Empowering staff: The first time writing a standing order

+Summer Hiatus

In print

Practice + First time

Empowering staff: The first time writing a standing order

Jo Scott-Jones

Friday 20 December 2024, 12:30 PM

Hold a brainstorming session with your team to identify presentations and medicines that lend themselves to standing orders [Image: davidf on iStock]

We are on our summer break and the editorial office is closed until 13 January. In the meantime, please enjoy our Summer Hiatus series, in which our journalists curate an eclectic mix from our news and clinical archives throughout the year, The Conversation and other publications we share content with. Please note the comment function has been turned off while we are away. Happy reading!

This article was first published online on 13 March.

Specialist GP Jo Scott-Jones looks at how standing orders can be used to share workload and extend scope of practice among staff

Key points, Standing orders improve patients’ timely access to medications. People providing medication through a standing order need to be competent, adequatel, Pract Green w Pale Yellow

General Practice

References

1. Nursing Council of New Zealand. Mātanga Tapuhi Nurse Practitioner.

2. New Zealand Gazette. Specified Prescription Medicines for Designated Registered Nurse Prescribers. 23 March 2022.

3. Scott-Jones J, Young F, Keir D, Lawrenson R. Standing orders extend rural nursing practice and patient access. Nurs N Z 2009;15(3):14–38.

4. Medical Council of New Zealand. Good prescribing practice. March 2020.

5. Ministry of Health. Standing Order Guidelines, second edition. Wellington, NZ: Ministry of Health; 2016.

6. Ministry of Health. Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act. 28 February 2018.

7. New Zealand Nurses Organisation. Standing Orders. September 2016.

8. Murtagh J. Diagnostic modelling in general practice. Australian Medical Student Journal 2011;2(1):46–47.

Summer Hiatus archive

How to Treat

+How to treat

Polypharmacy

For older people and frail people, the long-term benefit of medicines reduces and the potential for harm from adverse effects increases. When the benefit–risk balance changes in this way, medicine review and optimisation are important to simplify the therapeutic regimen, reduce inappropriate medicines and minimise risks. In this article, pharmacist prescriber Linda Bryant uses two case studies to illustrate important considerations during medicine reviews

Wednesday 28 May 2025, 12:50 AM