Price:  $375

Benefits of CVPA Certification:

• Demonstrate accountability to employers or potential employers

• Career Advancement

• Potential Income Incentive

Exam Preparation:

The ABCM provides a list of items to study for the CVPA Board Certification Exam and makes reading recommendations of approved reference texts.  The ABCM does not offer practice exams for this exam but will in the near future. Check back with us again to see if the practice exam is ready for release by visiting our Resource Center section of this web site.    

Exam Results:

After your exam is completed, the ABCM will grade and issue the results by email if provided, and then will send the results by mail within three weeks of the exam date.  And to assist you with your further studies in cardiology, the ABCM will analyze your exam and provide you a list of items that challenged you.    

Sample Question 1:

The ECG below was recorded from a 68 year old man with known coronary artery disease.  Identify the rhythm disturbance.  Answer at bottom of this page.

T

Sample Question 2:

Dilated cardiomyopathy frequently has all the following except:  (Answer at the bottom of the page.)

a.  systolic dysfunction
b.  diastolic dysfunction
c.  mitral regurgitation
d.  dynamic left ventricular outflow tract obstruction
e.  apical thrombus

Exam Locations:

The CVPA/CVNP Board Certification Exam is now available in your home town or city by proctor.  Since travel has become cost prohibitive for many, and time off next to impossible, the ABCM makes every effort to ensure this vital certification exam is readily available in your hospital or facility.

CVPA/CVNP Review Courses Available:

If you are interested in hosting or attending a Clinical Cardiology Course for Advanced Cardiac Physician’s Assistants and Advanced Nurse Practitioners, we recommend you contact the Marriott Heart Foundation (MHF), “Home of the American College of Cardiovascular Nurses (ACCN),”  who will help you plan the course or direct you to one that is already planned.   The ABCM will work with the MHF/ACCN to bring the exams to your doorstep.  To start the process call:  (813)394-4968 or email: info@cvncertify.org. 

Why Become CVPA/CVNP Board Certified:

Most importantly is that Physician Assistant's and Cardiovascular Nurse Practitioners need to demonstrate professional accountability in their everyday practice which includes the diagnosis and management of cardiac patients.  And in this day of high litigation, employment shifting, and Joint Commission accountability, these Exams are a perfect way to assess the overall competency of Physician’s Assistants and Nurse Practitioners practicing Cardiology.  Prove to yourself and your colleagues that you have achieved competency in Cardiology by taking the ABCM's CVPA/CVNP Board Certification Exam. 

Cardiac Physician’s Assistant and Nurse Practitioner Awards Certificate: 

The ABCM issues CVPA or CVNP Awards Certificates to those achieving a 70% or higher score on the Exams.  These frameable Awards Certificates are good for a three-year renewable period with proof of 50 continuing medical education (CME) hours in cardiology every three years, and by paying the renewal fee of $100 USD.     

History and the Need:

One of our Founders, Jonni Cooper, along with a team of Cardiac Professionals, developed the Cardiac Physician’s Assistant and Nurse Practitioner Board Certification Exam in 2009.  Prior to these developments, there was no standard with which to measure the competency of a Cardiac Physician’s Assistant or Nurse Practitioner whose professional role demands s/he be in the forefront of diagnosis and management of cardiac patients. They have to be as knowledgeable as the physicians they serve.   

Answer to Sample Question 1:

Type II (infranodal) second degree AV block with 1:1 and 2:1 conduction.  Emergency personnel should have no difficulty recognizing genuine type II AV block:  the normal PR + BB are typical and, of course, the clincher is the unchanging PR interval when consecutive impulses are conducted before the first dropped beat.  The level of the block is at the bifurcation of the bundle of His or below causing the wide QRS of bundle branch block. 

Answer to Sample Question 2: 

d.  Dynamic left ventricular outflow track obstruction

RETURN HOME