Patient Care Technician Exam

The CPCT/A exam is a computer-based, proctored exam that you can take at your school (when it is an approved NHA test site), at a PSI testing center, or from home or another private place through live remote proctoring. You may take it after you finish a patient care technician training program or gain enough supervised work experience in a patient care technician role.

You need a high school diploma or GED/high school equivalency, or to be scheduled to earn one within the next 18 months, and one of the following:

• Completion of a patient care technician training or education program within the last five years, or
• Supervised work experience in a patient care technician field: at least one year within the last three years, or two years within the last five years (this route requires the diploma or equivalency).

Create an account on the NHA website, choose the CPCT/A exam, and pay the exam fee. If your school is an NHA test site, your instructor may schedule a group exam there; otherwise, schedule a PSI testing center appointment or a live remote proctored session. Bring a current, government-issued photo ID with your signature, and make sure the name matches your NHA account. For PSI and remote appointments, reschedule or cancel at least 24 hours ahead, or the fee is forfeited. Candidates who need accommodations submit NHA's request form with documentation well before the exam (allow about 30 days); approved extended time is one and a half times the standard time.

The test plan comes from a national job analysis of practicing patient care technicians, and every scored question belongs to one of five domains. NHA has released an updated CPCT/A test plan from a new job analysis for a new version of the exam. If you test on or after the launch date posted on the NHA website, you take the updated exam; NHA describes the change as having minimal impact on exam topics and content areas. The five domains stay the same, but the weights shift, most noticeably toward infection control.

The largest domain covers the daily work of a PCT: bathing, grooming, oral care and other activities of daily living; positioning, range of motion, transfers, ambulation and transport; skin care and pressure injury prevention; vital signs, weights, and intake and output; feeding tubes, catheters and ostomies; oxygen, suction, incentive spirometry and turn, cough and deep breathe; assisting with dressing changes and removing peripheral IVs; recognizing and reporting changes in condition, pain, edema and wound infection; prioritizing care and following the Five Rights of Delegation; CPR and first aid; and caring for patients and families at the end of life, including postmortem care.

This domain covers practicing within the PCT scope, patient identification with two identifiers, consent, empathy and cultural respect, professional conduct, abuse and neglect reporting, OSHA workplace safety, Safety Data Sheets, fire and emergency procedures, Joint Commission patient safety goals, equipment, fall and restraint safety, incident reporting, HIPAA, the Patients' Bill of Rights, medical terminology and the electronic health record, and the chain of command.

This domain covers standard and transmission-based precautions, personal protective equipment, the chain of infection, healthcare-associated infections, cleaning and disinfecting equipment, preparing soiled equipment for sterile processing, biohazard and sharps disposal, the exposure control plan, and aseptic and sterile technique, including setting up and maintaining a sterile field.

This domain covers venipuncture and capillary puncture, order of draw and tube additives, blood cultures, adverse reactions, specimen labeling, handling and transport, non-blood specimens, quality control for CLIA-waived tests, preanalytical errors and chain of custody.

This domain covers patient preparation, 3-, 5- and 12-lead electrode placement including special situations, artifacts, machine settings, recognizing and reporting dysrhythmias, responding to life-threatening rhythms, ambulatory (Holter) and telemetry monitors, and caring for the equipment.

Every question is multiple choice with one best answer, and the practice questions in this guide each have four answer choices. Many questions are short scenarios that ask what the PCT should do first, which finding to report, which patient to see first, or which action is within the PCT's scope. Others test exact knowledge such as normal ranges, the order of draw, precautions for a specific infection or the landmark for V4. Rhythm questions on a printed or on-screen exam may show a strip; in this guide every strip is described in words (rate, regularity, P waves, PR interval and QRS width) so you learn to recognize rhythms from their features.

Your result is reported as a scaled score from 200 to 500, and a scaled score of 390 or higher passes. The 20 pretest questions do not count, but you cannot tell which ones they are, so answer every question carefully. Your score report shows pass or fail and rates each domain as above, near or below the passing standard. An exam taken at your school gives a preliminary report right after you finish; results from a PSI center or remote exam are usually available within 48 hours.

If you do not pass, you may retest after waiting 30 days, and the same 30-day wait applies after a second unsuccessful attempt. After a third unsuccessful attempt, NHA requires a one-year wait before each further attempt. Each retake is a new registration with the full exam fee, so use your score report to target the domains where you fell below the standard.

Your CPCT/A certification appears in your NHA account, and employers can verify it. Many employers also want current Basic Life Support certification from the American Heart Association or a comparable provider, so keep that card current as well.

NHA certification is renewed every two years. Renewal requires 10 continuing education credits and the recertification fee. If your certification lapses, NHA allows reinstatement within one year of the expiration date; after that, you must test again.