cpr requirements???

Nurses General Nursing

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Are there any requirements on rns to maintain their cpr certification? Where i work the hospital cancelled all classes and told us we have a 6 month grace period after our certification expires. are hospitals required to provide cpr training to nurses? What happens (legally) if nurse performs cpr during the "6 month grace period"? Any thoughts??

Thanks,jama

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What do you think, sweetie, somebody going to nail you for resuscitating someone? Seriously, everywhere I've worked there is a grace period. I have never heard of any problems with that. Unless it's in your contract, I don't believe hospitals are required to provide training, although almost everyplace I've ever worked does. It is our responsibility to keep our certification current.

I found out- horrifying as it is- that the floor nurses where I work are not even required to have BLS. It doesn't seem legal- but the code team is supposed to do their resuscuitations. My question was of course, what if the code team is busy (coding someone else?) Does this seem right to you all?

If I were doing legal research, I would say it doesn't meet standard of care for most states.

Specializes in Critical Care,Recovery, ED.

All RN's at our facility,who are involved in direct patient care,are required to be cpr certified.The hospital holds classes on premises to allow for the certification. There are enough certified instructors among our own RN staff so that all instruction/recertification occurs on site.

At one time only critical care/er Rn's neded to be certified.Our Union was able to change that during negotiations, all RN's are required to be certified but the Hospital will pay for the expenses of obtaining and maintaining certification.

Where I work, all people involved in patient care..Rn's, LPN's, CNA's, OT,PT, lab, medical imaging, tech's, are required to have their cpr certs. The hospital pays for this. Any other employee that wants to take the CPR class will have it payed for by the hospital also.

As for ACLS, all RN's are required to take the class, the hospital also pays for this. They usually put the RN's through the class after they have been employed there for 1 yr. I think they figure if the RN has stayed ther for one yr, there is less of a chance that the RN will leave after getting ACLS certified.

I don't think it is legal either- but we have passed our JACHO every year with commendation, as well as our state inspection, level one trauma inspection. Very strange. I'll have to look up the rationale.

JCAHO states that there must be "adequate number of staff" present to perform the necessary job skills or functions. If it only takes two people to do CPR on one patient then only 2 out of the whole unit need be cpr certified. It is up to the individual institutions to determine what is deemed "adequate" for their facility. Hence you passed your inspection with commendation.

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Specializes in NICU, Infection Control.

At our hospital, anyone w/direct pt. contact MUST be CPR certified. NICU nurses must also be certified in Neonatal Resucitation (NRP); Neonatal Resp Care practitioners are certified in CPR, NRP, and PALs; even the Attendings are required to keep their certifications up-to-date. Everyone must be recertified on time, or they can't work until they are, and the Heart Assn makes you take the whole thing over instead of re-cert if you are late!!

Peds ICU, IMU, and floor RNs are all CPR and PALS certified; adult ICUs likewise.

Our hospital is very strict about all this, and I think that is the standard through the community (San Diego), but I don't know.

Before our babies are discharged, the parents are taught infant CPR, too!

I am an Instructor Trainer for the American Heart Association. The JCAHO standards state that all staff in contact with patients are required to "have CPR training.' If your training is with the AHA, an expired status means that you have to attend a full Healthcare Provider course to regain provider status.

If the JCAHO mandates that you have CPR trainin, personally I would maintain my CPR my status for my own protection and skill.

If the standard of care in your community is to have American Heart CPR training, you should do the same or risk breaching the standard of care.

All of our nurses and employees taking care of kids and adults have Healthcare provider, nsg assts and unit secretaries have Heartsaver, courier and security will have Heartsaver AED...Good luck....Iris Trahan, RN CCRN ([email protected]

In reference to your question, if you let your CPR license expire, you will need to take a full day to recertify.....whereas if you recertify before your license expires, you may be able to take the cpr marathon, which is only 4 hours...........

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Specializes in Critical Care, Emergency, Education, Informatics.

The JCAHO rulling only applies to hospitals that subscribe. There is a growing number of rural hospital that are giving up JCAHO and only going with HCFA (or whatever they are calling themselves now)

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