Media

About The College of Registered Nurses of Alberta (CRNA)

The CRNA is a regulatory college under the Health Professions Act. Our role is to protect the public through setting standards of practice, issuing permits and maintaining a register, and addressing concerns regarding registrant professional practice.

Media Inquiries

For all inquiries, please use the form at the bottom of this page. We aspire to be as transparent as possible when answering questions, but please note that due to privacy regulations and data protection there is some information we are unable to provide.

Frequently Asked Questions

You can verify an individual's registration with the CRNA by using our Nurse Lookup Tool.

Our online verification service enables you to confirm if a nurse is eligible to practise in Alberta. The public search displays individuals with active permits to practise as a registered nurse or nurse practitioner in Alberta. Individuals that do not renew their permit, or for another reason do not have a permit, will not appear. The only other personal information that can be shared, about an individual who does not have an active permit, is on the disciplinary matters page.

Yes, anyone may register to attend a hearing. If you are interested, please contact us using the form below.

Hearings are open to the public; however, the hearing tribunal may order that all, or part, of the hearing be held in private. An application to close the hearing may be made by conduct counsel, the registrant’s representative, or the hearing tribunal itself.

During a hearing, a tribunal made up of public and registered members (registered nurses and nurse practitioners) will consider the evidence presented by the registrant and conduct counsel on behalf of the complaints director. Witnesses may or may not be called upon to testify. The hearing tribunal determines whether the behaviours in the allegations have been proven and whether those behaviours amount to unprofessional conduct as defined in the Health Professions Act (HPA).

The expected dates and durations for hearings can be viewed on our conduct hearing notices page.

At any time before, or at the start of, the Hearing, either party to the proceedings (being the registrant or the College) may submit a request to the hearing tribunal. Requests are often for procedural matters, such as whether the hearing is in person or virtual, open or closed. When a specific request is made, the decision and reasons for both the request and the allegations of unprofessional conduct will be included in the final decision (decision of merits) on the website.

No, there are a variety of reasons that a complaint may result in a hearing. Hearings typically occur when the registrant and the CRNA are unable to come to an agreement regarding a complaint.

A Notice to Attend is a legal document that, as required under the Health Professions Act (HPA), sets a date for a hearing as well as provides details (called particulars) about an allegation of unprofessional conduct. These are posted to the CRNA website as they become available.

The number of facts (particulars) in a Notice to Attend varies depending on the subject matter and the number itself does not determine the seriousness of the alleged conduct. For example, in some cases details about specific times are important and in others not.

In either case, when the tribunal makes a finding on the alleged unprofessional conduct, they will specify how the particulars were considered in coming to that finding. The reasons will be included in the decision.

A hearing tribunal must deliver their written decision “within a reasonable time after the conclusion of a hearing”, in accordance with the Health Professions Act. A decision within a specific time frame is not required.

All publicly available information related to complaints and hearings is available on our website.