The New Zealand Ministry of Health recently launched a diabetes management demonstration program at four North Island sites: Hawke's Bay, Mid Central, Hutt Valley, and Auckland District Health Boards. Under the program, registered nurses specializing in diabetes care are authorized to prescribe a limited range of medicines under guidance of a medical practitioner. This is the first time nurses have joined doctors and nurse practitioners in being authorized to prescribe drugs. The program was created to help achieve the national Diabetes Health Target, which was introduced in July 2009, and aims to increase the percentage of people with diabetes who receive free annual check-ups and the percentage of people with diabetes who have satisfactory or better disease management.
This program builds on the previously implemented Let's Get Checked program, which provides free annual check-ups with a GP or GP practice nurse for all New Zealanders with diabetes and collects data to improve diabetes service.
Sources:
http://beehive.govt.nz/release/midcentral-diabetes-nurses-authorised-prescribe
http://beehive.govt.nz/speech/diabetes-nurses-authorised-prescribe
http://beehive.govt.nz/release/diabetes-and-cvd-targets-booklet-released
http://www.moh.govt.nz/moh.nsf/indexmh/targeting-diabetes-cardiovascular-disease