Professor Lisa Nissen - “Pharmacist Prescribing”: this is impossible, only if you think it is!

Speaker

Professor Lisa Nissen (QUT)

Abstract

We often feel like our professions are at a “crossroad” – or at least feel like they have been for decades. The traditional roles for our professions, particularly in the space of medicines management have slowly been evolving. Yet, the mechanisms needed to best facilitate these changes have not always been clear. One emerging mechanism has been non-medical prescribing which, nationally and internationally, has provided many professions with an increased footprint in the “medicines” space. Improving access to care for patients across the healthcare continuum is critical to the ongoing care of patients, particularly though with chronic conditions such as diabetes. Recently, a number of key health policy changes and profession wide practice initiatives have pointed a way forward for prescribing practice in Australia, including the introduction of the Health Professionals Prescribing Pathway. Built on the National Prescribing Services core competencies for prescribing, this document seeks to provide a practice progression pathway for all practitioners, and to provide a training and development pathway that transcends individual practice scopes and locations. This presentation will discuss the framework and the key outcomes and strategic learnings for Australian health professionals

Speaker Bio

Dr Lisa Nissen is Professor and Head of the School of Clinical Sciences at Queensland University of Technology. She is an experienced pharmacy practitioner, researcher and educator having worked in hospital and community pharmacy in metropolitan and rural areas Australia. Her focus is on improving the Quality Use of Medicines in the wider community, across the health care continuum, with a focus on health service development and factors that influence the prescribing of medicines. Lisa is a strong believer in the benefits multidisciplinary health care teams can bring to patient care and takes this passion into the classroom with a commitment to the development and implementation of innovative interprofessional education for health students and professionals.