A position statement on resuscitation by all levels of nurse. Confederation of Australian Critical Care Nurses Inc

As part of its brief, the CACCN Inc. Advanced Life Support (ALS) Subcommittee has been reviewing and compiling a national policy for education in ALS for nurses. We believe this is an appropriate pursuit, since critical care nurses are at the forefront of practice in this area and also care for patients receiving life-saving interventions. One of the Subcommittee's concerns is the lack of a uniform approach to the issue of resuscitation across the nursing community, despite the broad applicability of such skills to many of the diverse settings in which nurses practice. The following is a position statement aimed at setting a precedent for both Basic and Advanced Life Support practice and education in the Australian nursing context. We have distributed the statement widely to stimulate debate and, eventually, a broader acceptance of this competency for nurses. We look forward to your comments.