(Montreal) The adoption of the new version of the Act respecting end-of-life care, earlier this month, has not only expanded access to medical assistance in dying. It has also made it possible to permanently expand the field of practice of nurses.
“Everyone was waiting for this! “, rejoices the president of the Order of Nurses of Quebec (OIIQ), Luc Mathieu.
At the height of the pandemic, when medical resources were stretched and the healthcare system was forced to adapt day by day, nurses were allowed to witness deaths. An act previously reserved for doctors.
This authorization to certify deaths, enshrined in a ministerial decree dated April 10, 2020, remained in force for almost two years until it ended in April 2022.
When this act was taken away from the nurses, several stakeholders in the health network were disappointed, according to Luc Mathieu, because it brought “fluidity” to the procedure in the field.
The arrival of the bill to amend the Act respecting end-of-life care and other legislative provisions offered a perfect opportunity to perpetuate the addition of this act to the scope of practice of nurses. This was done and made official with its adoption on June 7th.
The law thus came to modify articles 122 and 123 of the Civil Code of Quebec to allow nurses to certify deaths and sign the documentation confirming it.
“It will avoid all sorts of problems,” says Luc Mathieu.
“Sometimes there were bodies of deceased patients that had to be taken to emergency room garages waiting for a doctor to come and sign the documents,” he says, relieved to know that will be a thing of the past. .
It is also a victory for the OIIQ, which had long wanted its members to be able to certify deaths. Nurses already have this skill. There is therefore no additional training issue. They will simply be able to contribute in a new way.
In a press release issued on the occasion of the adoption of the law, the order indicated that a nurse authorized to “evaluate the physical and mental condition of a symptomatic person […] may, within the framework of this evaluation, conclude that a clinical death has been made”.
At the same time, nurses are responsible for declaring said deaths to the Registrar of Civil Status and to public health as required by law.
This authorization to certify deaths applies at all times, which means both in hospitals, accommodation centers or private residences in the case of home care, for example.
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