Endocrine Abstracts

In the UK, the number of nurses able to legally prescribe medicines is rapidly increasing. The skills of nurse independent prescribing (NIP) offer an effective way for the Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) to be more responsive to the changing, and unpredictable, needs of patients by enabling timely and appropriate symptom control in a single, seamless consultation. The structure of the Nurse-led clinic often allows for a longer consultation time enabling the CNS to provide a greater depth of information to the patient around the different medication options, the potential side effects and benefits of that medication. The NIP role promotes expansion and innovations in practice that can meet the changing needs, and costs, of effective service delivery.

The endocrine CNS is able to develop a therapeutic relationship with the patient that encourages informed decisions about which medical therapy is most suitable and the consultation is completed by prescribing the correct medication to the correct patient at the correct time. It enables the timely dose titration of medications with the NIP qualification providing validation for these changes with other members of the multi-disciplinary team. A final factor in the role of the NIP in endocrinology is the amount of time saved when the CNS does not have to seek out a medical prescriber’s signature, this time can then be better spent providing direct care to patients. Each NIP’s work is closely monitored by both National and local guidelines that dictate prescribing must only be within their area of expertise.