RCN responds to nurse prescribing concerns

Published: 22 July 2008

The RCN has responded to member concerns about simultaneously administering two prescribed medications through a syringe driver.

Members are worried that mixing two licensed medications together results in a new, unlicensed, product. Independent extended nurse prescribers are prohibited from prescribing unlicensed medications and are therefore exposed to a legal risk by working in this way.

The RCN and the National Council for Palliative Care have lobbied the Nursing and Midwifery Council and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency to find a solution to this problem, which will require changes in legislation.

The RCN has advised that independent extended nurse prescribers may continue to independently prescribe any licensed medicine within their competence and employers guidelines, but will need to ensure that they are administered through different routes. Alternatively, nurses may continue to prescribe by utilising supplementary prescribing, and the use of Clinical Management Plans (CMPs). Read the full guidance: Independent extended nurse prescribing and syringe drivers (Word, 27.5KB).

This NMC has also issued guidance on the issue but this has raised the question of how nurses gain consent for administering unlicenced medicines to patients.