Nurses and midwives can formally issue prescriptions for medications and referrals for examinations, but in practice they still have to complete specialist courses. As a result, they are expected to start performing their new duties in mid-March.
Under the new regulations, since 2016, nurses and midwives can issue prescriptions and refer patients for diagnostic tests. According to the data of the Ministry of Health, there are 247 employees in Poland. nurses and midwives. The condition for prescribing medications is the completion of a specialist course, which, however, will only be available to graduates of second-cycle studies (currently 25,7 thousand) and nurses and midwives with the title of specialist (these are 37,3 thousand).
The head of the Supreme Council of Nurses and Midwives, Grażyna Rogala-Pawelczyk, pointed out that the Ministry of Health did not organize these courses on time enabling nurses to prescribe medications from January 1. The Ministry of Human Rights also asked the Ministry about delays in training.
“If prescribing drugs were to start in January, training should already have been carried out in mid-2015.” – evaluates Rogala-Pawelczyk. In her opinion, the late approval of the course program, the need to conduct tenders and the time needed for training will mean that nurses and midwives will start prescribing drugs at the earliest from mid-March.
At the end of December, the health ministry informed that several medical universities are already conducting training and that 100 nurses will complete the course by the end of the year. On the other hand, the first trainings co-financed by European funds will start in 2016.
The President of NRPiP emphasizes that the nurses and midwives are careful and distant when assessing the new powers. “We expect that it will be a voluntary entitlement, and the facilities will create conditions under which nurses and midwives will be able to conduct the examination and receive remuneration for performing these tasks, for which it is necessary to define the principles of contracting these services with the National Health Fund as soon as possible” – emphasizes the president of NRPiP . “If these elements are met, qualified nurses and midwives will certainly prescribe medications and write out referrals for examinations” – he assures.
She emphasizes that nurses and midwives are not afraid of prescribing, but want to do it in safe and appropriate conditions.
She adds that nurses and midwives are afraid of trying to use them as secretaries, whose task will be to facilitate the work of doctors. “The community of nurses and midwives is concerned that the consequence of new tasks will not be the lack of time for other tasks” – she explains.
Nurses will be able to issue prescriptions, among others for painkillers, antiparasitic drugs, anti-infective drugs used, for example, in anemia and throat diseases, and local anesthetics. After examining the patient, they will also be able to refer him to diagnostic tests, e.g. for blood count, ECG and chest X-ray
«There was a great feast, a great balloon, what competences the nurses will get! Meanwhile, when we look at the list of drugs that they are supposed to prescribe, it turns out that, in view of their competences, this is nothing, ”assesses Rogala-Pawelczyk.
However, she emphasizes that the new powers of nurses and midwives will increase the role they will play in patient care. «It is not even important that the nurse or midwife will be able to write a prescription, but that she will be able to provide comprehensive care to the patient, because she knows his health conditions. Until now, if a nurse advised a patient to buy an over-the-counter medication, it did not matter. But now the nurse, knowing that the patient has, for example, gastric ulcer, will offer him a safer drug and prescribe a prescription for it »- explains.
Rogala-Pawelczyk emphasizes that from the point of view of the development of professions and disciplines such as nursing and obstetrics, thanks to the new regulations, Polish health care “has made a step towards other highly developed countries”. However, she emphasizes that in order for it to actually take place, it is necessary to provide nurses and midwives with adequate remuneration and working conditions.
«It is time to introduce nursing in the XNUMXst century. It is necessary to consider what additional activities requiring appropriate competences are to be performed by a nurse and which should not be her responsibility. Because, with all due respect, distributing meals is no longer a nurse’s task »adds the president of NRPiP.