ABFM Palliative Care

Both are assessment routes. The one-day examination is a single multiple-choice test; the Hospice and Palliative Medicine Longitudinal Knowledge Assessment (LKA) is offered by ABFM in partnership with ABIM as an alternative to the one-day examination for Diplomates seeking continued certification. Confirm which route matches your current certification status before you register.

ABIM administers the Hospice and Palliative Medicine examination and sets the registration deadlines, and ABFM offers the CAQ in conjunction with ABIM and eight other ABMS member boards. Because ABIM controls the timeline, treat its published dates and late-registration rules as authoritative rather than any third-party summary.

Expect subspecialty depth rather than family medicine generalism. The blueprint is broad, covering pain, non-pain symptoms, communication, ethics, care of the imminently dying, team-based practice, pediatrics, and bereavement, so scattered reading rarely suffices. Your difficulty depends heavily on how much of your current practice already involves seriously ill patients and their families.

Those specifics are not stated in the source material behind this page, so we do not publish an item count, time limit, or fee. Item counts, timing, and fees are set by ABIM and can change between administrations. Verify current figures on ABIM's official Hospice and Palliative Medicine pages before registering.

Start with the two areas that drive the most clinical decisions, pain and non-pain symptom management, then communication and shared decision making, since those frameworks recur inside other questions. Add ethics, prognostication, and care of the imminently dying next, and finish with lower-volume domains such as pediatric and perinatal care, bereavement, and systems practice so nothing is left untouched.

Candidates lose points through shallow coverage more often than weak knowledge: skipping pediatric, perinatal, and bereavement content because it feels peripheral; confusing delirium, depression, and existential distress; and answering with a true statement when the stem asks for the next best step. Practicing single-best-answer reasoning deliberately helps.

The source consulted for this page does not describe a retake policy, waiting period, or attempt limit, so this is flagged as unverified rather than guessed. Retake rules sit with ABIM's exam administration. Check ABIM's candidate materials and your own sponsoring board's requirements before assuming any timeline.

No. This is independent study content written for exam preparation and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or produced by ABFM, ABIM, or any ABMS member board. Use it alongside primary sources such as ABIM candidate materials, current clinical guidelines, and your own patient experience, and verify any administrative detail directly with the boards.