Elsevier

Nurse Education in Practice

Volume 7, Issue 5, September 2007, Pages 348-353
Nurse Education in Practice

Framework for teaching pharmacology to prepare graduate nurse for prescribing in New Zealand

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nepr.2006.11.006Get rights and content

Summary

The place of nurse prescribing and the preparation for this role is an educational challenge that has been heavily debated in New Zealand and overseas for the past 10 years. Nurse prescribing is relatively new in New Zealand and is related to the expanding roles and opportunities for nurses in health care. Opposition to nurse prescribing in New Zealand has been marked and often this has been linked to concerns over patient safety with the implication that nurses could not be adequately prepared for safe prescribing. The educational framework used to teach pharmacology to nurses by one university in New Zealand is presented, along with early findings on the effectiveness of this approach. Further research is required to confirm that nurse prescribers in New Zealand are well prepared and able to utilise effective decision-making processes for safe prescribing.

Section snippets

Prescribing roles for nurses

The need for prescriptive authority came as a result of nurses’ expanding role in health care. The vision of expanded roles for nurses follows worldwide trends. In New Zealand the term Nurse Practitioner was introduced in 2001 (Nursing Council of New Zealand, 2001a). Internationally a number of different designations synonymous to a nurse practitioner have been found in literature (Castledine, 2000). These include Nurse Clinician, Advanced Practitioner and Clinical Nurse Specialist. These

Competencies for prescribing

The role of the New Zealand Nursing Council includes the approval and accreditation for nursing education programmes in New Zealand. This incorporates ensuring that the clinical Master’s programme for prescribing Nurse Practitioner covers the required aspects of the prescribing process (Nursing Council of New Zealand, 2005). Only Nurse Practitioners can become designated nurse prescribers in New Zealand. The requirement for Nurse Practitioner approval is a rigorous process and it is compulsory

Educational preparation for prescribing

Higher education has been suggested as the “gold standard” for advanced practice in nursing (Whyte et al., 2000, p. 1080). The Master’s level of education has been advocated as it presents the students with a range of contextually transferable academic and professional skills that are vital to the changing context of health care (Schwertz et al., 1997, Whyte et al., 2000).

Although in the past, nurses have carried out a number of roles in relation to medication administration that require

Framework for nurse prescribing education

A constructivist learning theory underpins the postgraduate nursing programmes of a leading New Zealand university. The entering students are registered and experienced nurses. Utilising a constructivist learning approach supports the view that students build up their knowledge and skills in interaction with their work environments or own spheres of practice. Learning is a thoughtful and considered activity that occurs when students construct new knowledge based upon what they already know.

Conclusion

Nurse prescribing is relatively new to New Zealand and there is a need to monitor and research the development of the new role to ensure safe and effective prescribing. A number of further areas for research are recommended. These include a formal and comprehensive evaluation of pharmacology education for nurses using the three tier framework. It is recognised that education will not create expert nurse prescribers immediately. Therefore a follow up study is needed to determine the quality of

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