Recognition by healthcare professionals

First Aid & CPR Wisconsin

In health care, keeping your skills current is central to protecting patients. In Wisconsin, registered and licensed practical nurses renew without a fixed course-hour standard, while support staff face first-aid and CPR requirements set by assisted-living rules and employers. Here is what the rules expect for your role — and how recognized, up-to-date, documented training meets it.

Health professionals: continuing education and up-to-date skills

Registered and licensed practical nurses in Wisconsin renew their licence through the Wisconsin Board of Nursing. The state does not impose a continuing-education hour count on RNs and LPNs; only advanced practice nurses with prescriptive authority must complete continuing education.

Under Wisconsin's nursing regulations, a nurse remains accountable for maintaining the knowledge and skills that safe practice requires — including the ability to respond to a clinical emergency and to initiate basic life-saving measures — even where no specific course-hour count is imposed.

Wisconsin does not impose a state-wide mandatory continuing-education hour standard for registered and licensed practical nurses: only advanced practice nurses with prescriptive authority need 16 contact hours per 2-year cycle. Keeping resuscitation and first-aid skills current is still expected and is employer-driven; because there is no CE-hour mandate for RNs and LPNs, a CPR course meets an employer or facility standard rather than a licensure CE requirement.

The requirement is met by any recognized continuing-education activity on an eligible topic. CPR/AED, ACLS (advanced cardiovascular life support) and PALS are among the eligible activities; other topics also qualify (for example safe prescribing, suicide prevention or violence prevention). A single course therefore both meets the obligation and counts toward your hours — provided you keep the proof.

Eligible courses offered in your region

How training becomes recognized

Not all activities are equal. For continuing education to be recognized by a professional order, it must meet specific criteria:

  • the instructor’s competence;
  • the relevance and quality of the content;
  • the training framework;
  • the quality of the material provided;
  • mechanisms to monitor and assess participation.

Our training is designed to meet these criteria.

Rigorous online learning

Our training draws on the latest medical research and combines practical modules with a theoretical assessment. The resulting certification is credible and verifiable — presentable to your professional order and to your employer — and prepares you to excel in your practice.

Support and care staff: a certificate required to work

A CPR and first-aid course does not replace occupational training — it is added to it. To work with vulnerable people, a valid first-aid certificate is often required in addition to your professional training.

For support staff, Wisconsin assisted-living rules (CBRF, DHS 83.20) require every employee to complete first-aid and choking-relief training within 90 days of hire; CPR is not expressly state-mandated but is required by many home-care employers — in addition to the caregiver or nurse-aide training. A recognized standalone first-aid and CPR certificate meets those requirements and must be kept current to stay valid.

See the recognized training for this role

Attestation, certificate and invoice: proof your training is recognized

On successful completion, you receive:

  • an official attestation;
  • a certificate of completion;
  • a detailed invoice;
  • online access to your documents for as long as your certification remains valid.

These documents are the proof to present to your professional order to credit your hours, or to your employer to demonstrate your compliance.

For organizations: keep your team compliant

When the certificate is an employer requirement, the real challenge is tracking. Our organization system manages a team’s training: a certification dashboard, deadline tracking, automatic renewal reminders and proof archiving. An organization keeps its whole staff current without watching every date by hand.

Training aligned with the latest emergency-care standards

Our CPR, AED and first-aid training is developed in line with the most recent international guidelines for emergency cardiovascular care and first aid.

We rigorously follow the recommendations of ILCOR (International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation), the international body responsible for the scientific evaluation and development of global resuscitation standards. These recommendations serve as a reference for health organizations, institutions and professional orders worldwide — and are updated as scientific and clinical evidence evolves.

Keep your skills current with confidence

Every intervention can make a difference. Keeping CPR and emergency-care skills current is both a professional requirement and a responsibility toward patients, colleagues and the public.

See all health-care courses

References

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