Can nurses prescribe for out of hours services when they have NO access to patient notes? Legislation clearly states that full notes shouild be vailable?

Any comments please/

Malcolm

Malcolm, hi, yes, nurses can prescribe for out-of-hours services if, after
taking a full assessment, they feel competent to do so. This is addressed
in the NMC 'Standards of Proficiency for Nurse and Midwife Prescribers'
(Standard 3) (NMC 2006). I hope that this is helpful

Molly

Hello,

 What service do you work in OOH?

Christine

I placed a blog regarding nurse prescribing in different areas some time ago.  There has been only 2 responses on that blog, yet the area of OOH prescribing has come up already, perhaps it might help if you had a look there?

Malcolm, hi, if you look at Standard 3, of  the 'Standards of Proficiency for Nurse and Midwife Prescribers' you will see that it states that

'in order to prescribe you must be satisfied that you have undertaken a full assessment including a full hisotory and, where possible, accessed clinical records...'  So yes, you can prescribe for Out-of-Hours services if you do not have access to the patients notes. However, you must be satisfied that you have undertaken a full assessment.

Molly