March 27, 2023
The College of Registered Nurses of Alberta's (CRNA) Council and the Government of Alberta have approved amendments to the Registered Nurses Profession Regulation, which come into force on March 31, 2023.
These amendments are part of the ongoing work relating to Bill 46, the Health Statutes Amendment Act, 2020 (No. 2), which introduced changes to the Health Professions Act (HPA). Many changes were related to the mandated separation of college and association functions, and the CRNA has already completed this work. Since then, the CRNA has focused on the remaining Bill 46 requirements that affect the Registered Nurses Profession Regulation, and the CRNA's bylaws and standards of practice. These final changes will all come into force on March 31, 2023.
In general, Bill 46 amendments move a number of requirements outlined in the Registered Nurses Profession Regulation out of the regulation into the HPA itself, the bylaws or the standards of practice.
Continuing competence program: The requirement for the CRNA to have a continuing competence program will not change. Rather, the details of the continuing competence program will be moved out of the Registered Nurses Profession Regulation into a standard of practice. This gives the CRNA more flexibility in the way the continuing competence program is designed and implemented. Changes can be made to the continuing competence program with approval by Council, rather than through amendments to the Registered Nurses Profession Regulation that require government approval.
Registration requirements: The changes also give the CRNA more flexibility in establishing how applicants and registrants can meet certain registration requirements. The requirements listed below will be moved out of the Registered Nurses Profession Regulation into bylaws. Similar to the continuing competence program, this means that Council will be able to approve changes to these requirements, rather than needing approval from government. The following registration requirements will now be in bylaws:
Regulatory processes: Processes that all health professions have in common are also being removed from the Registered Nurses Profession Regulation and other health professions' regulations. Starting March 31, 2023, these items will be moved into the HPA:
Restricted activities: The restricted activities authorized for each profession will be moved out of individual profession regulations into the new Health Professions Restricted Activity Regulation that also comes into effect on March 31, 2023. There will be no changes to the restricted activities authorized for each profession with this update.
Standards of practice, bylaws and governance policies: All updates to bylaws, governance policies and standards of practice resulting from remaining Bill 46 requirements will be published on our website when the legislative amendments come into force on March 31. For more details on how legislation guides the CRNA's work, see the Legislation page.