Adjunct Professor Debra Thoms, ACN CEO, said the Health Professionals Prescribing Pathway upholds the National Strategy for the Quality Use of Medicines and will support more registered health professionals, including nurses, to prescribe medications within their scope of practice and within context of state and territory law.
“By approving the Health Professionals Prescribing Pathway, the Health Ministers have recognised there is greater opportunity to use the skills of appropriately educated health professionals to deliver much needed prescribing services to promote easier and timelier access to health care.
“If Australia is to meet the growing demands for health care, new models and approaches to areas such as prescribing are needed. The time and financial cost to individuals and the community of always relying on medical professionals to prescribe will not be sustainable in the longer term,” said A/Professor Thoms.
Nurse prescribing rights are being expanded in countries including Ireland, the UK and Spain, particularly in the primary health care setting.
