Nurse Practitioners Hamstrung And Patients Disadvantaged: Study, Australia

Main Category: Nursing / Midwifery
Article Date: 30 Jan 2008 - 2:00 PDT

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A new study has found more than two thirds of nurse practitioners in Australia report their role is "extremely limited" because of a clash between state and federal government laws.

The study led by Queensland University of Technology is the first national survey of Australian nurse practitioners.

Lead investigator Professor Glenn Gardner, from QUT's Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, said nurse practitioners were being hamstrung from effectively carrying out patient care because of legislative inconsistencies.

"There is an absolute discord between state and federal legislation," she said.

"At a state level legislation allows for nurse practitioners to write prescriptions and they can refer patients to other health care professionals.

"However, at a Commonwealth level nurse practitioners don't have access to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) or Medicare provider numbers.

"While on the one hand a nurse practitioner can write a prescription for medication, they can't prescribe from the PBS schedule, which is subsidised by the commonwealth government.

"This means their patients have to pay a lot more to have their script filled at a pharmacy. These patients are being disadvantaged and should enjoy equal access to government subsidies for health care.

"Nurse practitioners are similarly limited in referring patients to other health providers or requesting diagnostic investigations because they don't have Medicare provider numbers."

The results are the first findings to come out of a three-year $575,000 project being funded by the Australian Research Council into the emerging role of nurse practitioners.

Professor Gardner said the study also found that there were 38 emergency department nurse practitioners working in Australian hospitals, the highest number of any single nurse practitioner model in Australia

"This service model is growing rapidly in response to demand but there are these barriers to their practice," she said.

"Our survey results indicate nearly one third of these emergency nurse practitioners were still awaiting approval to prescribe medications.

"The whole picture of health care is changing, new roles are emerging and we need flexibility and collaboration across professional groups and policy consistency with governments to best meet the changing needs of the community."

Professor Gardner said there were more than 230 authorised nurse practitioners in Australia and most of whom were employed by state health departments to improve patients' access to health care.

"Nurse practitioners have the potential to improve health service for under-serviced populations," she said. "For example they can reduce waiting time in emergency departments and outpatient clinics."

Professor Gardner said it was essential for the state and federal governments to work together.

"Action needs to be taken now," she said.

"The Commonwealth Government needs to act to change the legislation and allow nurse practitioners to provide comprehensive health care to meet community needs."

The other chief investigators on the project are Professor Anne Gardner from James Cook University and Professor Sandy Middleton from Australia Catholic University.

Queensland University of Technology

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