The ANCC Adult-Gerontology Primary Care NP Certification Exam: An Overview

Author’s note: This article focuses on the recently announced content outline for the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s (ANCC) AGPCNP certification examination. A future article will focus on the content outline of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioner’s (AANP) adult-gerontology examination, once this information is available. The Fitzgerald Health Education Associates, Inc. 2013 NP Certification Review Courses are developed with these exam content updates in mind.
 
In keeping with the recommendations from the Consensus Model for APRN Regulation on Licensure, Accreditation, Certification & Education, the ANCC’s adult-gerontology primary care NP (AGPCNP) certification examination will be offered for the first time in early 2013. The age ranges represented on this examination include the adolescent (13 to 17 years), adult (18 to 64 years), young-old (65 to 74 years), middle-old (75 to 84 years) and oldest-old (85 years and older). The examination contains 200 questions, a 25 question increase from the current ANCC adult or gerontology NP test. Of the 200 questions, 175 are scored questions and 25 are pretest questions that are not scored; performance on the pretest questions, which are distributed throughout the test, does not contribute to or detract from the candidate’s final score. A candidate's score is based solely on the 175 scored questions. The test consists of three domains: Foundations of Advanced Practice Nursing, Professional Roles and Independent Practice.
 
Below is a summary of the ANCC’s AGPCNP exam content outline.
 
Foundations of Advanced Practice Nursing (33%)
·  Advanced Pathophysiology
        o  Content example: Physiology, pathogenesis, clinical manifestations, and etiology of altered physical/psychological health/disease states across the aging continuum, differentiating between normal and abnormal physiologic changes associated with development and aging
 
·  Advanced Pharmacology
        o  Content example: Pharmacotherapeutics, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, pharmacogenetics of broad categories of drugs, analyzing the relationship between pharmacological agents and physiologic/pathologic responses, impact of aging on pharmacological regimens

·  Advanced Physical Health Assessment
        o  Content example: Knowledge of components of history, physical, and psychosocial assessments across the aging continuum, components of history, physical, and psychosocial assessments across the aging continuum, developing a comprehensive database, including developmental/functional assessment, comprehensive or problem-focused health history, comprehensive or problem-focused physical examination, and appropriate testing
 
·  Theories and Frameworks
        o  Content example: Knowledge of theories and frameworks relevant to the adult-gerontology primary care nurse practitioner (e.g., theories of development and aging, nursing conceptual models)
 
·  Clinical Prevention and Population Health
        o  Content example: Health promotion and population-based health policy, designing and delivering clinical prevention interventions and strategies (e.g., immunizations, disaster preparedness, health screenings)
 
·  Management for Diverse Populations
        o  Content example: Cultural competencies, influence of aging, socioeconomic status, culture, gender, ethnicity, and spirituality on the mental and physical health of the individual and family in various health care settings
 
Professional Roles (25%)
·  Translational Science/Evidence-based Practice
        o  Content example: Research process, evidence-based practice, applying clinical investigative skills to practice
 
·  Legal and Ethical Issues/Scope and Standards/Regulation
        o  Content example: Ethical and legal issues, role, scope, and standards of the adult-gerontology primary care nurse practitioner
 
·  Quality Improvement and Safety
        o  Content example: Knowledge of methods, tools, performances measures, quality improvement models, culture of safety principles, and standards related to quality
 
·  Leadership, Advocacy, and Inter-professional Communication and Collaboration
        o  Content example: Leadership concepts, including interdisciplinary communication, collaboration, and coordination, advocating for the needs of patients and their families 
 
·  Health Policy and Delivery
        o  Content example: Interdependence between policy and practice (e.g., health care economics, health disparity, globalization, organizational structure, federal health care policies), advocating for policies that improve health
 
·  Informatics and Health Care Technologies
        o  Content example: Legal and ethical issues related to the use of informatics and health care technologies, integrating technology systems into the delivery and coordination of care
 
Independent Practice (42%)
·  Advanced Patient-centered Communication
        o  Content example: Knowledge of adapting communications to specific patients’ needs/situations across the aging continuum
 
·  Health Promotion and Disease Prevention
        o  Content example: Knowledge of anticipatory guidance, health behavior modification, patient-specific primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention, selecting interventions for the maintenance of health/wellness
 
 
·  Illness/Disease Management
        o  Content example: Knowledge of clinical guidelines and standards of care, risk, cost, and benefits of interventions, illness, injury, disease management, common geriatric syndromes
 
·  Diagnostic Reasoning/Critical Thinking
        o  Content example: Selecting appropriate tests and procedures, interpreting laboratory and diagnostic data, synthesizing data from multiple sources, establishing and prioritizing differential diagnoses, formulating a patient-centered, mutually acceptable plan of care
 
To access the full outline, please visit: http://www.nursecredentialing.org/Documents/Certification/TestContentOutlines/AdultGeroPCNP-TCO.pdf.
 
Click here to read an FHEA News article about the Consensus Model for APRN Regulation and NP certification examinations that will be retired in 2014. Click here to read the FHEA News article “Frequently Asked Questions about NP Certification Exams.” Look for additional information on the changes to the AANP and ANCC certification exams in future issues of FHEA News.
 
 
Updated 7/31/12