The CBCN^® Examination tests knowledge which is vital for a breast care nurse to function competently. Breast care nursing certification is a validation of an individual's knowledge in breast care nursing practice.

Development of the Test
The content of the CBCN^® Test is based on the CBCN^® Test Blueprint. A role delineation study of breast care nurses was conducted in 2007. The results of this study describe the professional roles and practice behaviors of breast care nurses.

Description of the Test
The CBCN^® Test Blueprint is composed of eight major subject areas, each with a percentage assigned to it. Each major subject area is represented in every test with the appropriate percentage of questions. However, not all content sub-areas on the CBCN^® Test Blueprint are included on every form of the CBCN^® Test. Candidates will have a three hour testing session.

Pretest Questions
The test consists of 165 multiple choice questions. One hundred twenty five of the questions on each test count toward the scoring of the test. The remaining 40 questions are newly developed questions that are being pretested. Candidates do not know which questions make up the scored portion of the test and which are pretest questions. The purpose of pretesting questions is to determine if they are statistically sound and fair questions. Extensive statistical analyses are performed on each newly developed question to determine how well it "performs." Questions that have poor statistics are not used on future tests. They are either discarded or rewritten by the CBCN^® Test Development Committee and pretested again. Questions that perform well statistically when pretested are added to the total question pool and used on future test forms as questions that count toward scoring.