Nurse helps launch one-stop dispensing
A clinical nurse specialist for medicines management has been employed to help roll out one-stop dispensing at North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Trust. The nurse works within the trust’s two pharmacy departments.
According to Philip Dean, head of pharmacy services at the trust, this
nursing role is “a new approach to medicines management”.
He said that, as far as he is aware, there are only six or seven other
nurses throughout England and Wales who have been employed by hospital
pharmacy departments to carry out such work.
He explained that employing nursing staff and teaching them about pharmacy
is one way to help change the way medicines are used on the wards. He
added that a clinical nurse specialist in this role provides “a
bridge between the two worlds of pharmacy and nursing so that both sides
understand each other”.
Mr Dean added that the post also helps resolve recruitment and retention
issues. This is because some of the roles that pharmacists and technicians
are employed to do, such as training ward staff in medicines management
or initiating a new one-stop service, can be done by the clinical nurse
specialist for medicines management, he said.
A network for nurses currently employed in this role has been set up.
Details can be obtained from Mr Dean (e-mail philip.dean@nth.nhs.uk).
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Hospital Pharmacist