Qualified nurses allowed to prescribe some medication from today

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Registered nurses can now train to be allowed to prescribe some medications in partnership with an authorised health practitioner. The change was approved by the government last year in an effort to address critical shortages in the workforce particularly in rural and remote areas. The Australian Medical Association is supportive of the plan but wants the most addictive drugs to be excluded from the list of medicines registered nurses can prescribe.

Transcript

00:00We recognise the unique and valuable skills that nurses and nurse practitioners bring

00:05to our communities.

00:07I work together in many clinical settings and so do many of my colleagues.

00:12I guess the concern is with partnership prescribing is the changes is once there are multiple

00:17health professionals involved in a patient's care offering same or similar services, it

00:22reduces the opportunity for coordinated and comprehensive care.

00:26So the risk of fragmentation is the concern here.

00:31Nurses and nurse practitioners should be working on top of their scope but we're really advocating

00:36for a multidisciplinary team approach that is GP-led, so in coordination with the general

00:41practitioner so that the approach and the quality of outcomes for the patients is safe.

00:47So in terms of ensuring that there are processes in place in coordinating with a regular GP or

00:52a team would be really important so that there is the continuity.

00:57You know, when we actually see a patient over a period of time, if there are risks of multiple

01:02prescribers, patients have to often remember to tell us what medications that are on and,

01:07you know, go through that process with them.

01:09So it's about, you know, having everyone under the one umbrella means that there's better

01:13outcomes for patients and less risk of any overdosing or mishap with the doses of medications.

01:18I appreciate, you know, the convenience factor is actually quite important and many of my

01:22patients, you know, probably would say yes, that's important but at the same time when

01:27we do do a script, it's about going through the process of, you know, ensuring it's the

01:31right medication, the right dose and the appropriate time frame that the patient is on.

01:35Long-term medications can be the same but equally so, the role of a GP is also to deprescribe medications

01:41when we feel it's actually not needed, reducing the risk of, you know, the risk of polypharmacy

01:47as it's called, multiple medications, increased risk of other conditions and we try to actually

01:52take patients off medications when they don't need it.

01:54So it's about a holistic approach.

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