Nurses and pharmacists to prescribe
Discussion
Einion Yrth said:
Rather depends on what was being prescribed, and what for.
The proposition is that they can prescribe almost anything.....
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/442
Seems a bit too much like the whole "Community Support Officers" idea for cheap policing but with something even more important. I suppose if they were just doling out repeat prescriptions it wouldn't be so bad but surely there is a reason why doctors are trained as well as they are?
ADDYBOY1982 said:
The whole PCSO thing didn't work for the police, so unless the nurses are just doling out repeat prescriptions instead of the doc themselves signing it, then I'd be against it. Nurses have enough to do as it is without giving them more tasks.
Nope, the govt wants them to autonomously prescribe almost any medication, despite them having had no training in pharmacology. If the nurses actually did nursing, rather than every other area, under the sun, patient care may well improve.
968 said:
The whole PCSO thing didn't work for the police, so unless the nurses are just doling out repeat prescriptions instead of the doc themselves signing it, then I'd be against it. Nurses have enough to do as it is without giving them more tasks.
Nope, the govt wants them to autonomously prescribe almost any medication, despite them having had no training in pharmacology. If the nurses actually did nursing, rather than every other area, under the sun, patient care may well improve.
Mrs FiF is a dispensing wossname, forget exact title, not a pharmacist anyway.
Both she and her pharmacist think this proposed rule is boll.... err dangerous to say the least and frankly I agree. One statement I heard was that pharmacists etc will be allowed to prescribe anything except class A drugs.
I'm no doctor but from what I can see you can make an utter balls up of trying to sort something as common as hypertension out.
Absolutely anything we do is invasive. I'm no dummy (at least I try to think so) but I had a look at one of the simple pharmacology books, and my gast was duly flabbered.
More HMG kite flying perchance? Another silly story to hide another of Blunkett's indiscretions?
Cynical? Moi?
Edited to add, I read the BBC story, and saw Hewitt was involved, ah well the feckwittedness all makes sense now I think about it. One more for the wall come the revolution...
>> Edited by Flat in Fifth on Thursday 10th November 12:52
Be really usefull for repeats...
I'm a diabetic so every 2 months I have to drop a prescription in to the doctors, pick it up 2 days later then get it filled. Seeing as the doctors is monday-friday 9-5, it's a pain involving dropping the script in along with a SAE.
If boots can sigh it off and save me the cost of a stamp and the hassle, then I'd be happy. Especially if I'd left it late and run out...
I'm a diabetic so every 2 months I have to drop a prescription in to the doctors, pick it up 2 days later then get it filled. Seeing as the doctors is monday-friday 9-5, it's a pain involving dropping the script in along with a SAE.
If boots can sigh it off and save me the cost of a stamp and the hassle, then I'd be happy. Especially if I'd left it late and run out...
We have a prescribing nurse at our practice.
You see her if you have a sniffle, sore ankle, a bit of a cough. etc
Anything more than that she will get a doctor to advise.
If it is something serious you go straight to the doctor.
It works well as you get to see a doctor quickly or can get some man flu pills with out the queue
You see her if you have a sniffle, sore ankle, a bit of a cough. etc
Anything more than that she will get a doctor to advise.
If it is something serious you go straight to the doctor.
It works well as you get to see a doctor quickly or can get some man flu pills with out the queue
There is one other thing you need to bear in mind - all patients in primary care are registered with the GP and not the nurse so whoever gives the care is ultimately responsible to the GP. If the Nurse makes a mistake it will be the GP who gets sued. Hence GPs will only devolve responsibility to those who are competent to do so.
I've worked with a number of nurses who have undertaken the training course in recent years and although it doesn't sound much it is perfectly adequate to reach a substantial level of competence. Even though GPs go through substantially more training overall, very little is directly related to prescribing.
I've worked with a number of nurses who have undertaken the training course in recent years and although it doesn't sound much it is perfectly adequate to reach a substantial level of competence. Even though GPs go through substantially more training overall, very little is directly related to prescribing.
Plotloss said:
One statement I heard was that pharmacists etc will be allowed to prescribe anything except class A drugs.
Mind you, to be fair, most people who prescribe Class A pharmacueticals dont have any training, in anything...
[Eric Morecambe]
There's no answer to that.
[/Eric Morecambe]
alternatively to paraphrase the Andrew Preview sketch.....
[Eric Morecambe]
I'm prescribing all the right medicines, but not necessarily to the correct patients.
[/Eric Morecambe]
Mrs zcacogp is a pharmacist at a major London teaching hospital. She runs one of the specialist departmental pharmacies there.
Because she is a pharmacist, and has spent all her working career working with and learning about drugs, the way that they behave and the effect they have on people, she knows far more about these drugs than most of the doctors. Hence, she spends alot of her time making recommendations to doctors about what to prescribe, checking to make sure that the right thing is being prescribed and monitoring the effect it is having on the patient - not to mention the interaction with other drugs being prescribed. She can't actually write the prescriptions herself, but given that she does all the intellectual work behind them, why shouldn't she?
(In practice, the doctor is acting as the gateway for the prescription - if it goes wrong, they are the one that gets sued, but the pharmacist would carry the can.)
OK, not all pharmacists are as senior or as knowledgable, and I haven't read the BBC article, but it sounds like a good idea to me ...
Oli.
Because she is a pharmacist, and has spent all her working career working with and learning about drugs, the way that they behave and the effect they have on people, she knows far more about these drugs than most of the doctors. Hence, she spends alot of her time making recommendations to doctors about what to prescribe, checking to make sure that the right thing is being prescribed and monitoring the effect it is having on the patient - not to mention the interaction with other drugs being prescribed. She can't actually write the prescriptions herself, but given that she does all the intellectual work behind them, why shouldn't she?
(In practice, the doctor is acting as the gateway for the prescription - if it goes wrong, they are the one that gets sued, but the pharmacist would carry the can.)
OK, not all pharmacists are as senior or as knowledgable, and I haven't read the BBC article, but it sounds like a good idea to me ...
Oli.
If I consider the last ten surgery visits for my family and I, then I would say at least half of them could have been delt with by a practice nurse with the authority to prescribe.
Also, I recall our local midwife visiting Mrs Piper a few days after child birth. The midwife decided she needed antibiotics and phoned the GP to get the precription issued. We would have been happy for her to have prexcribed them herself.
The article states it would be the most experienced Nurses and Pharmacists that would receive the training and authority to do this. So clearly it's not a case of every nurse in every hospital suddenly getting a prescription pad and a pen.
So if properly controlled I wouldn't have a problem with it.
pp
Also, I recall our local midwife visiting Mrs Piper a few days after child birth. The midwife decided she needed antibiotics and phoned the GP to get the precription issued. We would have been happy for her to have prexcribed them herself.
The article states it would be the most experienced Nurses and Pharmacists that would receive the training and authority to do this. So clearly it's not a case of every nurse in every hospital suddenly getting a prescription pad and a pen.
So if properly controlled I wouldn't have a problem with it.
pp
Gassing Station | The Pie & Piston Archive | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff