THE EDITOR, Sir:
AS A practising family nurse practitioner for over five years, I have grown increasingly concerned over the lack of recognition being meted to us by the society. We are often thought to be doctors by the many patients we see, and as a result have not gained the recognition we deserve by the people we work with.
A family nurse practitioner is a senior nurse who has had at least five years experience and has done postgraduate course in the field of nursing. We have also been trained medically in the management of patients with chronic illness and other general illness.
This dynamic group came in existence when there was an acute shortage of doctors in the rural areas in the seventies. The family nurse practitioner can receive a Master of Science degree at the department of advance nursing in collaboration with the University of the West Indies since September 2002.
These nurses are so qualified that they are in great demand by the medical faculty as well as the nursing body. However, the family nurse practitioner's main duty is to see patients on a one to one basis in the clinic.
They gather pertinent information from the patient's current illness including their past medical, social, family and drug histories. Finally, a physical examination is performed and these findings lead to a diagnosis, and subsequently treatment is presented by the writing of a prescription which is counter-signed by the medical officers.
We strongly believe that as family nurse practitioners, we need to have more autonomy in prescribing certain common drugs. Other countries such as St. Lucia and the United States of America have been writing prescriptions without it being counter-signed.
At present, the bill for prescription writing is being tabled in Parliament, which will give the family nurse practitioner the right to present some of the common drugs that are used by the patients under the supervision of the attendant physician. This is important, as patients have to wait if the medical officer is absent.
Therefore, it is against this background that I call for a greater recognition of the work that the family nurse practitioner does; and the contribution that we continue to offer in maintaining a high standard of patient care in Jamaica's health service.
I am, etc.,
GRACE URQUHART
Family Nurse Practitioner
Kingston 8
