2014 Kentucky Revised Statutes CHAPTER 314 - REGISTERED NURSES -- PRACTICAL NURSES 314.181 Determination of death by registered nurses -- Protocol for registered nurses employed by ambulance services -- Procedures not deemed artificial maintenance of respiration and circulation.
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314.181 Determination of death by registered nurses -- Protocol for registered
nurses employed by ambulance services -- Procedures not deemed
artificial maintenance of respiration and circulation.
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A registered nurse who is employed by an ambulance service shall complete
training in determination of death and preservation of evidence as required by
the board through the promulgation of administrative regulations in accordance
with KRS Chapter 13A.
A registered nurse who is employed by an ambulance service shall determine
whether or not a patient served by the ambulance service is dead. The
registered nurse shall utilize the protocol specified by the board by
administrative regulations. The registered nurse shall, when responding to a
patient, first attempt resuscitation, unless the protocol indicates that the patient
is not capable of being resuscitated.
If it is determined that death has occurred in accordance with the procedures of
KRS 446.400(1) concerning patients whose circulation and respiration are not
being artificially maintained, the registered nurse who is employed by an
ambulance service may make the actual determination and pronouncement of
death.
When the determination and pronouncement of death of a patient whose
circulation and respiration are not being artificially maintained, as required
under KRS 446.400(1), occurs in a hospital or nursing facility, that declaration
may be made by a registered nurse, in addition to any other person permitted
by law to determine and pronounce death. The nurse shall notify the patient's
attending physician of the death in accordance with the hospital's or facility's
policy.
In the event that a registered nurse who is employed by an ambulance service
determines that a person is dead, the registered nurse shall make the
notifications required by KRS 72.020 and take the protective actions required
by that statute.
The administration of cardiopulmonary resuscitation or other basic life support
measures to the apparently dead person, prior to the arrival of the registered
nurse who is employed by an ambulance service, by any person shall not be
considered as artificial maintenance of respiration and circulation for the
purposes of this section and KRS 446.400. The administration of advanced
cardiac life support procedures by any person, other than a paramedic
rendering care pursuant to KRS 311A.180, prior to the arrival of the registered
nurse shall preclude the determination of death by the registered nurse, and
the provisions of KRS 446.400 shall apply. Nothing in this section shall
preclude the supervising physician from directing the registered nurse who is
employed by an ambulance service to cease resuscitative efforts under
approved agency medical protocols.
The resuscitative efforts of a nurse under protocols authorized by this section
shall not invoke the provisions of KRS 446.400.
Effective:July 15, 2002
History: Amended 2002 Ky. Acts ch. 211, sec. 41, effective July 15, 2002. -Amended 2000 Ky. Acts ch. 62, sec. 1, effective July 14, 2000; and ch. 391,
sec. 20, effective July 14, 2000. -- Created 1998 Ky. Acts ch. 497, sec. 2,
effective July 15, 1998.
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