Does anyone know anything about NUrse Practitioners Prescribing in 2014?

Something that has been overlooked about the 2014 regulations .... perhaps the only good thing about these new laws that Harper is imposing on us, is that Nurse Practitioners will be able to prescribe medicinal cannabis.

This is a world first. No other country has done this before and it is amazing if it does actually happen. Just so you know I hate Harper but this is one good thing that he has done which will help with gaining access.

Are there any nurse practitioners out there that are interested in this new pathway? I'm wondering if there are people that know anything at all about hiring a nurse practioner to run a prescribing business. Anybody with any interest as a nurse or nurse practitioner working in this new pathway, I'd love to share communication and thoughts.

Have a good day.

Buckets

The reason behind this is due to the fact that the doctors board refused to take responsibilities. Come on a nurse perscribing? This show what a joke mmj is thought to be! Do you think they will be allowed to perscribe oxy or vicidan? NO! So what does that say about our beloved medical herb or what our government really thinks.

The whole thing is a big JOKE while people like me will DIE without it.

Who's next? The hospital janitor?

Yes I know that doctors have been lame with prescribing but your statement above is insulting. A nurse practitioner is first an RN (3 years) and then has to work on the ward for 5 years min, and then has to do the masters degree in being a nurse practitioner. Obviously you favor the doctor who is never there [On the wards] and do not appreciate the knowledge that an intensive care nurse has as an example. You're dying you say...well if that's true, then you'll be in hospital and you will be on the ICU ward at some stage. Might I ask you to evaluate the ICU nurse and see how they run the ship when the doctor isn't there? That being MOST of the time during the shift!

I can't comment about Oxycontin but a nurse practitioner can prescribe a lot of medication in their area of specialty.

buckets said:

Yes I know that doctors have been lame with prescribing but your statement above is insulting. A nurse practitioner is first an RN (3 years) and then has to work on the ward for 5 years min, and then has to do the masters degree in being a nurse practitioner. Obviously you favor the doctor who is never there [On the wards] and do not appreciate the knowledge that an intensive care nurse has as an example. You're dying you say...well if that's true, then you'll be in hospital and you will be on the ICU ward at some stage. Might I ask you to evaluate the ICU nurse and see how they run the ship when the doctor isn't there? That being MOST of the time during the shift!

I can't comment about Oxycontin but a nurse practitioner can prescribe a lot of medication in their area of specialty.

Click to expand...

No no no, you missed my point and I did not mean to bash the nurses that are the backbone of the system. What you fail to get from my rant was the doctors are refusing to play ball so they now are willing to start changing the system to accomodate them not the patients.

I fully understand front line nurses are probably more knowledgable than most doctors today and I do appreciate them for all they have done for me, but laying this at their feet is not only a slap in the face of the patients and the nurses, but makes the whole system look like a joke.

I do hear you regarding your point about doctors refusing to prescribe cannabis. I'll certainly agree to that point.

I don't have the same view in regards to what will happen with nurse practitioners and prescribing though because a lot of doors will now become unlocked. Let me explain. Nurses are told to research and there are oodles of room for research with medicinal cannabis. Doctors don't want to do these studies, some do but they are the rarest of health professionals because it's practically no money for them and they have to pay back their loans.

Nurses however can own and operate commercial grow companies in the states and in Canada, they can own and operate dispensaries, and they can also now run prescribing businesses. Now that they have all of those controls comes the ability to do research on medicinal cannabis, which is something both those for and against have always argues - there not being enough of it to prove one way or the other that medicinal cannabis works or doesn't work.

With Nurse Practitioners prescribing they can have the power to start randomized control trials, which the pharmaceutical companies don't want to see happen because they can't patent a naturally growing plant.

Doctors for the longest time have held up the progress of medicinal marijuana and what I am saying now is that with nurse practitioners being able to prescribe it and start research programs, you're going to see a lot of progress with people getting scripts for it and also for research. Plus if I can be greedy for a second, nurse practitioners will now earn a wage comparible to a doctors wage when they specialise in medicinal cannabis, which I think is just awesome. It's a great way also, to retain nurses in Canada and keep them working in a new pathway from that of the hospital. They can keep their RN title and work in a growing facility, a dispensary, and the prescribing office. Research shows that the most trusted health profession is not the doctor. It's the nurse. You judge your treatm,ent in hospital by how the nursing staff treated you. I believe you'll see a lot of great things happen with medicinal cannabis if indeed the nurse practitioner is allowed to prescribe.

I say to you sir ganja that changing the system - the broken medicinal cannabis system here in Canada is a really good thing with respect to somebody else being able to prescribe it. That's my honest gut feeling. But the next big thing will be for the nurse practitioners to break out of the norm and start running their own businesses - dispensaries, prescribing, commercial grows etc.

On a different note...I'm not sure if people know this but within the context of mental health there are many people who smoke cannabis or fake cannabis and they go into a psychotic episode or they have some kind of schizophrenic type problem. These are the small numbers of people who have a genetic disposition to go down the bad road after smoking weed. Each day in acute care the cost for a patient is about $1000 a day. For many years now mental health has been saying 'NO! don't legalise it because we'll fill up the psych wards' and I agree with that statement - we shouldn't go the route of allowing the entire country to use it without some form of regulation so as to prevent our mental health wards from filling up. But does that mean we prevent people who could benefit from using it for medicinal reasons such as for epilepsy or cancer treatment/prevention, for eating disorders etc. No of course not. There needs to be some form of regulation so we allow people to have access to it for medical reasons and try our very best to keep people away from it if they know they get psychosis or worse. If they don't know that they'll freak out though, then what can you do?

Anyway, what I wanted to tell you all is that the pharmaceutical companies now believe that marijuana has anti psychotic properties that are so powerful that they soon become the super drug for mental health. On one hand for years they kept government at bay and said marijuana was the worst thing but now, secretly, they are trying to design something that mirrors the CBD part of cannabis. This is huge people. Now we know of another reason why pharmaceutical companies want to keep all forms of cannabis illegal so they can create a synthetic and make oober money while the local medical growers don't. That's one of the big battles we are facing at the moment.

I didnt look to much into this. But my understanding is that the nursing board for the province has to approve this still. And they wont. So the government saying that nurses can sign is true, pending the board approves it which they wont. So the gov can now say its easier access but in reality, no.


http://www.mernagh.ca/health-canada-med-pot-ideas-no-impact-on-r-v-mernagh/

"
Nurse Practitioners Possibly Sign For Med Pot
Nurse practitioners would be permitted to prescribe med pot if the corresponding provincial legislation governing nurse practitioners is changed. Considering it took 25 years to allow Nurse Practitioners in Ontario to be legislated (lobbying from 1973 to 1997 when the law was passed) don’t hold your inhale waiting for something to happen.
Behold my favorite example.
The McGuinty Libs allowed Nurse Practitioners to sign special diet allowances for Ontario Disability Support Program people. Clinics were set up by poverty groups who hired Nurse Practitioners to fill out forms. The McGuinty Libs seeing the tidal wave response quickly stopped allowing Nurse Practitioners sign for ODSP special diet allowances.
The governance of Nurse Practitioners is provincial not federal – possibly allowing Health Canada to say ‘its not us – its the province’ in future court cases. Another hint Health Canada is preparing for a loss is the introduction of the new program. It’s timely and they might be able to beat the 90 day Stoner Sword of Damocles imposed in R v. Mernagh ruling.
The reality is the feds are actually readying a new medical marijuana program for a person who opts to use R v Mernagh case law. Then a crown somewhere will say, ‘We made dramatic changes. It’s a whole new program. We improved access since R v. Mernagh. Here’s our stats that show more people than ever are in the program. We’ve added nurse practitioners and we are working with our provincial counterparts to implement, but this takes time.’ "

Apparently the reasoning behind it is so NP's working in remote locations
where there is only a nurses station can prescribe the medicine making it easier
on patients. The patients wont have to travel to find a doctor to get the prescription.

It seems it is an access issue for remote locations, Im sure it will go through just based
on that. I don't expect it to become a mainstream thing though. IMO there won't be much
that changes in general.

I have a nurse in the family so I hope they end up being allowed to sign too!!

Im super interested to see how it plays out. I wonder if the government will try the same discouragement tactics they did with the doctors.

If it is a provincial thing, then you would think at least one of the provinces boards would say yes.

Dark days for us man. So much uncertainty.

Thanks Rick1lung and maximus. I agree there are dark days of uncertainty ahead. If you know of a commercial grower or want to become one, I'd suggest now is a good time to start your business. I'd love to see nurses running some of these businesses. I'd love to see some nurses get into the fray politically as well. I do hope that nurse practitioners do get the opportunity to prescribe as this will attract a lot of male nurses and possibly some female nurses to go down this pathway. We shall see what happens in a year I guess eh? Have a good one!

Apparently they are going to start letting this happen.

for the first time, nurse practitioners will be able to support access
to dried marihuana for medical purposes, if permitted within their
respective province or territory

See! I told you guys. This is going to be a huge opportunity for nurses and it may help nurses stay in the work force by them saying enough of working in a hospital and instead the either go to work for someone who runs a a medical centre or they run their own prescribing business. Of course 'if' their provincial nursing practitioner organization allows it. But it helps to keep nurses working by offering them a new pathway.