Development and status of nurse prescriber education in Finland

30^th World Congress on Advanced Nursing Practice

September 04-06, 2017 | Edinburgh, Scotland

Heikkila Johanna and Vallimies Patomaki Marjukka

University of Applied Sciences Finland
Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, Finland

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: Adv Practice Nurs

Abstract :

Nurse prescribing was allowed in 2010 through legislative changes in Finland. The first nurse prescribers graduated in 2012 from the postgraduate education which is 45 ETCS consisting of 20-22 contact days. In the end of 2016, 254 nurses have prescriptive right. An evaluation report by a national working group appointed by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health summarized in 2015 the outcomes of nurse prescribing and changes needed. The material was collected by electronic questionnaires widely for stakeholders. The education was evaluated by the nurses having the right to prescribe, physicians and the universities. The analysis revealed that most of the nurses evaluated the mentoring doctor to have supported well the achievement of learning objectives. The methods used in ensuring the competences: the national final exam, pharmacology exam, OSCE and patient case diaries were assessed to be very suitable and valid assessment tools for competence development by the nurses, guiding doctors and the universities. Most of the respondents evaluated the content of the training to appropriately correspond to requirements. Nurses would have liked to learn more about the clinical examination and diseases. Most of the nurses and mentoring doctors evaluated that the training yielded competences necessary for prescribing requirements. The working group proposed that the prescribing additional training will be continued as a regulated post-graduate training, which includes clinical learning in health center. They proposed that the education as part of Advance Nurse Practitioner traning at Master�s level. Changes on legislation are being prepared which means that the training must be developed further.