ANCC GERO-BC Certification Sample Questions

The ANCC Gerontological Nursing Certification Sample Question Set on this page is designed to familiarize you with the actual ANCC GERO-BC exam format and question types. These sample questions help you understand how questions are structured and what to expect on test day. While they provide a useful starting point, they represent only a limited preview of the real exam experience.

These sample questions are intended for evaluation and familiarization only. To understand exam style, pacing, and reasoning patterns more clearly, we recommend trying our online sample practice environment. If you are preparing for the ANCC Gerontological Nursing-Board Certified (GERO-BC) and want to assess your readiness more rigorously, structured, timed, scenario-based practice is recommended. This approach aligns with the cognitive demands and professional expectations typically associated with registered nurses, gerontological nurses, specialty care nurses working in settings such as acute care hospitals, long-term care settings, ambulatory and community care.

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The demo introduces core concepts, while full-length premium simulations provide deeper, scenario-based coverage that more closely reflects the actual cognitive demands of the ANCC Gerontological Nursing Certification exam, particularly in areas such as geriatric assessment, care planning, professional practice. You can use these sample questions as a starting point, then progress to the ANCC GERO-BC Certification Practice Exam for stronger readiness. Our premium simulations are designed to mirror real exam conditions, helping you refine reasoning, pacing, and decision-making before your official exam attempt.

ANCC GERO-BC Sample Questions:

01. An older adult from a community with distinct family traditions says, “No one has explained the plan in a way that fits how my family makes decisions.”
Which nursing response is most appropriate?
a) Ask the patient who should be present for decisions and plan the discussion that way
b) Ask the patient to name one family spokesperson so that the teaching stays consistent for everyone
c) Give the standard teaching, since every patient is entitled to the same information
d) Arrange the discussion with the eldest son, as is customary in many such families

02. A clinic is moving follow-up visits for homebound older adults to video appointments. One patient has significant hearing loss, lives alone, and has never used the platform.
Which action should the nurse take before her first video visit?
a) Move her to video anyway because remote visits are easier than travelling to the clinic
b) Set up captioning and a practice call so she can use the visit when it happens
c) Exclude her from video follow-up because of her hearing loss and keep her on clinic visits
d) Send her the set-up notes by post and let her work it out on her own

03. A woman with impaired balance has transferred without staggering for three days, since staff began leaving nonskid footwear within her reach, clearing the floor, and setting the chair up the same way each time. A colleague suggests the special setup can now be dropped because she is doing well.
How should the nurse respond?
a) Environmental changes affect her comfort, and belong outside the mobility plan
b) Three good transfers show the balance problem has resolved, and the extras can stop
c) The setup is producing the improvement, and it should stay in her written plan
d) Her fall risk no longer requires reassessment, and the measures can be relaxed

04. During a routine visit an 82-year-old man mentions that he has not had his eyes or his hearing checked in several years, and that he no longer sees a dentist because his last one retired.
Which nursing action is most appropriate?
a) Prioritize the hearing assessment, since untreated hearing loss has a strong association with later cognitive decline
b) Record the gaps in his preventive care, and raise each of them when his annual review comes round
c) Advise him to contact a new dental practice, to book an eye test, and to book a hearing test, when he is next able to
d) Arrange the eye, hearing, and dental reviews he has lost, and confirm he can get to each of them

05. An 81-year-old admitted with heart failure also has osteoarthritis, poorly controlled hypertension, and worsening constipation. She tells the nurse, “I am overwhelmed by all of these problems and I do not know what to work on first.”
Which nursing action is most appropriate?
a) Rank the problems with the patient, weighing what matters most to her against clinical urgency
b) Treat every chronic condition as equally urgent so that none of them ends up being neglected
c) Work only on the heart failure, since that is the reason for the admission
d) Begin with the least serious problem so that an early success builds the patient's confidence

06. Two weeks after an older adult came home from hospital, her son tells the visiting nurse, “I can manage the cooking, but I cannot also run the appointments, the prescriptions, and the oxygen equipment.”
Which nursing action is most appropriate?
a) Advise him to start with whichever task feels easiest and let the others wait for now
b) Assess how much strain he is carrying and bring in services to cover the tasks he cannot
c) Assess the medication schedule only, since equipment and appointments matter less to the outcome
d) Explain that once discharge orders are written, coordinating care sits outside the nursing role

07. An 83-year-old with hypertension and osteoarthritis tells the nurse, “I only take my blood pressure pills when I feel pressure in my head.”
Which risk should the nurse identify most directly?
a) A belief that the medicine is for symptoms, since she doses only when she feels something
b) An adverse effect that makes the patient skip doses between episodes of headache
c) A cost barrier, which the patient is managing by dosing only when symptoms appear
d) An age-related change in symptom perception that makes intermittent dosing reasonable at this age

08. A resident with dementia stands at the locked door of the unit each afternoon, tries the handle repeatedly, and becomes distressed when he cannot open it. He was a postal worker for forty years and his wife visited in the afternoons before she died.
Which intervention is most appropriate?
a) Increase the frequency with which staff check the door area, and redirect him away whenever he approaches it
b) Fit a discreet alarm to the door so that staff are alerted immediately if he succeeds in opening it
c) Explain to him each time that the door is locked for his safety and that he cannot go out
d) Offer him a purposeful afternoon activity that draws on his working life, and make the door less of a focus

09. An 85-year-old who takes eleven medications says at her first visit after a hospital stay, “The list changed so much that I no longer know what I am supposed to be taking.”
Which nursing action is most appropriate?
a) Go through the containers with the patient and her daughter, naming what changed and why
b) Print the discharge list and give her a copy, since the record holds what she should take
c) Advise her to resume anything she is unsure about until the clinic can confirm the list
d) Ask her to raise the question at her next clinic appointment, where the list can be sorted out

10. Over several weeks a nurse notices that residents transferred back from the hospital arrive without their updated medication lists on more than half of occasions. Each time, staff telephone the hospital and reconstruct the list.
Which action is most appropriate?
a) Raise the issue with the hospital nurses, at the time of the next transfer, and ask them to fix it
b) Report each occurrence as an individual safety event
c) Record the frequency and the consequences, and bring the pattern to the group that can change the transfer process
d) Continue to telephone the hospital on each occasion, since this resolves the problem for the resident concerned

Answers:

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Note: These sample questions are not official exam questions and are intended only for familiarization and study purposes. If you find any typos or data entry errors in these ANCC Gerontological Nursing Certification (GERO-BC) sample questions, please let us know by emailing us at feedback@medicoexam.com