Registered Diabetes Nurse Specialists to prescribe medications in trial
08/02/2011
| Diabetes Nurse Specialists to prescribe medications
MidCentral Health is to be a demonstration site for registered Diabetes Nurse Specialists (DNS) prescribing starting next month.
The prescribing of a limited range of diabetes-related medication and changing of doses by DNSs, under the guidance of a medical practitioner, will be undertaken over the coming six months at four District Health Board demonstration sites: Hawke’s Bay, Auckland, Hutt Valley and MidCentral.
People with diabetes in these four demonstration sites will have their medication managed by diabetes nurse specialists in a demonstration project that aims to make life easier for patients and make better use of nursing skills. The project is being led by the New Zealand Society for the Study of Diabetes.
At present, patients coming to the Diabetes Lifestyle Centre at Palmerston North Hospital, who need to change medication must go back to their GP or wait for an appointment with a diabetes specialist physician. With this project patients will benefit from improved access to timely and appropriate care as well as reduced duplication of visits and costs.
This innovative step in the delivery of diabetes health services came from the New Zealand Society for the Study of Diabetes. Consultation with the health sector led by Health Workforce New Zealand occurred last year, in partnership with the New Zealand Society for the Study of Diabetes, the nursing team in the Ministry of Health, and the Nursing Council of New Zealand.
As better management of diabetes is one of the Government’s key priorities and part of the cardiovascular disease (CVD) Diabetes Health Target, it is proposed that medicine regulation changes are made to enable registered nurses authorised by the Nursing Council of New Zealand to prescribe a limited range of medicines for people with diabetes. The regulations to allow registered nurse prescribing for this project are anticipated to take effect by mid to late March.
MidCentral Health’s Director of Nursing, Sue Wood says: “We welcome this demonstration project as we’d like patients to have the benefits this brings. Diabetes nurse specialists in many other countries are already able to prescribe diabetes and related medication as registered nurses and New Zealand is well behind in this aspect of nursing practice.”
The Diabetes Nurse Specialist prescribing demonstration project will be fully evaluated before rollout to other parts of the country or other specialist services.
Contact: Communications Unit (06) 350-8945