Helping ease the load off GPs and improving healthcare
access are benefits of Hawke’s Bay’s registered nurse
prescribing programme, says the first participant to
complete it.
Nursing Council of New Zealand last year
endorsed Te Whatu Ora – Health New Zealand, Te Matau a
Māui Hawke’s Bay to run the Registered Nurse Prescribing
in Community Health programme, which started in
January.
Twenty-seven registered nurses are enrolled
in the programme. Karamu High School Public Health Nurse
Fran Bayley is the first to gain the council’s approval to
prescribe about 80 medications to treat infections, sexual
health and other conditions.
Ms Bayley, 43, says the
programme broadens registered nurses’ scope, and helps
break down barriers between patients and primary
healthcare.
“It’s helping take the load off GPs
and improving equity and access for patients,” says Ms
Bayley, who works at Flaxmere Community Health clinic during
school holidays and also helps deliver school-based
immunisation programmes.
“Previously, if a patient
had a urinary tract infection nurses could take a urine
sample and diagnose it but we wouldn’t be able to treat
them, instead having to send the patient off to a GP,” she
explains.
“Whereas now we can give the treatment as
well so it just gives nurses more
autonomy.”
Counties Manukau was the first to pilot
the programme in 2017. It equips registered nurses to
prescribe from a list of about 80 medications for
contraception and sexual health, infections (i.e. ear,
throat, skin etc.), eczema, headlice, rheumatic fever and
other conditions. Registered nurses must have at least three
years’ experience in their role to enrol.
Ms Bayley
says participants have plenty of support throughout the
programme and beyond.
“We each had a dedicated
clinical supervisor to reflect and analyse cases with to
help give us that confidence that we are on the right
track,” she says.
“We can also draw from a range
of online resources such as Clinical Pathways, which gives
step-by-step guidance about treatment
medications.”
Participants must complete: 30 hours
of online training modules; in-class training; 12 hours of
face-to-face supervision; a clinical log that looks at what
they could do as a registered nurse versus as a prescriber;
data gathering and analysis of patient interactions; and a
portfolio including two case studies and 10 extra Nursing
Council competencies.
Programme Lead Helen August says
the 14 public health nurse and 13 practice nurses enrolled
in the programme have until October to submit their
portfolios.
The participants work for a variety of
employers including Te Whatu Ora Hawke’s Bay, general
practices or other community healthcare
organisations.
“The Nursing Council endorsed Te
Whatu Ora – Hawke’s Bay to act as the umbrella
organisation providing clinical governance for the
programme, so we manage coordination, education, assessment
and credentialing,” says Ms August, Te Whatu Ora –
Hawke’s Bay Nurse Practitioner.
“The programme was
set up to improve the health of Hawke’s Bay’s tamariki
and whānau. It also helps our nurses work to the top of
their scope, so therefore our community are getting the best
possible service from our nurses, who know that
population.”
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