Emergency Cardiac Care: Provincial Guidelines and Tools for Registered Nurses
The 2009 revisions to the Health Professions Act specify the following restricted activities under Section 6, which means that a registered nurse may carry out these actions without a physician’s order.
(1) A registrant in the course of practising nursing may...
(j) apply electricity for the purpose of defibrillation in the course of emergency cardiac care
(l) in respect of a drug specified in Schedule I of the Drug Schedules Regulation,
(i) compound the drug,
(ii) dispense the drug, or
(iii) administer the drug by any method
for the purposes of
(iv) treating …
(B) cardiac dysrhythmia
CRNBC has named Providence Health Care as the expert agency that develops and maintains documents outlining both the required competencies for nurses to carry out these activities safely, and also decision support tools to assist registered nurses in these activities. Follow the links below to view these documents.
- Core Competencies for Emergency Cardiac Care
- Emergency Cardiac Care Decision Support Tool #1
- Emergency Cardiac Care: Decision Support Tool #2
- Emergency Cardiac Care Decision Support Tool #3