The following email notification has been received from the New Zealand Nursing Council via the Royal College of Nursing Australasia (RCNA).

Sent: Monday, 19 September 2005 7:46 AM

Great news from New Zealand.
 
You might be interested to know that Government passed regulations greatly extending prescribing for nurse practitioners last Monday (The last executive meeting of Government before the election).  The list finally approved included 1379 medications plus a further list of controlled drugs
 
This was the culmination of a lot of work and negotiation over several years.
 
What the regulations do is allow open access to nurse practitioners, who are authorized for prescribing, to a wide schedule.  The length of the list puts us ahead of many other countries.  We are very, very pleased with the result.  It should enable nurse practitioners to practice independently in a wide range of primary, secondary and tertiary settings (but excludes anaesthetics).  Nursing Council has the responsibility of authorizing nurse practitioners to prescribe.  The actual regulations and lists are not yet available electronically but I am happy to forward a link when we have one. 
 
I hope to, when/if I make the time, publish our experiences at some stage but will certainly be presenting in the international arena.
 
 
Marion Clark
Chief Executive/Registrar
Nursing Council of New Zealand
PO Box 9644
Level 12,  Midcity Tower
139-145 Willis St
WELLINGTON
DDI:  64 4 8020232
Mobile:  64 21 650 869
Fax:  64 4 802 0248
Email:  marion@nursingcouncil.org.nz