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Hawaii CNA Skills Test: Every Skill and Critical Step

Hawaii’s CNA skills test is given by Prometric. Below: the test format, every skill on the list, and one skill in full.

One payment, every covered state, yours to keep.

The test

Tested by
Prometric
Skills on the test
5
Time allowed
31-40 minutes
Skills on the list
22
Critical steps marked
Not published

How it is scored: Five skills are scored: Handwashing and Indirect Care on every test, plus three prompted skills picked by computer from the 20-skill list. You must pass all five skills. Prometric does not publish critical steps: checkpoints are weighted and the weights are secure, and a standard-setting cut score sets the points needed to pass each skill; you do not have to be perfect but must show competency. You may correct a step if you tell the evaluator before you say you are done with that skill; a correction prompted by the evaluator for a safety concern earns no credit.

Prometric does not publish which steps are critical. Its checkpoints are weighted and the weights are kept private, so every step counts.

The 22 skills on the list

  1. Handwashing
  2. Indirect Care
  3. Ambulate the resident using a transfer/gait belt
  4. Assist resident needing to use a bedpan
  5. Change bed linen while the resident remains in bed
  6. Change resident's position to a supported side-lying position
  7. Dress a resident who has a weak arm
  8. Empty contents of resident's urinary drainage bag, and measure and record urine output on an Intake and Output (I&O) form
  9. Feed a resident who is sitting in a chair
  10. Measure and record a resident's radial pulse
  11. Measure and record a resident's respirations
  12. Provide catheter care to a female resident who has an indwelling urinary catheter
  13. Provide foot care to a resident who is sitting in a chair
  14. Provide mouth care to a resident who has a denture
  15. Provide mouth care to a resident who has teeth
  16. Provide perineal care to a female resident who is incontinent of urine
  17. Provide resident hand and nail care
  18. Provide resident a partial bed bath and back rub
  19. Provide resident with passive range of motion (ROM) exercises to one elbow and wrist
  20. Provide resident with passive range of motion (ROM) exercises to one shoulder
  21. Provide resident with passive range of motion (ROM) exercises to one hip, knee and ankle
  22. Transfer the resident from the bed into a wheelchair using a pivot technique and a transfer/gait belt

One skill in full: Handwashing

  1. Wet your hands, then put soap on them.
  2. Rub to spread the soap into a lather over the fronts and backs of the hands, between the fingers, around the cuticles, under the nails, and over the wrists.
  3. Keep scrubbing with lathered hands for at least 20 seconds.
  4. Rinse the soap off your hands and wrists.
  5. Dry hands and wrists with clean paper towel(s) and throw the used towel in the trash.
  6. Finish with clean hands: do not touch the faucet handles or sink after washing, before the procedure is done.

Steps are written in our words from Prometric’s candidate handbook (Clinical Skills Checklist, 2018), in the same order, with critical steps as the handbook marks them. State page: Hawaii testing information. The handbook is the final word.

Also for the Hawaii exam

Practise the written part with the Hawaii CNA practice test, and check a certification on the Hawaii nurse aide registry.