ABA Palliative Care study plan

Map the full exam blueprint by listing every topic area named in the content outline for both domains and tagging each as known, shaky, or unknown

Rank the tagged topics by exam weight and by your own gap size to build a priority queue

Define a single note-taking template (definition, mechanism, clinical decision point, common pitfall) and apply it to the 10 highest-priority topics

Set a fixed weekly study schedule with two 3-hour blocks and protect them on your calendar

Build a one-page framework for pain assessment and opioid selection, titration, and rotation

Distinguish opioid adverse effects from opioid toxicity and state the management step for each

Compare adjuvant analgesic classes by indication, starting dose range, and dose-limiting toxicity

Write five original practice vignettes on pain management and answer them without notes

Outline the approach to dyspnea, nausea, constipation, and anorexia in advanced illness, naming first-line and alternative agents for each

Differentiate delirium from depression and from dementia using bedside features and state initial pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic steps

Describe the components of a goals-of-care conversation and rehearse it aloud twice

Explain the ethical and legal basis for advance directives, surrogate decision-making, and do-not-resuscitate orders

Summarize prognostic tools and illness trajectories for cancer, heart failure, COPD, and dementia

State hospice eligibility logic for common noncancer diagnoses, including functional decline criteria

Distinguish hospice from palliative care in terms of eligibility, payment, and scope

Complete 30 original practice questions across domains 1 and 2 and log every miss by cause

Describe the Medicare hospice benefit structure, including levels of care and the four certification requirements

Explain the roles of the interdisciplinary team members and how care planning decisions are documented

Outline the grief and bereavement frameworks used in hospice and identify risk factors for complicated grief

Identify when to refer to specialty palliative care versus manage within primary team

Explain the ethical principles underlying withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment, including the doctrine of double effect and proportionality

Describe the process of terminal extubation and of discontinuing dialysis or vasopressors, including premedication and monitoring

Differentiate palliative sedation from euthanasia and from withholding treatment

Analyze two original ethics vignettes and defend a recommendation with explicit reasoning

Re-review every logged miss from week 4 and rewrite each as a corrected one-line rule

Complete 40 timed original practice questions spanning both domains and record accuracy by domain

Identify the three weakest subtopics by accuracy and rebuild each from primary concepts

Practice two full-length timed sets under exam conditions

Condense all notes into a single review sheet of no more than 10 pages

Recite the top 20 high-yield facts aloud without prompts

Retake every previously missed question and confirm at least 90 percent correct

Plan the final 48 hours as light review only, with no new material