CAQ-Palliative study plan

Map the exam blueprint into a one-page topic inventory covering pain, dyspnea, nausea, delirium, and end-of-life communication

Define and contrast hospice eligibility criteria versus palliative care referral triggers, including prognosis certification rules and benefit structures

Build a spaced-repetition deck of 120 cards on opioid pharmacology: receptor effects, equianalgesic conversions, and adverse-effect management

Explain the WHO analgesic ladder and its modern critiques in your own words without reference to any commercial outline

Work through 60 practice items on pain assessment and opioid selection, logging every miss with a root-cause note

Derive equianalgesic conversions for morphine, oxycodone, hydromorphone, fentanyl, and methadone from first principles and verify each against a primary pharmacology source

Summarize opioid-induced neurotoxicity, opioid rotation, and buprenorphine initiation in a written algorithm

Practice three opioid-safety counseling scripts covering constipation prophylaxis, sedation, and overdose risk

Distinguish nociceptive, neuropathic, and mixed pain syndromes and match each to first-line adjuvant agents with dosing ranges

Explain the mechanism, indications, and monitoring for interventional options such as nerve blocks, intrathecal therapy, and palliative radiation

Analyze three worked cases of refractory pain and justify each escalation step in writing

List opioid-sparing strategies and their evidence limitations for patients with renal or hepatic impairment

Diagnose and manage dyspnea, cough, and terminal secretions using a stepwise pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic approach

Differentiate causes and treatments of nausea and vomiting by receptor pathway, including bowel obstruction and raised intracranial pressure

Explain delirium screening tools, precipitant workup, and antipsychotic versus non-drug management in the last weeks of life

Review constipation, anorexia-cachexia, and fatigue management with realistic goals-of-care framing

Compare the major communication frameworks for delivering serious news and identify the specific behaviors each one prescribes

Draft and rehearse a full goals-of-care conversation covering prognosis disclosure, values elicitation, and recommendation framing

Explain decision-making capacity assessment, surrogate hierarchy, and advance directive and POLST distinctions

Address requests for hastened death and conflicts among family, patient, and clinician using a structured ethical approach

Summarize prognostication tools and their limits for cancer, heart failure, COPD, dementia, and frailty trajectories

Describe the dying process, last-days care, and the appropriate use of palliative sedation versus proportionate symptom control

Outline bereavement risk assessment and support, including complicated grief features and referral thresholds

Explain pediatric palliative care principles, family-centered communication, and differences in dosing and consent

Review documentation, billing, and interdisciplinary team roles within hospice and palliative care delivery models

Explain Medicare hospice benefit rules including election, revocation, live discharge, and per-diem levels of care

Address clinician burnout, moral distress, and team communication practices with concrete mitigation steps

Complete 40 mixed practice items across all domains and categorize remaining weak areas

Re-run all previously missed items and confirm each is now answered with a defensible rationale

Complete two timed full-length practice exams under test conditions and compare domain-level performance

Recite the core algorithms for pain, dyspnea, delirium, and goals-of-care communication from memory

Finalize a test-day strategy covering pacing, flagged-item review, and management of uncertain items