Foreword
October 2021, 1st Edition
Guidance for nurse practitioners aiming to increase their scope to include transfusion, transfusion practitioners in training and organisations seeking to implement robust governance around scope of practice for nurse practitioners to transfuse.
Scope
While this guidance is directed at NP roles, the principal non-medical prescribers in Australasia, health care delivery is not static. Roles develop and change with new models of care. It is not anticipated that blood and blood product prescribing would be widely adopted outside of medical practitioners and in defined NP roles, but should other roles emerge (such as physician assistants) then these principles should be applied to other prescribers.
The purpose of this document is to outline the considerations that should be made in regards to assessing whether there is an organisational need for NPs to prescribe blood and blood products, and provides guidance as to how that practice may be governed. These guidelines assume that each organisation has in place existing accreditation policies and procedures that ensure the NP has the appropriate experience, qualifications and training to act in that role according to the relevant local, state and national laws.
This document also outlines a framework for determining the appropriate educational and training needs for NPs needing to prescribe blood as part of their clinical practice. These may be used by training organisations to structure training for or NPs, for NPs themselves to devise self-education and training plans and for credentialling committees to assess the appropriateness of training and expertise of NPs.
These guidelines are intended where NPs are acting within their practice authority, according to their education and expertise, and making independent prescribing decisions. There may be other circumstances where institutions allow blood product administration under standing orders, for example anti-D prophylaxis for RhD negative women at specific antenatal visits. In these cases, the risks and benefits for the approved population are weighed by the endorsing medical officers and institution and the level of education, supervision and governance for administering nurses is not the same as that required for NPs making these decisions independently.
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