Committee To Consider Granting Prescriptive Rights To Advanced Nursing Practitioners

A Committee chaired by Professor Denise Eldemire-Shearer has been formed to consider the granting of prescriptive rights to advanced nursing practitioners.

Other committee members include Professor Howard Spencer (Medical Council Registrar), Dr. Leila McWhinney-Dehaney (Nursing Council Chair), Dr. Eugennie Brown-Myrie (Pharmacy Council Chair), Heather McGrath (Family Nurse Practitioner), Patsy Edwards Henry (Nurses Association of Jamaica President) and Patricia Ingram-Martin (Chief Nursing Officer).

Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr. the Hon. Christopher Tufton, said the committee has been examining training requirements, including continuing medical education (CME) associated with nurse practitioners prescribing; and soliciting the views of key stakeholders in relation to Nurse Practitioners being registered, allowed to prescribe and views on what to prescribe and when.

“The next steps will be to discuss the legislation that is needed, including completion of the proposed amendments to existing legislation as well as areas such as training, continuing education and telemedicine,” Dr. Tufton said.

He was speaking during his contribution to the 2022/23 Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives on May 3.

The Minister informed that the Committee will widen the discussions and finalise recommendations on prescriptive rights.

“As we build out our restructured primary healthcare model, we see significant benefits to enable our advanced nurse practitioners, through training, to be able to support patient care by writing prescriptions up to a certain level, particularly in remote areas where we do not have doctors to do the same,” Dr. Tufton said.

He added that the future of work will require more division of labour without compromising the quality of care.

“This is an example of that, and so we must move speedily to complete this process,” he emphasised.