How to Become a Hospice Nurse

To become a hospice and palliative care nurse, you’ll earn your RN license, gain experience in serious-illness or end-of-life care, and pursue the CHPN credential through the Hospice and Palliative Credentialing Center (HPCC). These nurses focus on comfort, dignity, and quality of life for patients facing serious illness — and for the families walking beside them.

Last updated: June 2026.

What does a hospice and palliative care nurse do?

These nurses specialize in managing symptoms and supporting patients and families through serious illness. The emphasis shifts from curing disease to maximizing comfort, controlling pain, and honoring what matters most to the patient. It’s some of the most relationship-centered nursing there is.

Day-to-day work includes:

• Assessing and managing pain and distressing symptoms
• Coordinating care across an interdisciplinary team (physicians, social workers, chaplains, aides)
• Educating and supporting families through decline and grief
• Honoring patient goals, advance directives, and end-of-life wishes
• Providing presence and emotional support at the bedside

Much of this happens where patients live — homes, nursing facilities, hospice houses, and hospitals.

Is hospice the same as palliative care?

Not quite, and the distinction matters when you’re choosing a path. Both prioritize comfort, but they apply at different stages.

	Hospice	Palliative care
When it applies	Terminal illness, typically prognosis of months	Any stage of serious illness
Goal	Comfort at end of life	Comfort alongside (or instead of) curative care
Curative treatment	Generally stopped	Can continue concurrently
Setting	Home, hospice facility, nursing home	Hospital, clinic, home

Palliative care can run alongside aggressive treatment — a patient on chemotherapy might also see a palliative team for symptom relief. Hospice begins when curative treatment stops and the focus turns fully to comfort.

How do you become a hospice or palliative care nurse?

The foundation is an RN license, followed by experience in settings that build comfort-care and symptom-management skills.

1. Earn an ADN or BSN from an approved program
2. Pass the NCLEX-RN and obtain your state RN license
3. Gain experience — oncology, med-surg, home health, and long-term care all build relevant skills
4. Move into a hospice or palliative role
5. Pursue CHPN certification once you meet the experience requirement

Not licensed yet? Start with our how to get an RN license guide. This specialty also welcomes experienced nurses transitioning from other fields — the clinical judgment and communication you’ve built transfer well.

What is CHPN certification?

CHPN stands for Certified Hospice and Palliative Nurse. It’s administered by the Hospice and Palliative Credentialing Center (HPCC), which is associated with the Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association (HPNA). CHPN is the standard credential for RNs in this specialty.

According to HPCC, CHPN eligibility generally requires:

• A current, active, unrestricted RN license
• A recommended minimum of hospice and palliative nursing practice (commonly a defined number of recent hours and around two years of experience)
• Passing the CHPN exam

HPCC also offers credentials for LPNs/LVNs, nursing assistants, advanced practice nurses, and pediatric hospice nurses. CHPN is maintained through a continuing-competency program. Keep your hours organized with the CE tracker, and see how renewal requirements work state to state in our continuing education guide.

What skills does this work demand?

Hospice and palliative nursing leans heavily on communication and emotional steadiness, layered over solid clinical symptom management.

• Symptom and pain management — comfort is the core deliverable
• Communication — difficult conversations about prognosis and goals are routine
• Emotional resilience and self-awareness — you sit with grief and loss regularly
• Cultural humility — death and dying carry deeply personal meanings
• Independence — home-based hospice nurses often work autonomously

Honest caveat: this is emotionally demanding work, and grief is part of the job, not an exception to it. The flip side — many nurses describe it as the most meaningful work of their careers. Strong teams build in bereavement support and self-care; ask about it when you interview.

What do hospice and palliative care nurses earn?

These nurses are RNs, so pay tracks the broader registered nurse market. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Occupational Employment Statistics, registered nurses overall earn a median in the range of roughly $80,000 to $95,000 per year, with notable variation by location, setting, and experience.

Factor	Effect on pay
Location	High — varies by state and metro
Setting (inpatient vs. home hospice)	Varies
CHPN certification	Can support a differential
On-call and weekend coverage	Adds income
Experience	Climbs over a career

Compare RN earnings by state in our salary calculator. The national median is a reference point, not a quote for a specific role.

How does it compare to related specialties?

Specialty	Goal	Emotional load
Hospice/palliative	Comfort, dignity, quality of life	High
Oncology	Treat cancer, manage side effects	High
Home health	Skilled care in the home	Moderate
Geriatrics	Care of older adults	Moderate to high

Bottom line

Becoming a hospice or palliative care nurse means earning your RN, building experience in serious-illness care, and pursuing CHPN certification through HPCC. It asks a lot emotionally, but for the right nurse, it’s among the most meaningful work in the profession.

Considering where this fits in your career? Explore our nursing career paths guide, and get licensing handled first on our RN page.