as the child, thereby enhancing quality of care for the family.
Option C, tell the social worker to make him her next priority visit, is incorrect because, although the social worker’s expertise is helpful and should be solicited as soon as possible, his or her personal visit is not urgent.
Take-Home Point
Children often reveal distress subtly and selectively. The quality of their care depends on the recognition of distress and effective comprehensive interdisciplinary management.
References
Contributors
View the Project Editors along with the Authors and Reviewers of HPM PASS.
Project Editors
- Holly Yang, MD MSHPEd HMDC FACP FAAHPM
- Toluwalase Ajayi, MD
- Kyle P. Edmonds, MD
Authors and Reviewers
- Toluwalase Ajayi, MD
- Robert M. Arnold, MD FAAHPM
- Christi Bartlett, MD
- Jennifer K. Burke, DO
- Julie Childers, MD
- Paul L. DeSandre, DO
- Kyle P. Edmonds, MD
- Nathan Fairman, MD MPH
- Paul Glare, MD
- Michelle Grant-Ervin, MD MHPE FACEP
- Yuya Hagiwara, MD
- Christopher Jones, MD
- Laurel Kilpatrick, MD
- Sangeeta Lamba, MD
- Tiffany Latta, DO
- Jane E. Loitman, MD MBA MS FAAHPM
- Britni Lookabaugh, MD
- Monica Malec, MD
- Dominic Moore, MD
- Beth Popp, MD
- Karin Porter-Williamson, MD FAAHPM
- Emily Riegel, MD
- Joseph Rotella, MD MBA FAAHPM HMDC
- Joseph W. Shega, MD
- Robert M. Taylor, MD FAAHPM
- Jason A. Webb, MD
- Holly Yang, MD MSHPEd HMDC FACP FAAHPM