The question is are they or are they not independent practitioners? Midwives
certainly are or can be. Part of the answer might be found by wading
through: http://www.rcn.org.uk/professional/definingnursing.pdf

One of the problems is that nurses probably encompass a greater span of
intellectual abilities amongst their numbers than any other health care
profession. They range from bored geniuses to the semi-literate. I
thoroughly support all efforts to get the best out of the bored geniuses.
That includes working as independent nurse practitioners. Frankly I would
prefer to see them doing the new 4 year fast track medical courses with
decent grants and practicing medicine properly thereafter than over expand
the role of the nurse with the concomitant risk of letting the ones on the
left hand side of the bell curve loose as practitioners with even greater
independence.

In general a nurse or any other practitioner exerting his or her skill with
a degree of discretion, even if protocol driven, should be regarded as an
independent practitioner. They just don't get sued as often as doctors
because it is more profitable to sue the employer. As Tim Reynolds points
out, part of the reasons for protocols and guidelines is that if you go
outwith them and negligently trash the patient in the process your employer
may be able to dodge liability  - "you were off on a frolic of your own
weren't you?" as one of our learned friends will say. In which case it is
down to your professional liability insurance. When a nurse joins the RCN
professional liability insurance, or an effective equivalent, comes with
membership. If memory serves me right the RCN helped fund Beverly Allits
defence.

Robert Forrest

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Robertson, Stuart [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: 17 January 2003 12:27
> To: [log in to unmask]; Robert Forrest
> Subject: RE: Requesting by nurses
>
>
> > From:       Robert Forrest[SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> > Subject: RE: Requesting by nurses
> >
> > One significant issue is that of getting proper consent to both the
> > collection of the sample and the testing itself.....
> >
> >
>       I agree that this can be a significant issue (cf. the
> earlier mailbase discussion on addition of extra tests).
>       In theory, are not nurses who request tests acting on
> behalf of a named medical consultant, who presumably still
> carries the final responsibility for getting proper consent. Or
> is this being too naive?
>
>       Stuart Robertson
>       Clinical Biochemistry Department
>       Hull Royal Infirmary
>
>

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