NHA CPCT/A Exam Changes in 2027

NHA is replacing the CPCT/A exam in January 2027 with a version built on a 2025 job analysis. Its launch announcement does not yet give the exact day; here is what moves, and how to tell which version applies to your test date.

Both test plans and NHA's launch announcement checked 11 September 2026.

What changes in the blueprint

Because both versions have exactly 100 scored items, each count is also a percentage. The new plan prints both columns; the current one prints item counts only. Sources: 2018 summary, p. 2 and 2025 summary, p. 1.

Unchanged on both versions: 100 scored items plus 20 unscored pretest items, 120 questions total, 2 hours under standard timing. NHA's current Candidate Handbook, pp. 24–25 describes multiple-choice testing and allows approved timing accommodations. Its scoring policy, pp. 31–32 sets the passing scaled score at 390 on a 200–500 scale. That is not a percentage-correct requirement.

Download the plan that applies to your appointment:

• Current CPCT/A test plan — 2018 job analysis (PDF) — use before the new exam launches
• New CPCT/A test plan — 2025 job analysis (PDF) — use when NHA confirms the new version applies

Patient Care is still much the largest domain. Infection Control is the one that grows, from 11 items to 16 — five more questions, close to half again as many as now. If you sit the new version, check that your review covers that increased share, then spend extra time on the topics you actually need to strengthen.

Read the table as a redistribution, not as a difficulty rating. A domain gaining items does not mean its questions get harder, and moving from 45 to 43 items does not mean Patient Care becomes optional. Neither test plan provides a comparison of difficulty between the two versions.

This comparison is our reading of NHA's two published test plans. It is not NHA's official crosswalk.

Which version applies to your exam date

Source: NHA's CPCT/A launch announcement and the two test-plan covers.

The rule is simple: before the switch, the current plan applies; from the switch, the new plan applies. You do not get to pick. NHA's announcement identifies the plans by their relationship to the launch.

The complication is the missing day. NHA says it will give more specific timeframes closer to launch. So if your appointment falls anywhere in January 2027, you cannot settle this from the published month alone — you need NHA to confirm it for your specific appointment. There is a message below you can send.

One trap worth knowing about now. NHA's own CPCT/A credential page still hands out the current plan under its "Download Free Plan" button. Both versions appear with date labels on NHA's Certification Prep page, but those labels do not supply the exact launch day. Before you study from any test plan, check the job analysis year printed on its first page.

Retaking near the switch

NHA's announcement states that anyone who tests and fails within the 30 days before launch will need to retest on the new exam. Separately, NHA's Candidate Handbook, p. 34 sets a minimum 30-day wait between the initial three attempts and a one-year wait for repeated failures after the third attempt. Each retake requires re-registration and the full examination fee.

We are not going to turn those rules into a cutoff date, because that calculation needs the exact launch day and the announcement does not supply it. A December 2026 attempt can lead to a retake after the switch, but December alone does not establish which version a particular retake will use.

So if you are testing in December, study the current plan properly. Use the comparison below to identify gaps if a retake could cross the transition. And confirm the version with NHA before you book the retake rather than assuming your first attempt settles it.

One more thing if your timing is tight. The Candidate Handbook, p. 43 says NHA may use a pilot scoring period when the first exam form on a new test plan is released — a short delay between testing and getting your pass or fail result, while its psychometricians finish the cut score study. The CPCT/A announcement does not confirm such a delay. If a job start date depends on the credential, ask NHA about score-release timing for your appointment rather than assuming either an immediate result or a delay.

If you have seen "Fall 2026" somewhere

That earlier timeline is still visible in NHA's Help Center change log: its July 2025 entry still reads "Summer 2026" for materials and "Fall 2026" for the exam. The entry links to the dedicated announcement, whose body now says October 2026 and January 2027.

The dedicated announcement is the current transition statement. NHA's June 2026 change-log entry also refers to the updated CPCT/A materials launching in October 2026.

If you find a conflicting date somewhere, check the dedicated announcement and confirm your own appointment with NHA.

Ask NHA which version applies to your appointment

If your date sits near the switch, this is the one thing worth doing. NHA's contact and support page and its Help Center are the places to ask. Copy this:

I am scheduled to take the NHA CPCT/A exam on . Which test plan applies to that appointment — the 2018 job analysis version or the 2025 one? If I need to retest after the transition, which version will apply to the retake?

Ask before you book if you can, and again if you reschedule.

Why 'January 2027' is not an exact date

NHA has not published a CPCT/A launch day. These selected earlier launch entries in its change log show why a month should not be silently converted to the first of that month.

CPT is one example: its materials came out on 8 October 2025, and its exam launched on 7 January 2026. Those dates belong to CPT, not CPCT/A.

That is historical context, not a CPCT/A date or a prediction — do not book around it. If your appointment is anywhere near the boundary, ask NHA directly.

Changes to check, domain by domain

What follows is a task-level comparison of the two published test plans, not an exhaustive line-by-line crosswalk. Two things to keep in mind while you read it.

First, a task that is new on the document is not always new on the exam. NHA reorganised how the plan is written. Several 2025 "new" tasks are things the 2018 plan already listed as supporting knowledge and has now promoted to tasks in their own right. Where that is what happened, we say so.

Second, do not count bullets. Lettered task statements go from 82 to 93 across the two plans (40→42, 13→17, 6→9, 14→16, 9→9). That describes how the document is organised. It is not a measure of difficulty, of how much more there is to learn, or of study time — both versions still have exactly 100 scored questions. Raw knowledge-statement counts are not directly comparable, because the new plan consolidates them into one numbered list of 131 while the current one repeats them under each task.

This is a comparison of exam documents, not instructions or authorization to perform clinical procedures. A new task heading or an omitted example does not, by itself, establish a change in clinical scope.

Patient Care: 45 items on the current plan, 43 on the new plan

Comparison sources: 2018 plan, pp. 2–7; 2025 plan, pp. 2–4.

Newly explicit tasks

• Assisting with enemas (1V). Enemas are not explicitly named in the current plan. New supporting knowledge covers enema types and methods.
• Orthotics and prosthetics (1DD) — donning and doffing, and assisting the patient with them.
• Pre-operative care (1II) — prepping patients for screening or testing before diagnostic procedures and surgery. This is not an explicitly named task in the current plan.
• One-to-one monitoring (1LL) for patients on special precautions: suicidal, aggressive, disoriented, or in withdrawal. Three new knowledge statements come with it — symptoms of withdrawal, warning signs of suicide, and how one-on-one monitoring is set up.
• Personal care needs (1G) — dressing and grooming becomes its own task, with knowledge explicitly covering shampooing, hair care and shaving. The current plan already covers activities of daily living and devices that assist with dressing; personal care is not a wholly new subject.

Tasks and supporting knowledge that change

• Range of motion (1Z) goes from passive only to passive, active, and assistive active.
• Respiratory exercises (1Y). The current plan has two separate tasks, turn-cough-deep-breathe and incentive spirometry. They merge into one, which also adds nebulizer treatment.
• Transfers (1FF) changes from "weight-bearing patient" to "partial weight-bearing patient."
• Ambulation (1BB) picks up supporting knowledge on ambulation devices, walkers and crutches. The current ambulation task lists gait belt knowledge only, but another current task already names devices that assist with ambulating.
• Catheter knowledge changes from Foley catheter care to knowledge that explicitly includes catheter insertion and removal. The task itself still reads as providing care under nursing direction.
• Pain (1R) goes from "recognize and report" to "obtain, document, and report."
• Reportable values (1P) changes from "critical values" to "values outside the reference range."
• Bathing adds CHG bathing. Hot and cold therapies appear as a named knowledge statement. Culturally competent care expands its examples to include gender identity, preferred pronouns and food preferences. Critical thinking becomes its own knowledge statement; prioritising remains a standalone task rather than becoming one for the first time.

Merged, renamed, or narrowed

• Ostomy care. The current plan has two tasks — perform ostomy care excluding irrigation, and assist with ostomy care. These merge into one task, and the "excluding irrigation" qualifier disappears. That wording change is not permission to perform irrigation.
• "Noncurative care" becomes "palliative care."
• "Set up equipment to be used by a patient" becomes "assist patient with use of medical devices."
• One tidy-up worth a line: the current plan has a single knowledge item, "Types of patient beds (e.g., closed, open, surgical, occupied)." The new plan separates bed types (sand, air, bariatric) from bed-making techniques (closed, open, surgical, occupied).

Compliance, Safety, and Professional Responsibility: 20 items on the current plan, 19 on the new plan

Comparison sources: 2018 plan, pp. 8–9; 2025 plan, pp. 4–5.

New standalone tasks

Several related subjects were already covered as supporting knowledge or under other tasks. These are changes in how the plan names the work, not proof that all four subjects were previously untested.

• Empathy, cultural sensitivity and competence, and respect for diversity (2B).
• Professional behavior (2C), explicitly including setting professional boundaries.
• Obtaining consent and recognising implied consent (2E). In the current plan, consent appears only as supporting knowledge under phlebotomy tasks. It is now a compliance task in its own right — see the phlebotomy section below.
• Environmental safety checks (2F) — performing and documenting them to assess risks and prevent injury and falls. Related safety and fall-risk content existed before; the new plan names fall and injury prevention measures as a separate knowledge statement.

Wording that changed

• Emergency situations: "fire, hostage, biological hazard" becomes "fire, terroristic threat, biological hazard, natural disaster."
• The emergency and disaster preparedness knowledge statement no longer names RACE and PASS as examples. The knowledge statement itself is still there, so the mnemonics have not been ruled out — the examples were dropped, not the topic.
• "JC" becomes "TJC" throughout.
• Scope of practice reads "patient care technician/assistant" rather than "patient care technician."

Infection Control: 11 items on the current plan, 16 on the new plan

Comparison sources: 2018 plan, pp. 9–10; 2025 plan, pp. 5–6.

This is the one domain that grows, and it grows by nearly half.

New standalone tasks

• Set up and maintain a sterile field (3I), with knowledge explicitly naming the procedures for doing it. Check this in older study material, but do not assume it was absent: the current plan already includes sterile technique.
• Prepare soiled equipment for sterile processing (3C), with its own new knowledge statement.
• Apply and remove PPE (3D) becomes its own task. Personal protective equipment was already covered as supporting knowledge and could already be tested; it is now named as a standalone task.

Sharpened wording

• Aseptic technique gains concrete examples: wash hands, use sanitizer, don gloves.
• Sterile technique gains real contexts: assisting with a PICC dressing change, inserting a Foley catheter, performing blood cultures.
• Standard and transmission-based precautions picks up "isolation, quarantine protocols," and hand hygiene is now named explicitly in the supporting knowledge.
• Among healthcare-associated infections, "urinary tract infection" becomes "catheter associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI)."

If you are sitting the new version, sterile field procedure is one piece to check early. Use your program's clinical instruction for procedural review; this comparison identifies the topic, not how to perform it.

Phlebotomy and Nonblood Specimen Collection: 14 items on the current plan, 12 on the new plan

Comparison sources: 2018 plan, pp. 10–14; 2025 plan, pp. 6–7.

Fewer items, wider name, more tasks. That combination looks odd, so here is what is actually going on.

The rename is not new content. The current plan already includes collecting nonblood specimens, explaining nonblood collection to patients, and handling and transporting patient-collected nonblood specimens. Urine, stool, sputum and semen were already in scope. The new title makes that visible rather than adding it.

New standalone tasks

• Verify that the patient has adhered to testing requirements (4B) — fasting, medication, basal state. This was supporting knowledge before; now it is a task. That change in the document does not mean the previous exam only required noting requirements after collection.
• Point-of-care testing (4N) — rapid strep, urine dipstick, pregnancy, mononucleosis — with supporting knowledge explicitly naming specimens, methods and processes. In the current plan, point-of-care testing appears as an example inside a Patient Care knowledge statement about critical values. CLIA-waived quality control carries over from the current plan.

Moved, expanded, or carried over

• Consent is now explicit in Compliance. The current plan repeats "implied or informed consent requirements" under four phlebotomy tasks: 4A, 4B, 4C and 4D. The new plan names consent in Compliance task 2E and knowledge statement k70. Same subject, different address — not a reason to ignore consent during specimen collection.
• Mastectomy drops out of the venipuncture special-considerations examples, which now read medication review, limb restrictions, stroke. The consideration itself survives elsewhere — it is still named for vital signs and for EKG. Only this example list changed.
• Preanalytical errors extend from blood specimens to blood and nonblood specimens.
• Adverse reactions and complications remain separate knowledge topics. The current plan already lists them separately under task 4E; the new plan lists them as k108 and k109. This is not a newly introduced split.

EKG: 10 items on both versions, with changes beneath that number

Comparison sources: 2018 plan, pp. 14–15; 2025 plan, pp. 7–8.

Same size, different content. The stable item count does not mean the task list stayed the same.

New standalone tasks

• Apply external cardiac monitors (5G) — ambulatory and telemetry.
• Provide patient education on use of external monitors (5H).
• Perform EKG (5B) becomes an explicit standalone task; EKG recording was already part of the current plan.
• New supporting knowledge covers Holter monitors, telemetry monitors, use and connection of portable EKG machines, and considerations for patients on telemetry including alerts and alarms.

Tasks or examples no longer separately named

An omitted example is not a statement that a topic cannot be tested. Read these changes alongside the broader tasks and knowledge statements that remain.

• Verify EKG machine paper speed is gone as a task. Knowledge about reasons for using varying paper speeds remains.
• Verify EKG machine sensitivity is no longer a separately named task or knowledge statement. The new plan still includes basic functions of EKG equipment, so the omission does not establish that sensitivity can never be tested.
• Right-sided and posterior chest placement drop out of the EKG special-considerations examples, which now read pediatric patients, amputations, mastectomy.
• Waveform knowledge drops S-T segments, T waves and U waves from its examples, and drops the "determine symmetry, direction, and amplitude" language. It now reads "characteristics of waveforms of a cardiac cycle (e.g., P waves, QRS complexes)."
• "Patient history" drops out of the EKG preparation task, which instead adds preparing the environment and removing electromagnetic devices.

Two limits to keep in mind

Neither test plan lists a standalone drug-dosage-calculation task or a separate pharmacology domain. That does not mean medication-related content is irrelevant: testing requirements and medication review appear in both plans, and the new plan explicitly names assisting with enemas and nebulizer treatment. Do not use the absence of a pharmacology heading as a blanket instruction to skip those topics.

And the Five Rights of Delegation stay on both versions. The new plan spells them out where the current one only names them: right task, right circumstance, right person, right direction and communication, right supervision. Those are the terms printed in the plans, not a full clinical delegation protocol. Sources: 2018 Patient Care, p. 7 and 2025 Patient Care, p. 4.

Is your study material still usable?

Judge it by what it covers, not by the year on the cover. A "2026–2027" or "2027" label does not establish that a resource was rebuilt for the 2025 job-analysis plan.

The good news is that much of the core content survives the transition. Vital signs, transfers, infection control basics, venipuncture, EKG lead placement — those subjects remain in both plans. You are looking for gaps, not replacing everything.

Work through this with your resource and the applicable official plan open.

• [ ] Confirm it is the right credential. NHA's CPCT/A is not the same as AECA's CPCT, AMCA's PCTC, or NCCT's NCPCT. Those are separate credentials from different exam owners. Check which one your appointment is for.
• [ ] Write down your version. Note your test date, which plan applies, and — if your date is near the switch — who at NHA confirmed it and when.
• [ ] Compare any claimed exam weighting. If your resource says it mirrors the official blueprint, Infection Control should account for 11 of 100 scored items on the current plan or 16 of 100 on the new plan. Chapter lengths and an unweighted practice sample do not prove which plan a resource follows.
• [ ] Look for four useful coverage checks. Search your resource for a sterile field, point-of-care testing, one-to-one monitoring, and external cardiac monitors. Mark each covered, needs review, or missing. Missing terms identify topics to investigate; their presence or absence does not, by itself, establish the resource's edition or alignment.
• [ ] Check the smaller additions. Enemas, orthotics and prosthetics, pre-operative preparation, nebulizer treatment, assistive active range of motion, CHG bathing, hot and cold therapies. Mark each covered, needs review, or missing, and write down where you will review it.
• [ ] Then read the actual plan. The checks above are a starting point. The applicable test plan gives the full published outline, and it is free.
• [ ] Set a recheck trigger. If your appointment moves, or you need another attempt, confirm the version again.

My next topic to review: . Where I will review it: .

A completed checklist means you have organised a review. It does not mean you are ready to pass, and the number of boxes ticked is not a score.

Both official test plans are free. NHA's Candidate Handbook, p. 23 says that purchasing preparation materials is not required to become eligible for an NHA exam and does not guarantee a passing score. Use the plan and the gaps you recorded to choose what to review next.

Other transition questions

I am already CPCT/A certified. Do I have to retake it? A change of test plan does not replace the normal renewal process for a current full, standard CPCT/A certification. Renewal is 10 continuing education credits every two years plus the recertification fee. The Candidate Handbook, pp. 35–37, does not add a re-examination requirement just because a blueprint changes. Provisional certification follows a different process.

My certification lapsed. Does this affect me? It might. For a lapsed full, standard certification, reinstatement within one year of the expiry date requires 15 continuing education credits plus recertification and reinstatement fees. Past one year, reinstatement is closed and you have to re-register, retake and pay the examination fee. These reinstatement rules do not apply to provisional certification. If you need another exam, confirm which version applies to the appointment rather than assuming any date in 2027 automatically means the new exam. Source: Candidate Handbook, pp. 37–38.

Is the new exam harder? Neither published plan establishes that it is harder or easier. Both specify the same length and time limit. NHA's current handbook uses a passing scaled score of 390 and describes a modified-Angoff standard-setting process with panels of subject matter experts; those facts do not establish equal raw difficulty. Different content coverage is not the same thing as a different difficulty level. Sources: scoring, pp. 31–32, and exam development, p. 43.

Should I test before January 2027 just to avoid the change? Only if you are ready now. Prepare for the version that applies to your appointment, not for an assumed easier exam. An unconfirmed pilot-scoring possibility is not a reason to rush; ask NHA about result timing if a deadline matters.

Are "2027" practice question banks the same as exam dumps? No. Original, unofficial practice questions based on a published test plan are different from material advertised as real or recalled exam content. NHA's registration attestation, p. 16, prohibits memorizing or reproducing test questions and soliciting test questions from previous candidates. Its testing rules, pp. 28–29, list penalties including invalidated scores, revoked credentials, and being ruled ineligible to sit any NHA exam. The year on a resource does not change that distinction.

Is anything else about the exam changing? One confirmed administrative change is separate from the 2027 test-plan change. Since 1 June 2026, NHA exams delivered through PSI no longer permit scratch paper. Remote candidates get a digital whiteboard, PSI test centres provide a physical one, and there is an embedded calculator in the exam. That policy is already in effect and is not tied to which CPCT/A test plan you sit. The notice concerns PSI delivery; it does not establish scratch-paper rules for a separate school-administered session. Source: NHA's June 2026 update, “PSI-Delivered Exams Transition to Digital Tools”.

Is NHA's EKG certification changing too? Yes, separately. NHA's dedicated CET announcement gives Fall 2027 for study materials and Winter 2027/2028 for the exam; it does not give an exact launch day. The Certification Prep index still uses Fall 2027 labels, so do not use that index alone to settle a CET appointment. Different credential, different date, different blueprint. If you are stacking CPCT/A and CET, check that one on its own terms rather than assuming the CPCT/A dates apply.

Sources and how we checked

The source check covered both published CPCT/A test plans in full, NHA's launch announcement, the relevant Candidate Handbook sections, its Help Center change log, and its CPCT/A credential and certification prep pages. The task-level comparison and the study-material checklist are our own editorial work.

NHA documents

• Current CPCT/A Test Plan — 2018 job analysis (PDF) — cover on p. 1; summary on p. 2; detailed outline on pp. 2–15
• New CPCT/A Test Plan — 2025 job analysis (PDF) — summary on p. 1; tasks 1A–1PP, 2A–2Q, 3A–3I, 4A–4P, 5A–5I and knowledge statements k1–k131 on pp. 2–8
• Updated CPCT/A Certification Exam & Study Materials Coming in 2026/27 — the October 2026 and January 2027 dates, and the 30-day pre-launch failure rule
• NHA Candidate Handbook (PDF) — updated 1 June 2026; relevant sections cited above for format, scoring, retakes, standard renewal and reinstatement, pilot scoring, and exam integrity
• NHA Certification Prep — both test plans, labelled by date
• NHA CPCT/A credential page — credential identity and the free plan download
• Product & Cert Portal Updates — the earlier Fall 2026 schedule, October 2026 materials reference, PSI scratch-paper change, and selected CMAA, ExCPT and CPT launch dates
• NHA contact and support and the NHA Help Center — where to confirm which plan applies to your appointment
• NHA CET transition announcement — the separate EKG-certification timeline

Method and limits. This is a public-source comparison, not NHA's official crosswalk, a clinical procedure guide, a hands-on review of study materials, or a prediction of your score. AI-assisted research and editing were used for this page; the cited official documents are the sources. See our editorial methodology.

Last verified: 11 September 2026, covering both test plans, the cited Candidate Handbook sections, NHA's transition announcements and change log, and the linked credential and prep pages. The CPCT/A announcement did not specify an exact January 2027 launch date at that check. Exam dates and rules change — confirm yours with NHA before you register or test.

Independence. Castleport Test Prep is an independent exam prep publisher. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or approved by the National Healthcareer Association or PSI. Exam and credential names are used to identify their subjects, and trademarks belong to their respective owners. Nothing here guarantees certification, a score, employment, pay, or licensure.

Castleport Test Prep Editorial Team