|
Education and assessment in the administration of medications has been included in courses leading to enrolment since late 2003. There have also been courses for enrolled nurses, who were educated prior to that time, to undertake additional education in medication administration.
Enrolled nurses who were educated in New South Wales from approximately 1991 will have completed courses which included sufficient physiology and pathophysiology to provide a foundation for a short course in medication administration. Courses, offered by TAFE NSW and the College of Nursing, allow these enrolled nurses to obtain endorsement to administer medications.
Enrolled nurses educated in other courses would generally require substantially more education prior to being able to undertake studies in medication administration. There are currently no short courses approved for enrolled nurses in this category.
While the Nurses and Midwives Board sets standards and approves courses which will allow students to achieve the identified standards, the Nurses and Midwives Board is not able to coerce organisations to offer courses. Developing and offering courses involves expenditure of many thousands of dollars and, in some instances, education providers may consider that there are insufficient students for a course to be viable.
It is understood that, since the introduction of enrolled nurse qualifications into the National Health Training Package by education authorities, vocational education providers may be unable to offer courses that are not encompassed by that nationally regulated arrangement. While higher education organisations are not constrained by the same requirements, students whose prior education is not sufficient to enter an existing course at vocational level would have difficulty establishing eligibility to undertake a course in higher education.
Hospital-based courses which were conducted in New South Wales until the mid to late 1980s had regulated requirements for just 75 hours of lectures which the Nurses Registration Regulations at the time stated were to be "elementary and presented as simply as possible". In contrast, the current enrolled nurse courses consist of substantially more content, taught at a substantially higher level. It is very difficult for an education provider to grant credit for prior study when that prior study was undertaken long ago and was undertaken at an elementary and simple level. Prospective students in this category may require such extensive further study that they may be advised to undertake one of the recognised enrolled nurse courses, as a shortened course may not be adequate for them.
Some people have been able to gain enrolment as nurses in other ways which have not necessarily provided them with the educational preparation for short courses in medication administration. For example, medical assistant courses in the Australian defence forces do not generally provide a basis for recognition as an enrolled nurse in New South Wales. Although some persons with these qualifications, if enrolled elsewhere in Australia, may obtain enrolment in this State under the provisions of mutual recognition legislation, it is likely that substantial further education would be required in order to qualify to administer medications.
The Certificate IV in Nursing (Enrolled/Division 2 Nursing) course No 3262 and the Diploma in Nursing (Enrolled/Division 2 Nursing) course No 4393, offered by TAFE NSW at some campuses, are both recognised by the Nurses and Midwives Board. A person completing either course will have completed education which is adequate for enrolment as a nurse and medication endorsement.
Some enrolled nurses may be disappointed to find that substantial further study is required to obtain medication endorsement. However protection of public health and safety is paramount and it is not appropriate to compromise the required standards of education.
If any additional medication administration courses for enrolled nurses are submitted to the Board and approved, the information will be published on the Board's website.
|