New website for NMC
May 30, 2010 by admin
The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) has launched a new website, with a prescribing section under ‘Nurses and Midwives’. It is asking for feedback on what users think of the site now.
Unlicensed medicines: green light and standards updated
March 23, 2010 by admin
The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) has now issued a circular (04/2010) that permits nurse and midwife independent prescribers to prescribe unlicensed medicines, following legislative changes in December.
The circular updates the “Standards of proficiency for nurse and midwife prescribers“, setting out the requirements for this type of prescribing. The prescriber must be satisfied that an alternative, licensed medication would not meet the patient’s needs and that there is sufficient evidence and/or experience to demonstrate efficacy and safety for that individual; the prescriber must take responsibility for prescribing the unlicensed medicine and for overseeing care; the patient must understand the implications of being prescribed an unlicensed medicine and agree to this; the reasons for choosing this medication must be documented in the patient’s notes; professional advice must be obtained as necessary; and adverse drug reactions must be reported via the Yellow Card scheme. The guidance stresses that nurse and midwife prescribers should pay particular attention to the risks associated with unlicensed medicines, and says that the NMC will consider it best practice to have policies and systems in place to monitor and manage the clinical risks.
A second circular (03/2010) requires approved educational institutions to amend the content and learning outcomes of V300 programmes to reflect the legislative changes. Programmes must conform by 1 February 2011.
Advanced practice roles to be regulated
March 11, 2010 by admin
Advanced nursing practice should be regulated by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), according to the final report by the Prime Minister’s Commission on the Future of Nursing and Midwifery in England. The report said that there is little consistency in job content, title, scope of practice or credentials in advanced practice nursing roles, and that the NMC should record advanced practitioners on the register and ensure that they have the required competencies. This is one of 20 recommendations, including the controversial pledge, in the report. NMC Chief Executive and Registrar, Professor Dickon Weir-Hughes, commented that this was a ‘clear mandate’ to regulate advanced nursing practice.
NMC consults on pre-registration nursing education
February 14, 2010 by admin
What standards should nursing students be able to meet at the point of registration? The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) has launched an online survey to obtain views on the proposed new standards. They include both standards for competence (the knowledge, skills and attitudes that all graduate nurses need to demonstrate at registration) and standards for education (the requirements that pre-registration nursing programmes must meet). To complete the survey, or find out more, see here.
Taking stock of attitudes
December 13, 2009 by admin
This feature article looks at how, in the face of opposition from the medical profession, non-medical prescribing has been introduced in stages. The predicted problems and disasters have not materialised: one, and only one, case of inappropriate prescribing has come before the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s (NMC’s) fitness to practice panel and Molly Courtenay points out that there is no evidence that nurses work outside their competence or make clinically inappropriate decisions. Her work has shown that doctors now seem to be happy about the nurses that they work with and know prescribing, but are more worried about nurse prescribing in general - and the possibility of ‘loose cannons’.
Bill Beeby, who chairs the prescribing subcommittee of the BMA’s General Practitioners Committee, is quoted as saying that all prescribers have to work within their knowledge and competencies and as long as nurse prescribers do that, then there are no issues.
Hawkes N. Handing over the prescription pad. BMJ 2009; 339:b4835.
Nurses and swine flu: prescribing, NMC statement, and DH tools
June 21, 2009 by admin
Up-to-date information on prescribing Tamiflu and Relenza for nurse prescribers can be found here.
The NMC has made clear that all nurses and midwives must practice within their competency levels and should seek advice or supervision from a “competent practitioner” if faced with an aspect of practice outside their competency or registration area: they remain answerable at all times for their actions and omissions. The full NMC position statement on the role of registered nurses and midwives during an influenza pandemic can be found here - it also states that nurses and midwives will not be professionally compromised “provided they are competent (and have been assessed as such) to carry out duties being requested by the employer”.
The Department of Health has issued a swine flu clinical package containing a set of tools that can be used by frontline healthcare professionals in a pandemic.
Categories
Recent Posts
- Professionalism and ethics
- Practice nurses and prescribing
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- CDs: Another question asked in Lords
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