CareAide PrepClinical terms used in HCA exam questions
Exam questions use clinical vocabulary without explaining it. If a term costs you a question, it was never the nursing knowledge that failed.
- Ambulation
- The act of walking or moving from place to place.
- Palliative
- Care focused on providing relief from the symptoms and stress of a serious illness.
- Aspiration
- The accidental breathing in of food or fluid into the lungs.
- Supine
- Lying horizontally with the face and torso facing up.
- Prone
- Lying horizontally with the face and torso facing down.
- Voiding
- The process of emptying the bladder of urine.
- Cyanosis
- A bluish discoloration of the skin resulting from poor circulation or inadequate oxygenation of the blood.
- Dyspnea
- Difficult or labored breathing.
- Edema
- Swelling caused by excess fluid trapped in your body's tissues.
This list is deliberately short and holds only the terms our own glossary defines. We would rather publish nine definitions we stand behind than pad the page with wording nobody checked.
English is an additional language for a substantial share of Alberta HCA candidates. If a question reads as impossible, check first whether one unfamiliar word is doing the damage — that is usually the whole problem, and it is a fixable one.
Common questions
What clinical terms appear on the Alberta HCA exam?
Alberta HCA exam questions use everyday clinical vocabulary without defining it, including terms such as ambulation, aspiration, cyanosis, dyspnea, edema, palliative, prone, supine and voiding.