The College of Registered Psychiatric Nurses of Alberta (CRPNA) is the legislated regulatory body in which all Registered Psychiatric Nurses (RPN) in the province are regulated. The Health Professions Act (HPA 2000) and the Registered Psychiatric Nurses regulation (2005) set out the responsibilities of both the College (CRPNA) and the RPNs. This legislation sets out that CRPNA is responsible for governing RPNs in a manner that protects the public and serves the public interest. Meeting this expectation requires that registered psychiatric nurses be educated so that they are able to provide safe, competent and ethical psychiatric nursing care.
This document is designed to inform potential psychiatric nursing students, admission officers, nursing faculty, disability service providers and equity officers, and the public of the general demands and performance expectations of registered psychiatric nurses upon initial entry to practice in Alberta. Psychiatric nursing education prepares them with the foundational base necessary to be competent within the health care team and health care system. At the completion of the psychiatric nursing program all student psychiatric nurses must demonstrate the capacity to meet CRPNAs entry level competencies and be able to practice within the context of the CRPNA Standards of Psychiatric Nursing and Code of Ethics.
There are certain basic skills and abilities that are required to attain the entry to practice competences and these are called requisite skills and abilities for psychiatric nursing (RSAPN). Psychiatric nursing students gain the requisite skills and abilities through the progression of their nursing education program that prepares them for entry level competent practice. Graduation from an approved psychiatric nursing program does not automatically guarantee that you will meet the requirements to register as a psychiatric nurse.
REQUISITE SKILLS AND ABILITIES
The following eight categories set out the requisite basic skills and abilities required by psychiatric nursing students as they progress through the educational program and into entry level practice. These eight categories are considered fundamental in the provision of safe, competent and ethical psychiatric nursing practice.
- Cognitive
- Communication
- Interpersonal
- Behavioural
- Physical
- Sensory Perception
- Environmental
- Ethical and Legal
Cognitive abilities and mental processes are the brain-based skills needed to carry out any task from the simplest to the most complex. They have more to do with the mechanisms of how we learn, remember, problem-solve, and pay attention rather than with any actual knowledge. Any task can be broken down into the different cognitive skills.
In psychiatric nursing practice:
- Remember and recall information over a brief period of time *short term memory
- Remember and recall information over an extended period of time *long term memory
- Problem-solve to develop professional judgement
- Reason to develop professional judgment
- Exercise critical inquiry skills to develop professional judgment
- Demonstrate complex computation skills in order to add, subtract, multiply and divide, calculate ratios, percentages and apply algebraic equations
- Make complex decisions in order to prioritize and administer care
- Use effective communication skills in complex situations
- Deliver complex information effectively
- Identify and address actual and potential constraints to communication
- Evaluate effectiveness of communication in complicated situations
- Use information technology
- Lead and facilitate group discussions
- Give and receive feedback for performance improvement
- Use the principles and processes of open disclosure effectively
- Use and understand medical terminology
Understand the factors which influence the communicate process:
- Age, culture, ethnicity, education level, environment, gender, language, lifestyle, physical, psychological, religion/spirituality, social, socioeconomic status, special needs, timing, etc.
Read, write, speak and understand English well enough to avoid mixing up words and meanings.
- Develop professional therapeutic relationships and rapport with individuals and groups
- Recognizes the needs of clients and colleagues
- Maintain interpersonal boundaries
- Understands personal and professional boundaries and limitations and
- Address factors that inhibit therapeutic or working relationships
- Manage own behaviour well enough to provide safe, competent and ethical psychiatric nursing care
- Engage with self and others to create a safe environment
- Engage in self-reflection to understand their own response to situations
- Accept individual differences
- Take and provide direction
- Respond appropriately in situations that are stressful or that involve conflict
- Practice in a manner consistent with established patient safety policies and procedures
- React appropriately to giving and receiving physical touch and working in close proximity with a full range of clients.
- Provide care in an unpredictable environment
- Fulfill responsibility as part of a team
- Manage time appropriately
The ability to perform the following well enough to provide client care and participate in educational activities:
- Stand and maintain balance
- Manual dexterity
- Move within limited spaces
- Push and pull
- Perform repetitive movements
- Perform complex sequences of hand-eye coordination
- Bend
- Reach
- Lift
- Walk
- Climb
- Carry Objects
Able to perceive with each of the following senses well enough to provide care and participate in educational activities:
- Sight
- Hearing
- Touch
- Smell
The ability to function in the presence of each of the following commonly encountered and unavoidable environmental factors:
- Noxious smells
- Disease agents
- Distractions
- Noise
- Chemicals
- Unpredictable behaviour of others
Ethical and legal refers to the ability to operate within the frameworks of federal and provincial laws, and the ethical framework outlined by the College. Students in the psychiatric nursing program and RPNs in practice are required to:
- Demonstrate honesty, truthfulness, integrity and good character
- Understand clients’ rights and the importance of:
- Beneficence
- Non-maleficence
- Fidelity
- Integrity
- Respect for Autonomy
- Justice
- Informed Consent
- Equity
- Apology
- Equality
- Uphold client confidentiality and the right to personal information
- Uphold the laws, codes and principles that guide the profession of psychiatric nursing and
- Conduct behaviour in a manner consistent with provincial and federal laws.
If you feel you lack the skills and abilities required for admission to, or progression through, the psychiatric nursing education program contact the program. You may be able to negotiate reasonable accommodations with your educational institution that help you complete the program. However, meeting the requirements of your program with or without accommodations, does not automatically guarantee that you will meet the CRPNA’s requirements to register and practice as an RPN.
REGISTRATION REQUIREMENTS
Individuals who decide to pursue a career as a registered psychiatric nurse need to meet certain formal requirements for registration, including:
- Successful completion of a recognized (approved) psychiatric nursing program
- Passing the Registered Psychiatric Nurse of Canadian (RPNC) Examination
- Demonstrating that they possess the good character expected of a Registered Psychiatric Nurse
- Fitness to engage in the practice of psychiatric nursing
- Consent to a criminal record check
- Participation in the Continuing Competence Program
- English language proficiency
Further registration requirements can be found on the CRPNA website: New Registrations.
CONCLUSION
The requisite skills and abilities for psychiatric nurses outlined in this document represent those that are required for an individual to meet the entry to practice competencies of a Registered Psychiatric Nurse. For more information go to www.crpna.ab.ca or contact the CRPNA at 1.877.234.7666 or 1.780.434.7666.
Thank you to the College of Registered Psychiatric Nurses of Manitoba for their permission to use their work to update the CRPNA's existing document.
Thank you to the earlier work of the College of Registered Nurses of British Columbia, the College of Registered Nurses of Manitoba, and the College and Association of Registered Nurses of Alberta who provided their permission to utilize their document and work to help create this document.
Happy National Nursing Week 2025
May 12, 2025Practice Direction – Medication Management
February 1, 2025
