The introduction of the Medicines Amendment Bill 2011 is prompting a consultation document to be released on extended nurse prescribing in the new year.
The bill, one of the very last to be introduced to parliament prior to the election, includes nurse prescribing reforms announced by health minister Tony Ryall earlier in the year.
This includes a long-awaited amendment to give nurse practitioners and optometrists the same authorised prescriber status as midwives, dentists and medical practitioners.
It also introduces a new category of delegated prescriber allowing health professionals like registered nurses to prescribe under a “delegated prescribing order” issued by an authorised prescriber.
The sector has mixed feelings about whether the delegated prescriber role will meet workforce needs to develop flexible and innovative expanded nursing roles.
Some had wanted nurses to be eligible to seek “designated prescriber” status, which is what nurse practitioners’ currently have.
The bill proposes that regulatory authorities like the Nursing Council can apply to the health minister to have a “a class” of registered health professionals granted delegated prescribing rights.
An authorised prescriber could then issue a delegated prescribing order to a member of that “class” to allow them to prescribe as allowed under that order.
The bill also creates a mechanism to allow time-limited demonstration sites or pilots of extended prescribing rights, like those carried out for prescribing by diabetes nurse specialists.
The Nursing Council has said the new bill’s introduction has seen the council working with the Ministry of Health and professional organisations in readiness to consult on extended nurse prescribing. The consultation document is expected to be released for comment sometime in the
new year.
