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New Services at Select Saskatchewan Pharmacies

On January 22, 2025, select pharmacies began providing treatment for pharyngitis and acute otitis media. The aim for this Ministry of Health initiative is to improve health outcomes by increasing timely access to care, and foster collaboration across the system to utilize health care resources most effectively. NPs and RN(AAP)s may provide follow-up care to patients who have been treated by pharmacists. Understanding the process and knowing where to find documentation is important for continuity of care.

Pharmacists must comply with all program requirements, including mandatory training, utilizing expert reviewed guidelines with a structured approach to patient assessment, prescribing and documentation. Pharmacist’s assessment and follow-up is documented in the Pharmacist Assessment Record (PAR). Pharmacists must provide the completed PAR to the patient’s primary health care provider (if they have one) when prescribing and when performing a Group A Streptococcus (GAS) point-of-care test (POCT).

Pharmacists must capture all assessment and GAS POCT results electronically into the pharmacy information program (PIP). Electronic results are not captured in the eHR Viewer’s Laboratory tab but will display in the PIP or the eHR Viewer’s Medication tab. For more information about the PIP or the eHR Viewer access please visit:

Additional information:

CRNS Practice and Education Nursing Advisors are available to answer your questions. They can be contacted by phone at 1.800.667.9945 or 306.359.4227 or by email at practiceadvice@crns.ca.

External Consultation: Code of Conduct

The College of Registered Nurses of Saskatchewan (CRNS), in collaboration with other nursing regulatory bodies across Canada, is replacing the Canadian Nurses Association (CNA) Code of Ethics, 2017 with a Code of Conduct document. The CNA Code of Ethics, 2017 is considered aspirational and will continue to be available as a guide for nurses. 

The CRNS’s mandate is to protect the public through the regulation of RNs, RN(AAP)s and NPs. To further support this mandate, the CRNS has drafted the Code of Conduct that outlines the expectations of registrants to maintain professionalism, competence and ethical behavior to deliver safe client care. All RNs, RN(AAP)s and NPs will be expected to comply with the CRNS Code of Conduct.

As part of the external consultation process, the CRNS is seeking feedback on the Code of Conduct document from registrants and external partners, including the public. Please complete the following survey by Thursday, February 13, 2025 at 4 pm.

Code of Conduct Document for Review
Code of Conduct Feedback Survey

Questions or comments are welcome and can be directed to Catharine Wirth at cwirth@crns.ca

Anti-Racism Guideline

The CRNS is pleased to announce the release of the Anti-Racism Guideline, approved by CRNS Council on November 6, 2024.

The guideline defines individual and systemic racism experienced by Indigenous Peoples, people of color, visible minorities and co-workers. The guideline speaks to cultural humility and cultural safety and how RNs, NPs and RN(AAP)s practice cultural humility and provide culturally safe care to clients.

The guideline provides tools and strategies such as the CPR RACISM framework and the 4Ds Model of Intervention that RNs, NPs and RN(AAP)s can use to address racism in their workplace. Both provide actions that one can take when witnessing racist behaviors. 

Taking action when racist behaviors happen can be difficult if skills in this area have not been developed. This video has been developed to provide ideas for developing skills and using the CPR RACISM framework in nursing practice.

Watch the CPR Racism: A Guide to Address Racism in Health Care Video

CRNS Practice and Education Nursing Advisors are available to answer your questions or discuss specific situations. They can be contacted by phone at 1.800.667.9945 or 306.359.4227 or by email at practiceadvice@crns.ca.

Newly Updated Self-Employed Practice Guideline and the Aesthetic Nursing Resource

The CRNS is pleased to announce the release of the updated Self-Employed Practice Guideline that was approved by the CRNS Council on November 6, 2024. 

The guideline was updated to enhance the content related to the purpose of advertising and the professional responsibilities of self-employed CRNS registrants, including adding a compensation section. The guideline highlights that self-employed RNs and NPs comply with their practice standards, entry-level competencies, code of ethics, and practice within their legislated scope of practice and personal competence when providing care. 

The CRNS is also pleased to announce the release of the updated Aesthetic Nursing Resource.  

The resource was updated to enhance the clarity of the regulator requirements for CRNS registrants engaging in aesthetic nursing. It provides further guidance regarding advertising nursing services. This resource is a compilation of current CRNS guidelines and recommendations for registrants regarding aesthetic nursing and includes links to related information for RNs and NPs.

CRNS Practice and Education Nursing Advisors are available to answer your questions. They can be contacted by phone at 1.800.667.9945 or 306.359.4227 or by email at practiceadvice@crns.ca.

Joint Statement: Naltrexone Contraindicated with Opioid Agonist Therapy

Severe withdrawal has occurred in some cases where patients are prescribed Opioid Agonist Therapy with naltrexone. The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan (CPSS), College of Registered Nurses of Saskatchewan (CRNS), Saskatchewan College of Pharmacy Professionals (SCPP) and Registered Psychiatric Nurses Association of Saskatchewan (RPNAS) have created a joint statement with information to support registrants practicing in this clinical situation. The joint statement can be accessed here.

Nurse Practitioners with questions can reach out to oud@crns.ca.

Resolving Professional Practice Issues Update

The CRNS is pleased to announce the release of the updated Resolving Professional Practice Issues: A Toolkit for Registered Nurses/Nurse Practitioners that was approved by the CRNS Executive Director on August 27, 2024.

The resource was updated to include Nurse Practitioners (NP), NP Practice Standards and NP Entry-Level Competencies. Reviewing this document may help to support RNs and NPs when addressing professional practice issues. 

CRNS Practice and Education Nursing Advisors are available to answer your questions. They can be contacted by phone at 1.800.667.9945 or 306.259.4227 or by email at practiceadvice@crns.ca.

Clinical Decision Tool Updates and RN(AAP) Scope of Practice Reminder 

Updates to two Clinical Decision Tools (CDT) are effective October 1, 2024:

  • Urinary Tract Infection (Cystitis and Pyelonephritis): Adult has been updated and now requires immediate consultation for pregnant patients presenting with a suspected urinary tract infection (UTI). There are clinical decisions that go beyond the CDT that may be important when treating pregnant clients who seemingly have a UTI and therefore consultation is required. 
  • Atopic Dermatitis: Adult and Pediatric CDT has had examples of signs and symptoms of systemic infection added to the immediate consultation section.

Reminders regarding scope of practice for RN(AAP)s

  • The CDTs contain the additional actions that RN(AAP)s are authorized to take when permitted by the employer. RN(AAP)s are responsible for immediately consulting with a Nurse Practitioner (NP) or physician when required in a CDT. 
  • Outside of the CDTs, RN(AAP)s are practicing within the RN role and scope of practice and must consult with an NP or physician to be authorized to perform activities such as administering medications, ordering tests or determining a course of treatment. Examples of this are the care and treatment of people living with diabetes and other chronic health conditions or emergency situations. 
  • RN Clinical Protocols developed using the RN Specialty Practices framework can provide the authority to provide care for clients in situations outside of the CDTs. CDTs and RN Clinical Protocols together can support many situations an RN(AAP) may be presented with in their practice.

All CDTs can be accessed here. CRNS Practice & Education Nursing Advisors are available to answer your questions. They can be contacted by phone at 1.800.667.9945 or 306.359.4227 or by email at practiceadvice@crns.ca. 

Prescription Review Program Quality Initiative

Saskatchewan Nurse Practitioners (NPs) are authorized in accordance with provincial and federal legislation to prescribe and/or dispense drugs listed in Schedules I, II and III of The Drug Schedules Regulations, 1997, as amended from time to time. The CRNS participates in the Prescription Review Program (PRP) established in Saskatchewan, and all practicing NPs engage in a reflective practice assessment specific to PRP from time to time. The primary objective of the CRNS’s PRP is ensuring patient safety through safe prescribing practices. 

The Prescription Review Program quality initiative (QI) helps to confirm that the NP’s prescribing practice is aligned with the relevant standards and guidelines. Many NPs find the opportunity to reflect on their prescribing practice as a valuable investment. This program will be launching this fall and you may be randomly chosen to participate. More information can be accessed here (add link to webpage).

Questions can be directed to the PRP Nursing Advisor at prp@crns.ca.

Regulation Changes to support NPs to Admit and Discharge from Hospital and Perform Admission Assessments in Long-Term Care

On August 29, 2024, changes to the both The Attending Health Professionals Amendment Regulations and The Special-care Home Regulations were approved. The Orders in Council can be accessed here. The changes in these regulations provide the legislative authority for NPs to:

  • Admit and discharge a person as an in-patient; and,
  • Perform admission assessments for residents being admitted to a special-care home.

NPs require employer policies and processes and individual competence prior to adding these areas to their practice. Practice information about admitting and discharging from acute care can be found here.

Questions about this update can be directed to the Nursing Advisors, Practice & Education at practiceadvice@crns.ca or by calling 1-800-667-9945.

External Consultation Self-Employed Practice Guideline and Aesthetic Nursing Resource

The CRNS is updating advertising direction to its members who are self-employed and/or practice aesthetics nursing. The CRNS seeks feedback on two documents from members and external stakeholders, including the public, as part of the external consultation process. This process is in place to ensure relevant information is clearly presented. Feedback can be provided by accessing the following surveys and will be accepted until Friday, September 16, 2024, at 4:00 pm.

Self-Employed Practice Guideline Survey

Self-Employed Practice Guideline Survey

  • Please note, that the focus of this survey is to seek feedback on the advertising and compensation sections of the Guideline and did not include a full review of the document content, however, minor changes have been made throughout. A full review of the document will be coming up in the future.
  • For ease of providing feedback on the revised sections of the Guideline, in the survey these sections are required to answer(marked with an asterisk), and the other sections can be reviewed, and skipped if you have no further feedback.

Aesthetic Nursing Resource

Aesthetic Nursing Resource Survey

Questions or comments are welcome and can be directed to Shayna Moore at smoore@crns.ca and/or Virginia Deobald at vdeobald@crns.ca.

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