By Pat Comoss RN, BS, MAACVPR; Jill Fox RN-BC, BSN, FAACVPR; Ruth Akers RN, BSN MHA, MAACVPR 

Each May, America dedicates one week to celebrate the valuable contributions of nurses, who have always been and continue to be at the forefront as medicine and health care evolve and reach new heights. That includes, in the 1970s, our role in helping shape what was then a new clinical entity called outpatient cardiac rehabilitation (CR).¹

Our expertise in managing cardiac patients was invaluable in those early days, when the tradition of bed rest produced fear of movement among both heart attack patients and their physicians. Fast forward to today’s cardiac care world: nurses are still the most common staff members providing CR services across the country. Now, as many of the pioneers in this niche retire, 21^st century nurses stepping into established rehab programs are asking for clearer definition and direction of role expectations. What exactly is the nurse’s role in contemporary cardiac rehabilitation? 

While job descriptions vary from one program or state to another, the answer begins to form by considering what the nurse’s role is not.

It is not a job assignment confined to a single task in the rehab suite.

• Just sitting behind a telemetry monitor watching for rare changes in cardiac rhythms is an underuse of nursing skills.
• Just performing initial assessments on new patients, but not being involved in their daily care as they progress through weeks of rehab, is short-sighted.
• And just processing referral paperwork while being on standby in case of an urgent/emergent situation in the gym is a failure to fully leverage the talents of today’s nurses.

Yes, all of those functions are part of the rehab routine but there is so much more a nurse can and should be doing to become a total cardiac rehab professional! So, where does a newly hired CR nurse begin to shape his/her own job description? Discussions with a number of nurses who have been a living part of the evolution of cardiac rehab — some for decades — suggest a three-part answer: 

1. Recognize the general strengths your nursing background brings to your new rehab role while acknowledging the specific rehab knowledge and skills you lack. Conduct your own self-assessment using AACVPR’s Core Competency categories.²  While there are many sub-parts to each category, in general the results might look something like Table 1 below. And surprise — you’re halfway there! You already have substantial knowledge and skill in five of the 10 key CR care areas! 
2. Look for expert resources and evidence-based guidelines applicable to cardiac rehab to learn and use as the basis of your expanding professional identity. Set your own professional goals and make a plan to achieve them. For example, if knowledge of exercise physiology and exercise prescription is like a foreign language to you, start to listen and learn to use that language from the more experienced staff in your own program. Then, fill in your own knowledge gaps by seeking out proven resources for self-study. Table 3 suggests a few AACVPR resources frequently accessed by nurses on their way to becoming a more complete rehab professional. 
3. Discuss how you can apply your strengths in the rehab environment with your new colleagues. For example, patient assessment is a strong nursing skill. In the rehab unit, patient assessment is not just an initial evaluation of a new patient’s status — it includes the functions listed in Table 2.³ Ask and answer when and how you are expected to conduct or contribute to those functions. 

In 2026, the role of nurses in cardiac rehab is bigger and broader than ever before. Nurses in today’s CR positions make it so. Through their own personal efforts and professional development goals, they have become experts in this still-young field of practice. And they are not just nurses who happen to be working in cardiac rehab today; they are self-made specialists who have chosen this field. They have traveled the path carved out by their predecessors of 50+ years ago and have emerged as full-service CR providers. Cardiac rehab programs and practice are better because nurses are still part of it.  

Pat Comosss, RN, BS, MAACVPR, is a past president of AACVPR. Today, she remains an active leader within the TSSCVPR (Tri-State) affiliate while also running her own CR consulting agency. Comoss recently celebrated 50 years as a cardiac rehab nurse.  

Jill Fox, RN-BC, BSN, FAACVPR, has 43 years of nursing experience. She is a former co-chair of AACVPR’s education committee and past member of the Professional Certification Commission. Having served in multiple board positions with Tri-State, Fox remains highly engaged in affiliate activities.

Ruth Akers, RN, BSN, MHA, MAACVPR, is AACVPR Secretary of the Board, editor of AACVPR’s News & Views content platform, and an active leader at Tri-State. She was Director of the Bryn Mawr Hospital Cardiac Rehab program for 40 years before retiring.

The authors will delve further into this topic during a session at the AACVPR 41^st Annual Meeting taking place in San Antonio, Texas, this September 30–October 2.

REFERENCES

1. Comoss PM, Burke EA, Swails SH. Cardiac Rehabilitation: A Comprehensive Nursing Approach. Philadelphia: JB Lippincott Company. 1979. 
2. AACVPR. Core Competencies for Cardiac Rehabilitation/Secondary Prevention Professional: 2010 Update. Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation and Prevention 2011; 31, 2-10. 
3. Fox, J. Patient Assessment Module: Staff Competencies for Core Components. Online series at www.aacvpr.org .