NURSE PRESCRIBING of medications will allow community hospitals offer a better service to patients who will no longer have to wait for the hospital’s medical officer to issue a prescription, a doctor predicted after a Cork community hospital became the first in the State to have a nurse prescribe medicines.
Medical Officer for Castletownbere Community Hospital, Dr Colin Gleeson, said nurse or midwife prescribing was relatively new here, having been only introduced by Minister for Health Mary Harney in 2007, but it offers great potential for smaller community hospitals, such as Castletownbere.
Dr Gleeson said that to be able to prescribe, a nurse or midwife must have more than three years’ experience, have successfully completed the dedicated course on nurse and midwife prescribing and must be registered with the Nursing Board as an RNP.
Dr Gleeson was speaking after Castletownbere Community Hospital nurse Cathy Sheehan, who qualified as a Registered Nurse Prescriber on January 5th following completion of a course at University College Cork (UCC), began issuing prescriptions to patients.
“We feel that we are following the lead already set in many countries such as Australia, US and New Zealand by having nurse prescribing in our community hospitals,” he said, adding that a second nurse at the hospital has commenced the Nurse Prescribing Programme.
“Nurse prescribing expands the team care approach adopted in Castletownbere Community Hospital and can only enhance the overall care provided to all our patients on a daily basis,” said Dr Gleeson, who acted as Ms Sheehan’s mentor on the programme.
Dr Gleeson’s comments were echoed by Castletownbere Community Hospital’s director of nursing, Ber Power, who paid tribute to Ms Sheehan for her dedication and commitment in pursuing the course and obtaining the qualification.
“Great credit is due to Cathy who had to travel from Beara to UCC regularly in order to complete this intensive course. She is delighted to be able to enhance patient care in the hospital by being able to prescribe medications in a timely manner to patients who need them.”
