Hospice and Palliative Care Specialty Certification
SCA offers a Hospice and Palliative Care Specialty for Advanced Practice Board Certified Chaplains. An APBCC-HPC chaplain has demonstrated not only the advanced skills in the provision of and leadership in spiritual and chaplaincy care required of an advanced practice chaplain (APBCC) but has also successfully completed a standardized test of core knowledge in hospice and palliative care. The APBCC-HPC specialty certification recognizes the unique skills, advanced education and the specialized expertise of hospice and palliative care chaplains.
If you are interested in the APBCC-HPC specialty certification, please follow the following steps:
For brand new candidates interested in APBCC-HPC:
- Follow the current APBCC requirements to apply for APBCC-HPC.
- You will need to successfully pass the APBCC-HPC version of the Standardized Clinical Knowledge Test.
- You will need to successfully pass the Simulated Patient Exam.
- You must document 45 hours of hospice/palliative care training. SCA’s online Palliative Care Courses may be used to satisfy this requirement.
- You must document 2,000 working hours in palliative care/hospice services over no more than 3 years and accrued since the conclusion of your second unit of CPE.
- To apply, begin an APBCC application.
For current SCA Credentialed Chaplains (CC) interested in APBCC-HPC:
- Send an email to certification@spiritualcareassociation.org with the subject line: APBCC-HPC, and include the following:
- Submit official documentation of completion of a Master’s degree of at least 30 credits from a CHEA accredited (or international equivalent) institution in a content area relevant to chaplaincy.
- Submit official documentation of 1 more unit of CPE (or 400 clinical training hours).
- Submit documentation of 45 hours of hospice/palliative care training. SCA Palliative Care Courses may be used to satisfy this requirement.
- You must document 2,000 working hours in palliative care/hospice services over no more than 3 years and accrued since the conclusion of your second unit of CPE.
- You will then need to successfully pass the APBCC-HPC version of the Standardized Clinical Knowledge Test.
- Refer to the Fees page for costs.
- You will then need to successfully pass the Simulated Patient Exam.
For current SCA Board Certified Chaplains (BCC) interested in APBCC-HPC:
- Send an email to certification@spiritualcareassociation.org with the subject line: APBCC-HPC, and include the following:
- Submit documentation of 45 hours of hospice/palliative care training. SCA Palliative Care Courses may be used to satisfy this requirement.
- You must document 2,000 working hours in palliative care/hospice services over no more than 3 years and accrued since the conclusion of your second unit of CPE.
- You will then need to successfully pass the APBCC-HPC version of the Standardized Clinical Knowledge Test.
- Cost: $75 or $100 (depending on whether you need to take the Patient Exam). Refer to Fees page.
- If you did not take the Simulated Patient Exam as part of your board certification process with SCA, you will also need to successfully pass this exam. If you did take the Simulated Patient Exam as part of your application for Board Certified Chaplain (BCC) with SCA, you will not have to retake the exam, but your BCC exam will be rescored to determine whether you pass at the APBCC level.
For current SCA Advanced Practice Board Certified Chaplains (APBCC) interested in APBCC-HPC:
- Send an email to certification@spiritualcareassociation.org with the subject line: APBCC-HPC, and include the following:
- Submit documentation of 45 hours of hospice/palliative care training. SCA Palliative Care Courses may be used to satisfy this requirement.
- You must document 2,000 working hours in palliative care/hospice services over no more than 3 years and accrued since the conclusion of your second unit of CPE.
- You will then need to successfully pass the APBCC-HPC version of the Standardized Clinical Knowledge Test.
Refer to the Fees page for costs.
About the APBCC-HPC Standardized Clinical Knowledge Test
In addition to the content areas covered in the APBCC test, the APBCC-HPC test includes an increased focus on palliative care and hospice guidelines, especially the National Consensus Project Guidelines, pediatric hospice and palliative care, grief and bereavement, and end of life.
Questions?
Feel free to contact us at certification@spiritualcareassociation.org with any questions you might have.
